The Hotel Room Key Is Turning Into an App

Dormakaba, the company behind the locks fitted to hotel room doors, has acquired the hospitality technology firm Alliants. The deal is a sign of how fast that piece of hardware — the door lock a guest touches on arrival — is being pulled into the same software running the rest of a hotel stay. It points toward a future where unlocking a room and checking into it are handled by one system rather than two. For guests, the lock is quietly becoming just another screen.

With reporting from Skift.