Technology making travel easier

Smartphones can make traveling more fun. You can download a gaming app or a movie before a long flight to keep you occupied, or you can listen to music or podcasts straight from your phone. But smartphones and other mobile technologies are also making travel easier, replacing paper boarding passes and easy-to-lose room keys. Airports, airlines and hotels are catering more and more to the plugged-in traveler.

Some of these new tools have been introduced in the past year, largely under the radar. More than a dozen airports in the United States are now equipped with mobile scanning devices at security checkpoints and terminal gates. Major carriers such as Delta, American Airlines and Northwest allow passengers to check in on their mobile devices and receive electronic boarding passes by e-mail or text message. For planners who are regularly on the go, having everything accessible on their mobile devices is a welcome change.

This summer, two Holiday Inn properties will begin testing smartphones as room keys. Guests who check in to the Holiday Inn Chicago O’Hare Rosemont and the Holiday Inn Express Houston Downtown Convention Center will have the option of using their iPhone, Android or Blackberry as a room key by downloading an app. They can simply hold their phone next to a sensor at the room entrance to unlock it. Bryson Koehler of InterContinental Hotels told the USA Today that he thinks the idea will work because many guests already have a smartphone, so integrating a room key into the device reduces the need to carry around yet one more item.

Many airports have been offering self-service check-in at freestanding kiosks for a few years, and now hotels are slowly implementing the kiosks. All Hyatt Place properties allow travelers to quickly check in at electronic kiosks that are placed right inside the door, and large hotels, such as the Sheraton Dallas, now offer self check-in as well. The kiosks at the Sheraton Dallas also allow passengers to check out at the kiosks and print boarding passes before leaving the hotel.

What all this amounts to is a better and less complicated experience for the traveler. Thomas Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, discussed the importance of improving travel at the recent U.S. Travel International Pow Wow conference. “Once we get people to visit, we need to lay out the welcome mat, and that means reducing the hassle factor,” he said during a speech on May 17.

One area that Donohue would like to see less hassle is in international travel. The Department of Homeland Security recently announced the elimination of in-flight paper forms for international travelers. The federal Visa Waiver Program allows travelers with an approved Electronic System for Travel Authorization permit to not have to fill out the 1-94W paper form previously required for admission to the country. In response to the announcement, Roger Dow, U.S. Travel president and CEO, said “the United States is proving that it can simultaneously strengthen security and improve our customers’ experience.”