Hotels around the world are introducing new digital tools that offer guests more choice and control over their hotel stay.

The way you enter your hotel room is now changing at Hilton and Starwood properties, with unique technology that allows guests to select their room, check in and unlock their guestroom doors with a few simple clicks on their smartphone.

Launched last November, SPG Keyless offers guests the ability to choose their guestroom, check in before arriving and unlock the door on registered smartphone devices. The service is currently available at 10 properties, including Aloft Cupertino, Aloft Harlem, Element New York Times Square West, W Hollywood and W New York – Downtown in the United States.

According to customer feedback through research from guest surveys, review sites and social media posts, Hilton learned 84 percent of travelers want to be able to choose their own guestroom, 30 percent do not want to wait for their guestroom to be ready and 28 percent disapprove of its location. The hotel company’s new digital enhancements are designed to address these concerns.

Hilton became the first hospitality company to offer room selection and customization via mobile and web-based floorplans last summer. Digital check-in and room selection from either floor plans or lists is available at more than 4,000 hotels across its portfolio of 11 brands in more than 80 countries. As part of its digital strategy, guests at all its U.S. hotels across four brands will be able to use mobile devices as room keys by the end of this year and mobile-key technology will roll out across 11 brands globally in 2016.

“Travelers can use their smartphones as boarding passes to get to their seats on an airplane, so it is only natural that they will want to use them as a way to enter their hotel rooms,” said Christopher J. Nassetta, president and CEO, Hilton Worldwide. “We have spent the past few years testing a number of different options to make this vision a reality, and we are developing proprietary technology that is safe and reliable for our guests to use, and cost-effective for our hotels to install.”

As the hospitality industry introduces more technological advances, what are your thoughts on these new products? Do you find them to be convenient? If you utilized the new services, how was your experience? Email us. Please include your full name and location with your email.