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Hilton Hotels Puts 'Up in the Air' on Their Keycards

After the year that Hilton Hotels had with the whole Denizen Debacle, they were given some sweet relief this month with their featured role in the George Clooney movie "Up in the Air" about a frequent traveler trying to chase down the prize of 10 million miles.

Of course, we assumed that Hilton paid their way for this role or at least, slept with someone who knows someone (that is the Hollywood way, after all.) But nope. The NY Times report that neither Hilton or American Airlines paid for any positioning. However, they did let the crews film in their hotels free of charge and they cleared blocks of rooms:

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Hotel Key Cards / Room Keys / Amsterdam Hotels / Hotel Technology / Noisy Hotels / → All Tags

High-Tech Room Keys at The Hotel Patou But Shame About The Noise

Where: Hooftstraat 63, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1071

Following on from our Do Not Disturb gallery yesterday, today we present to you the funky room keys at the Hotel Patou, Amsterdam, where we stayed this summer.

The Patou is a trendy little hotel on designer haven Hooftstraat, and as befits such a stylish gaffe, it eschews actual keys (too retro) and cards (too common) for these ingenious electronic key fobs.

Ingenious? Well yes. Because they are exceptionally light, hence easy to hoof around, have a nice leash to make losing them tricky (let’s face it, you’re in Amsterdam, and losing your key will be a pretty sure thing), and they don’t deactivate if you stick them next to your phone, as cards can do.

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Room Keys / Firmdale Hotels / Manhattan Hotels / Hotel Key cards / → All Tags

Is The Crosby Street Hotel Being Stingy With Room Keys?

Where: 79 Crosby Street [map], New York, ny, United States, 10012

*Update* We have since heard back from Crosby Street's head concierge, who tells us that it is not the hotel's policy to not provide more than one room key. He apologized and said he would make the GM aware of our tipster's experience.

As one of the first guests to check into the Crosby Street Hotel earlier this month, we were wowed by a lot of what the hotel had to offer, particularly the design and the tenor of service. Likewise, an anonymous tipster wrote to let us know that the spacious king-sized room they stayed in at the Crosby recently was “tasteful and fresh and charming and stylish, as was the hotel lobby space.”

What our tipster loved: “the room decor, right down to the pin-stripe wall coverings; the bed; bathroom and products; the well-insulated room and silent night of sleep; the elegant room service presentation at breakfast; and the thoughtful gift box of pencils waiting for me upon arrival.”

What our tipster DID NOT LOVE (all caps theirs): “that I couldn’t get two room keys. I’ve never heard of such a thing. According to the woman at the front desk, their fancy-pants sensor-key system does not warrant handing out two keys.”

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Snapshot / Room Keys / Hotel Key Cards / Mexico Hotels / → All Tags

What Is Going On With This Hotel Room Key?

We spent the past four days in Guadalajara, Mexico and we'll have more on the hotel scene there tomorrow but we just had to post this snapshot for ya of our hotel room keycard. It says, "Taller de sexualidad. Desmitificando las disfunciones sexuales en Mexico." And it's accompanied by a picture of a man and woman in a bed that's being carried away (or rescued?) by a parachute.

We're pretty sure you don't need a Spanish to English dictionary to understand what this advertisement is for (a doctor's name is also listed on the card) but we thought it was something you'd get a kick out of.

Seen any other hotel keycards with sexual dysfunction ads on them? Or any other kind of ads? Send 'em to us!

Hotel Technology / Room Keys / Smartphone Check-Ins / → All Tags

Will You Someday Use Your Cellphone to Open Your Hotel Room Door?

USA Today has a half-hearted report on the emerging room key technologies in hotels these days. We say half-hearted because there's no technology mentioned that gets us really excited about staying in a hotel room in the future.

For instance, the Plaza Hotel when it finally opens whenever that may be will use radio-frequency key-cards that can unlock your room door when swiped past the lock at close range. That's kinda cool. It can save us the frustration of trying to swipe a keycard thats been demagnetized against our knowledge.

There's also talk of creating a papercard which would look and work exactly like the plastic keycard, except it's more environmentally-friendly. This sounds nice until the paper gets squashed in our purse.

Lastly, Accor Hotels is testing out a new lock that opens when guests' cellphones or PDAs are flashed in front of the door. Now, this is some great hotel technology. We imagine your cellphone is programmed at the front desk to open your room and your room only. Wouldn't want people breaking into rooms just by flashing their BlackBerrys around.

Sadly, they say it will be years before this type of lock becomes common in hotel rooms.

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