Digital This and Digital That

                Well, my latest encounter with the modernized digital world is the digital key.  I have been using the early check-in provision offered by the Hilton chain of hotel for about a year now.  This is a great benefit, because you   get to choose your room from the hotel floor plan the day before you arrive.  We always like a room on the top floor of the hotel and one that is fairly close to the elevator.  At one of our last stays, we knew the hotel was right next to a busy interstate and we wanted a room on the opposite side of the hotel from the busy road.  We almost always get the room we choose.

                Now there is a new option at some hotels for a digital key when you check in the day before using the Hilton app.  After you have selected your room and finished the check in process, you select “digital key” and you get a thank you  notice telling you your digital key will be available a couple of hours before you are expected at the hotel.   Sure enough, a couple of hours before our arrival, the “your digital key is now available” came up on the app.

                When we arrived at the room, which we had already selected, we held the cell phone near the door and a circle appeared on the phone screen that informed ups to push the phone button and the hotel door was unlocked. Viola, we were in our room.

                Now using this early check- in method, we could have completely skipped the front desk.  We could just have loaded our luggage on the luggage cart, and gone directly to our room.  However, my wife wanted her own separate key to the room, and she doesn’t’ have the app, so we stopped by the front desk to pick up that second key for her.

                To be honest, those small plastic key cards are perhaps a little easier to handle that the bulky cell phone, but let’s face it that’s the modern world.  I’m just saying…..