LAST MONTH, MANY from the Global Traveler/FXExpress team attended the fifth annual Red & White Ball for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Not only do employees contribute, but many of our airline and hotel clients donate to the silent auction. Top contributors included American Airlines, China Airlines, Accor Hotels, The Peninsula Beverly Hills and many others. Subscribers also answered the call and purchased raffle tickets and silent auction items — a combined effort for a great cause.

The event, at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, was well-run by the fantastic Marriott team. I was excited when I received my confirmation the day before suggesting I download the Marriott App for check-in and my room key. Knowing more than 500 people attend the ball, with many staying at the hotel, I thought this was a great opportunity to avoid long lines.

I downloaded the app and checked in; and although the process was cumbersome, I was pleased the app would notify me when the key was available. I unsuccessfully tried to both sync my wife’s Marriott Rewards account to the reservation and add another key. I figured we would go to our room with my app and secure another key when the lines were shorter.

I informed everyone in my party (in six rooms) about the app. None of them could even get the app to locate their previously made reservation and sync the check-in and key function (and 10 of them are millennials, by the way).

I was not notified when the room was ready. We arrived after the indicated room availability, and I found the key had issues finding the unlocking mechanism. I stopped at the front door and was greeted by Claudette, head bell hop, and she walked me through the process. “Voila!” I thought, “This is great!” However, I quickly learned from other guests the app worked to unlock the room but didn’t function in the elevator. Fortunately, Claudette came to my rescue and escorted us to the room, where we had a lovely discussion about her homeland, St. Kitts, which I had recently visited. I told Claudette I would be back down shortly for a duplicate key. About 10 minutes later I went to the front desk, and Claudette came toward me with two keys. That is great customer service and a reason to return.

I embrace technology. I drive a Tesla and was one the first people I know to have a robot vacuum, but when it doesn’t function, there is an issue. When you tell your customers an app is a solution to access rooms but not the elevator, that is a problem.

I know our readers voted the Hilton App best, and I would be curious to know why. Hilton did spearhead keyless entry. This is not new technology, so I was disappointed. Fortunately, due to great employees like Claudette, the human factor turned a negative to a positive at the Marriott.

If you have comments to contribute on the subject of keyless entry, I would love to hear from you at fran@globaltravelerusa.com.