I have seen the future of travel technology and it is on my wrist.

Hoteliers need to watch this trend. Some are already on board. Advice to others: be ready to move. This is fast gaining steam and it is making big splashes especially with air carriers and innovative hotels.

As you read that, know I was a skeptic. I resisted buying an Apple Watch - waiting a full year after initial launch and also waiting for the updated OS - but now that I have one I know this is the future of travel.

I bought because it seemed to me Apple Watch had reached a critical momentum particularly in travel. After a few weeks with the Watch I am ever more convinced.

I am especially convinced because - despite contrary reports - you do not need to take off the Watch to get through TSA security.

Start here: Download your airline app - I have American, Delta, United, JetBlue, British Airways, but a stampede of carriers has announced app release now or imminently including EasyJet, Ryanair, Qantas Airways, Air Canada, WestJet, Emirates and Japan Airlines.

What can you do from the watch? A lot. With American Airlines, for instance, you get flight information on your wrist, including gate change announcements, baggage claim and connection details, and you can check in to your fight directly from your Apple Watch.

The Watch apps will access flight data via Apple's Passbook app on the iPhone. No need to re-enter data.

Did I mention that you can call up a boarding pass on Apple Watch and present it to TSA? You thus are boarding your flight with a flick of your wrist.

Get to the airport and Uber is on your watch. That will get you a ride to wherever you are heading.

You prefer the subway, as do I? Citymapper is an app that will show you public transit options in key cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. Chicago, Boston, Washington DC, Philadelphia and a handful of foreign cities are also covered.

Yelp and OpenTable have you covered when it comes to restaurants.

But hotels may be where the excitement is greatest with Apple Watch.

For starters: there's TripAdvisor. The company told what its app can do: "The Apple Watch includes a new feature called 'Glances,' which allows users to conveniently get updates from their favorite apps with a quick swipe up from the watch face. The TripAdvisor Glance provides timely recommendations to help users discover nearby points of interest based on the person's location (using GPS) and time of day. For example, at noon, the TripAdvisor Glance will automatically find the highest-rated restaurant near the user's current location and suggest the place to go for lunch."

It gets cooler. The TripAdvisor app "shows travelers their current location using GPS technology and provides directions to places of interest using Apple Maps."

HotelTonight shows options for last minute places to sleep.

Starwood - at some 150 hotels - lets Apple Watch users unlock their room doors with the Watch. Included are some W, Aloft, and Element rooms.

Guests can also use the Starwood Apple Watch app to check into literally tens of thousands of rooms. Marriott is also on board. Its Watch app lets you check in and if your room isn't ready, when it is, you will be messaged at the Watch.

A particularly popular app is IHG's translator app - free - which lets you translate common phrases from, say, English into Brazilian Portuguese.

Of course the big OTAs - Expedia and Priceline - are already on board the Watch.

My prediction: soon at cutting-edge hotels we will be able to conduct just about all our business via the Apple Watch. We will check into our rooms, open the door with the Watch - no key required - we will check out and we will pay, all with the Watch.

Couldn't all that be done from the phone? Indeed. But finding the phone involves searching in purses or pockets. Travelers already have enough to keep track of (and how many stories are there of people leaving iPhones at the TSA security station)?

The wrist is a nice, secure location to be the traveler's center stage. It just is easier to check the Apple Watch than to find the iPhone and check it.

And that is why hotel marketers had better start thinking of this new - diminutive - screen.

Babs Harrison
Babs Harrison + Partners
Babs Harrison + Partners