Hilton debuts a smartphone app that can control room temperature, TV and lighting

In the latest move to make hotels appeal to young, tech-savvy travelers, one of the world's biggest hotel companies is launching a smartphone app that can control the television, air conditioner, lighting and curtains in the hotel rooms.

Hilton has begun testing its app on 500 rooms in four hotels in Memphis, Tenn., and plans to expand the technology by June to 1,000 rooms in about a dozen hotels in markets including Dallas and Washington, D.C.

The McLean, Va., company hopes to eventually let guests use the Hilton Honors app to control the devices in its more than 863,000 rooms in 5,300 hotels in 106 countries.