Use your Android phone to unlock your hotel room — how to do it via Google Wallet

You can now use digital hotel keycards to unlock your room on Android. Here's how to do it.

Did you know that you can now store hotel keys via Google Wallet? If you tend to be absent-minded, making you prone to losing entrance cards, you may be relieved to hear that Google Wallet now supports digital key cards.

As 9to5Google spotted, Google recently updated the Wallet Help page, which gives users a quick-and-easy guide on how to store and save hotel key cards.

How to store hotel key cards via Google Wallet

Physical hotel key cards will now become a thing of the past. As mentioned, if you have a tendency to be irresponsible on vacations, you no longer have to worry about misplacing hotel key cards — as long as you don't lose your Android device.

Here's an easy, step-by-step process on how to store hotel key cards in Google Wallet:

1. Open the hotel's website (or app).

2. Sign into the hotel's website.

3. Find the "Add to Google Wallet" button on the reservation confirmation page. (If you don't find this button, the hotel may not support digital hotel key cards.)

4. Sign into your Google account.

5. Tap "Add" followed by "View in Wallet."

You can then use it by unlocking your phone before holding the back of the device to the door's key card scanner.

As AndroidCentral pointed out, Google Wallet uses Near-Field Communication (NFC) to facilitate the usage of digital hotel key cards — the same technology that underpins "Tap to Pay." Apple, by the way, has been supporting digital hotel key cards since iOS 15, which launched in 2021.

The Clarion Hotel Post, located in Sweden, is the first to allow its guests to use Google Wallet for digital keys.