A joint venture of Alibaba Group and Marriott International revealed that it is spearheading a facial recognition check-in pilot with Fliggy, Alibaba’s travel service platform. However, for now, this technology is only available at two of Marriott's properties in China.
The pilot will kick off from July 2018 at two Marriott International properties in China – Hangzhou Marriott Hotel Qianjiangand Sanya Marriott Hotel Dadonghai Bay, with the goal of global rollout across Marriott International’s properties in the future. This move is set to position Marriott International as a pioneer global hospitality company to offer this seamless check-in experience for Chinese travellers.
Through facial recognition technology, Marriott wants to cut down check-in times to less than a minute.
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According to the release, the traditional hotel check-in process takes at least 3 minutes and even more during peak times with most of it spent on queuing. Chinese guests simply need to scan their IDs, take a photo and input contact details on a self-help machine. The intelligent device will then dispense room key cards after identities and booking information are verified.