Apple has been granted a patent (number US 11941551 B2) that involves accessing hotel services on your iPhone or Apple Watch.
About the patent
The patent relates to providing access to hotel services using a portable electronic device. In the patent Apple notes that as travelers stay in hotels or locations other than their homes, many interactions between the travelers and the hotels can take place.
For example, a traveler can interact with a hotel to make a reservation, check-in, order room service, control room settings, use a concierge to identify attractions of interest in the vicinity, purchase entertainment options, check-out, and schedule subsequent aspects of a trip (e.g., order a taxi, reserve a rental car, or check-in to a flight).
All of these interactions can require distinct actions from the user from different devices or elements. For example, a user can call to make a reservation, check-in in-person upon reaching the hotel, order entertainment using a menu available from a television screen, identify attractions from a telephone or through an in-person conversation with a concierge, and check-out by receiving a receipt slipped underneath the user’s door.
Apple says that, although this combination of approaches for interacting with the hotel and with the available hotel services can be serviceable, it remains “cumbersome and requires the hotel to accommodate all of the possible forms of interaction.” From a user’s perspective, the lack of centralization of interactions with the hotel and with the available hotel services can require more effort from the user wishing to take advantage of hotel services, and perhaps even dissuade the user from using available hotel services (thus at a cost to the hotel).
Apple thinks the solution is for users to be able to access various hotel features on the iPhone and/or Apple Watch.
Summary of the patent
Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent: “This is directed to systems and methods for integrating hotel services in a single application available to a portable electronic device. Using the single application, a user can access and control hotel services before arriving at the hotel, upon arriving at the hotel, in the hotel room, in the local vicinity, and after leaving the hotel. Such services can include, for example, checking-in and checking out, purchasing in-room dining or in-room entertainment, making reservations at local restaurants or local attractions, scheduling hotel guest reminders, and controlling room setting either within the room or outside of the room.”
