5 Days in the Desert, 5 Nights in the Hampton Inn
5 Days in the Desert travelog #23
Barstow, CA - Tue, 27 Dec 2022, 8pm
I mentioned at the start of this 5 Days in the Desert trip that we'd be " motel camping". That's meant 5 nights at the Hampton Inn in Barstow. It's a comfortable midscale hotel. Most Hamptons usually are. And we bought this stay on points, including a 5th-night-free bonus. Gotta use those gobs of Hilton Honors points I earn somehow!
One of many things I like about Hiltons is the digital key system. You can check in to your room via the app and get a digital room key, all without ever having to visit the front desk. The digital key allows you to unlock the door from your app when you're standing within a few feet of it.
Other hotel chains have a similar feature. Marriott does, for example. But Marriott's sucked last time I tried using it 3 months ago. It could only open the room door, not the building's outside doors. And there was no way to get Hawk a digital key. So we both had physical keys (well, plastic key-cards) because Marriott's digital key is still just a toy. With Hilton the digital key can open the building, not just the room, and it has a smooth feature for sharing the key among roommates.
I first learned about the sharing feature when traveling with a friend a few months ago. I was skeptical at first, but he already knew the sharing thing worked and showed me. I became a convert when it saw that it worked. This trip Hawk was the skeptical one. I showed her, and she became a convert once she saw it worked, too.
The digital key hasn't been all smooth sailing, though. Although it's worked flawlessly on my past few Hilton trips I've had several failures this trip. The other night when the app said there was an error retrieving the key. Last night my app got stuck "requesting" the key for 12 hours. Tonight both Hawk and I got "You've been logged out" from the app & had it wait for it to log us back in. I don't know if these errors are due to something at the property level or a recent buggy update in the app.
Barstow, CA - Tue, 27 Dec 2022, 8pm
I mentioned at the start of this 5 Days in the Desert trip that we'd be " motel camping". That's meant 5 nights at the Hampton Inn in Barstow. It's a comfortable midscale hotel. Most Hamptons usually are. And we bought this stay on points, including a 5th-night-free bonus. Gotta use those gobs of Hilton Honors points I earn somehow!
One of many things I like about Hiltons is the digital key system. You can check in to your room via the app and get a digital room key, all without ever having to visit the front desk. The digital key allows you to unlock the door from your app when you're standing within a few feet of it.
Other hotel chains have a similar feature. Marriott does, for example. But Marriott's sucked last time I tried using it 3 months ago. It could only open the room door, not the building's outside doors. And there was no way to get Hawk a digital key. So we both had physical keys (well, plastic key-cards) because Marriott's digital key is still just a toy. With Hilton the digital key can open the building, not just the room, and it has a smooth feature for sharing the key among roommates.
I first learned about the sharing feature when traveling with a friend a few months ago. I was skeptical at first, but he already knew the sharing thing worked and showed me. I became a convert when it saw that it worked. This trip Hawk was the skeptical one. I showed her, and she became a convert once she saw it worked, too.
The digital key hasn't been all smooth sailing, though. Although it's worked flawlessly on my past few Hilton trips I've had several failures this trip. The other night when the app said there was an error retrieving the key. Last night my app got stuck "requesting" the key for 12 hours. Tonight both Hawk and I got "You've been logged out" from the app & had it wait for it to log us back in. I don't know if these errors are due to something at the property level or a recent buggy update in the app.