The Bring Your Own Device trend is expanding to the hospitality industry as employees look to use their smartphones, tablets and laptops to do their jobs more efficiently; Adding Mobile Master Key from OpenWays to a hotel's BYOD program is reducing labor and material costs while increasing operational and staff efficiencies. Visit OpenWays at HITEC in Booth 1324

Los Angeles – Gone are the days when employees are reprimanded for using their personal mobile devices while on the job. Instead, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is becoming a mainstream practice in many industries as a part of mobile application management. According to a Mobile Enterprise Magazine White Paper titled "Harnessing BYOD Phenomenon – an IT Guide," employees are now carrying out an array of tasks on their personal smartphones and tablets — from documenting and reporting accidents to submitting expense reports, capturing a new opportunities and updating sales pipelines — all without ever having to turn on their computers. OpenWays, a global solutions provider of mobile-based access-management and security solutions, is enabling hoteliers to enhance their BYOD strategies by equipping the mobile hotel workforce — primarily the engineering, housekeeping and security departments — with a Mobile Master Key for secure and efficient access to guestrooms and the general property.

"Organizations are learning to use mobile applications to drive customer satisfaction and operational flexibility simply by taking advantage of the constantly advancing capabilities of smartphones," said Pascal Metivier, OpenWays Founder and CEO. "In the hospitality industry, operating in a BYOD environment means saving time and money, and keeping employees engaged with the technology they prefer to use the most. Housekeepers can use their mobile phones to report on plumbing issues in a guestroom, engineers to advise on equipment failures or potential slip-and-fall areas, and security officers to call local authorities.

"When a hotel is equipped with Mobile Key by OpenWays — a solution that enables guests to use any cell phone on the planet as their secure room keys — authorized employees can use their mobile devices as Mobile Master Keys as well," he said. "OpenWays' Mobile Master Key service is making BYOD extremely attractive to hotel brands, management companies and owners, as operational efficiencies increase, and labor and material costs decline."

With Mobile Master Key, security is heightened, since there is no physical master keycard for staff to lose. If an employee's phone that contains an assigned Mobile Master Key is lost or stolen and is required to be replaced, management can cancel the prior digital master key credential and simply issue a new one in real time, sending the new secure key in seconds to the authorized users cell phone. With security of personal devices an issue, OpenWays Mobile Master Key can be set to only access the rooms that requires the specific staff’s interaction and service. A hotel's bottom line also is positively impacted with a Mobile Master Key program. Equipment such as two-way radios can easily be replaced with employees' mobile phones for back-of-the-house communications, and so can the need to lease smartphones and tablets for inventory and other transactions.

"Mobile experts are reporting that the cost-saving momentum of BYOD has now been superseded by more strategic, long-term benefits of employee engagement, such as increased productivity, organizational agility and innovation," Metivier said. "Let's say a plastic master key is lost or stolen. Staff will need to manually reprogram each door lock, which takes considerable man hours, raises labor costs, and usually comes with the chastisement of the boss. With OpenWays' Mobile Master Key, neutralizing a master key credential happens simply with the push of a button. Because needing to re-credential a Mobile Master Key has minimal consequences, staff members are motivated to immediately report a loss vs. trying to find their plastic card for hours before eventually reporting the loss to hotel security."

Operating with a Mobile Master Key rather than a plastic master key also means less keycard replacement. It is essential to audit all plastic master keys for safety and security reasons. The intensive use of each traditional master key subjects them to damage or demagnetization. If this happens, the hotel employee must stop what he or she is doing, secure any property in their possession (for instance housekeeping/linen carts) and obtain a fresh master key. A Mobile Master Key removes this scenario from the equation, and leads to more operational efficiency, more productive, happier staff, and a stronger bottom line.

“As more and more travelers look for ways to use their personal mobile devices to interact with the hotel, Mobile Key by OpenWays is proving to be a value-added tool to jump-start engagement," said Michael Cohen, OpenWays SVP of Business Development. "Mobile Key turns any cell phone on the planet into a secure, virtual room key. Used multiple times during the guest stay, it becomes the underlying force that is driving a hotel's mobile strategy and enticing travelers to engage with the hotel's other mobile service apps. In the same way, Mobile Master Key is adding considerable value to staff productivity. In an off-line hotel environment, Mobile Master Key takes stand alone locks and brings them online, making real-time issuance, cancelation, task assignment, tracking and audit trail reporting a reality.

"Employees are going to bring their own mobile devices anyway, so why not put them to good use?" he said. "Chances are, staff will likely be more protective of their own mobile devices vs. equipment provided to them by the hotel, saving further money on replacement costs. Putting Mobile Master Key in the hands of all appropriate staff is the ideal way to leverage the BYOD trend, and, since it's compatible with every mobile device on the market, it's a very cost effective investment to drive the hotel's mobile strategy."

Consider this:

  • Forrester reports 200 million employees will bring their smartphones to work by 2016.
  • Gartner predicts that 90% of companies will support corporate applications on personal mobile devices by 2014.
  • Today, 50% of all enterprises already have a BYOD approach (without any IT control of devices and mobile apps), and an additional 25% have adopted BYOD with some level of IT control.

Hoteliers and Brands interested in learning how the Mobile Master Key solution can expand efficiencies at their properties are encouraged to visit with OpenWays at HITEC 2013 in Booth 1324. To pre-schedule an appointment, call Michael Cohen at (519) 498-3793 or email [email protected].

About OpenWays

OpenWays is a global solutions provider of mobile-based access-management and security solutions. With offices in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Seoul and in Europe, OpenWays provides technology solutions allowing for the secure issuance and delivery of access rights and keys processed via any cell phone operating on any network. The OpenWays solution is truly unique as it is built on the concept of credential dematerialization. The OpenWays mobile room key solution works on ALL the 6.5 billion cell phones in service in the world today. For more information, please contact Barb Worcester at +1 440 930-5770 or email [email protected]. More information can be found by visiting .

Barb Worcester
+1 440 930 5770