Ah the advancement of technology never stops especially in the smartphone game. Someone somewhere is always looking for the next thing to use a smartphone for, and it appears that next thing has been found or rather being tested, using your mobile device as a hotel room key.

According to an article by Barb Dybwad of Forbes, InterContinental Hotels Group is to test a new system known as OpenWays, a system which sends a “unique and encrypted audio code” to a user’s mobile phone before they check in at the hotel reports USA Today.

Apparently at the moment OpenWays is a smartphone application which is available to the iPhone, and the Android and BlackBerry platforms; however the system has been designed to work on a wider range of handsets as it operates basically via audio playback.

The Openways system sends a text message to a user delivering their room number and theoretically could bypass the hotel reception desk completely thus saving time and hassle for guests and reduce hotel staff overheads.

According to Pascal Metivier, the Chief Exec of OpenWays, the system is “at least as secure as a keycard”, and that the “audio signature” is obsolete after check-out while staff have the ability to cancel and keys that are problematic in real time.