An 'audible' room key for your hotel?

[thewinchester]

According to this report on Luxist and information from IHG, you could in future bypass the check-in desk and open your pre-allocated room with a sound from your mobile phone:

MobileKey: Will Your Next Hotel Key Be Your Cell Phone?
by Deidre Woollard, Sep 23rd 2010 at 1:04AM

First there was the key, then there was the key card, but the latest way to open the door of a hotel room might be through your cell phone.

Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) has announced the pilot of a mobile-based front desk bypass solution that gives guests at the Holiday Inn & Suites Chicago O'Hare Rosemont and the Holiday Inn Express Houston Downtown the option to skip the front desk and open their room through the use of a cell phone key.

Guests will have the option to "enroll" for MobileKey through an email sent before their check-in date. The day of arrival the guest receives a text message with the room number and a secured link to retrieve the room key.

The system is currently being trialled at two US properties, and IHG's Innovation Centre blog has more details, including a video demonstration of how the system works.

 

[samh004]

I have to admit I had no clue how this would work/thought how easy it would be to fake, and that video doesn’t really show me how it works, nor does the text explain it very well, but it looks useful. I wonder how strong the system is.

 

[harvyk]

how easy it would be to fake,

If I've read it right, it would be very difficult to fake.
Isolating the sound without other external noises, so the pattern is played back correctly would be difficult without some very serious equipment. (A recording studio would help the task along).

What is more likely to be a problem, what if you mobile phone is stolen? Depending on how much information they give you with the SMS the would be theif knows where your staying, the room number, and has the key. Just to add insult to injury - you no longer have a phone to call the hotel with and alert them.

 

[samh004]

If I've read it right, it would be very difficult to fake.
Isolating the sound without other external noises, so the pattern is played back correctly would be difficult without some very serious equipment. (A recording studio would help the task along).

I did think of that, but then the speaker in a phone isn't top end so you'd think you could record the sound with anything.

What I meant was more, what's the audio pattern? It must work off a system. How hard would it be to crack if you were going to loot a whole hotel. You wouldn't be recording anything, you'd be working out the combination and using it.

Though thinking about it now, you call a number to get the sound, so I'd imagine it's one use and then it expires.