CT-STARWOOD-HOTELS

The travel industry witnessed a groundbreaking turning point in the hotel experience with the launch of SPG Keyless in the Fall of 2014, the industry’s first truly mobile and keyless entry system that allows guests to use their smartphone as a key to their hotel room doors. Today, Starwood Preferred Guest® (SPG®), the award-winning loyalty program from Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: HOT), announces the next generation of SPG Keyless with even wider access to this leading-edge technology.

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SPG Keyless is now extending this functionality to select Le Méridien, Westin, Sheraton, and Four Points properties worldwide, including Le Méridien Parkhotel Frankfurt, Le Méridien Hamburg, Le Méridien Columbus, The Westin Westminster, Westin Palo Alto, Westin Camino Real Guatemala, Sheraton Bloomington, Sheraton Mirage Port Douglas, and Four Points Cupertino. Many additional properties will be going live with SPG Keyless on a rolling basis in the coming months. These distinct lifestyle brands join Aloft, Element, and W properties already providing access to SPG Keyless, currently available at more than 160 properties in over 30 countries. The wider roll-out of SPG Keyless acknowledges the role mobile is playing as the remote control for travelers’ stays across a broader range of brands. Now even more guests can share in the SPG Keyless experience by unlocking their doors with their smartphone.

Starwood is also expanding SPG Keyless to enable multiple guests sharing the same room to take advantage of keyless entry. All they need is an SPG account and the SPG app. In this upcoming product update, SPG is also expanding mobile check-in capabilities on the SPG app, rolling out over the next few months.

“Innovation and personalization are at the center of everything we do, and we’re committed to making travel better for every SPG member by creating solutions for pain points that are custom-made for their mobile lifestyles,” said Alyssa Waxenberg, Vice President of Mobile at Starwood Hotels & Resorts. “SPG Keyless is literally opening doors for SPG members. It is also transformative for Starwood’s hotel associates, allowing them to better-engage with guests. Rather than the first interaction being the swipe of a credit card, hotel associates can now focus on ways to better-personalize guests’ stays.”

Since SPG Keyless first piloted at 10 hotels in November 2014, Starwood has been quick to roll out the new functionality around the world to 36,000 doors. Already, over 350,000 members have registered for SPG Keyless, with SPG Platinum members being the most frequent users of the keyless solution, which provides a streamlined check-in process custom-made for their on-the-go travel needs. SPG Keyless has proven to be most popular in urban city-center hotel locations, especially at mid-size Aloft and W properties. The top five SPG Keyless cities are New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas and Miami, while the top five countries based on usage are the United States, China, Canada, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom.

SPG Keyless is an evolution of Starwood’s Smart Check-In, another industry-first that debuted at Aloft hotels in 2011. Building upon those early learnings to develop SPG Keyless, Starwood tapped the world’s largest provider of security and access solutions for the hospitality industry, ASSA ABLOY Hospitality, to create an all-new, Bluetooth-enabled lock, as well as keyless software, which is designed to securely recognize and connect with a guest’s mobile device. Since the initial launch, the SPG Keyless team has continued to iterate the product, learning from guest and associates direct feedback and the analysis of usage data. Leveraging agile development, improvements include increased stability and speed of the door unlock function as well as improving offline access.

SPG Keyless is now available at select Le Méridien, Westin, Sheraton, and Four Points properties, and will continue to roll out to more hotels over the next several months.

For more information on SPG Keyless, please visit: SPG.com/Keyless

About Starwood Preferred Guest

Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG®) is an innovative, award-winning frequent traveler program that unites each of Starwood’s 11 distinctive hotel brands and includes more luxury hotels in more destinations around the world. SPG reinvented the hospitality loyalty landscape when it launched in 1999 with its breakthrough policy of no blackout dates, and over the years has continued its tradition of innovation with enhancements such as Cash + Points, SPG Moments^SM , and most recently Your24™ and SPG Lifetime™. In addition to Free Night Awards at more than 1,300 hotels and resorts and Award Flights on over 350 major airlines without blackout dates, the Starpoints® that members earn through SPG can be redeemed for access like no other to experiences in music, sports and the arts through SPG Moments. SPG offers the opportunity for meeting and travel professionals to earn rich rewards including Starpoints and elite status through SPG Pro. SPG also has an ongoing commitment to digital innovation to meet the needs of today’s connected global traveler – from the SPG app for iPhone that utilizes state-aware technology to create a more personalized hotel stay to Starwood’s Best Rate Guarantee on SPG.com , to SPG’s integration within various social media platforms. Offerings such as these have helped SPG build a passionate member base among the world’s most frequent travelers. Learn more at spg.com , spg.com/pro  and spg.com/moments  and connect with us on facebook.com/spg , twitter.com/spg ,foursquare.com/spg , pinterest.com/spglife , and youtube.com/spg .

About Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with more than 1,300 properties in some 100 countries and over 188,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. Starwood is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels, resorts and residences under the renowned brands: St. Regis ^® , The Luxury Collection ^® , W ^® , Westin ^® , Le Méridien ^® , Sheraton ^® , Tribute Portfolio ™, Four Points ^® , Aloft ^® , Element ^® , along with an expanded partnership with Design Hotels ^™ . The Company also boasts one of the industry’s leading loyalty programs, Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG^® ). Visit www.starwoodhotels.com for more information and stay connected @starwoodbuzz on Twitter and Instagram and facebook.com/Starwood.

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Contact:

Media Contact:
Starwood Hotels & Resorts
Julien Guitard, +32 2 204 5160
Associate Director Communications – Europe, Africa & Middle East
Julien.Guitard@starwoodhotels.com
www.starwoodmediacentre.com

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