Close proximity technology redefines relationships between businesses and consumers.

This article is part of a series of posts covering innovation in Indiana.

In the recent months there’s been a lot of buzz around hotel chains adopting proximity technology to enhance their guest experience, whether the technology uses NCF, RFID or BLE.

If, like me, you’ve had your fair share of business travel, you often experience problems. Airline delays. Congested traffic. Key doesn’t work. Room not ready. Long lines. The list goes on. It can be really inconvenient to travel, and the industry is constantly searching for new ways to develop brand loyalty among consumers.

Travel brands are looking to offer their guests something new and compelling. Indiana-based y!kes delivers a differentiated way to travel.

As the creator of the first of its kind, proximity-aware technology, y!kes provides an advanced solution to ensure traveling is hassle free.

The company’s technology equips business and leisure travelers with the ability to use their smartphones to bypass the cumbersome hotel check-in process and access their room all while their phone sits in their pocket. By harnessing the power of Bluetooth, y!kes opens the doors to unlimited interactions between businesses and consumers and redefines their relationships.
The hotel guests’ process has remained unchanged and cumbersome for years. Now that the majority of visitors come equipped with a smartphone housing Bluetooth capabilities, there is room for improvement. While regular guests wait in line, friends walk in thanks to y!kes. 

According to Alan Philips, Chief Marketing Office at Morgans Hotel Group, “putting location & service aside, gone are the days when you can differentiate your hotel by spending lavishly on the buildings design & fixtures. The future customers of hotels will be less concerned with the luxury appointments of their rooms, and more concerned with the experiences you provide and how your brand services their personal needs & image”.

y!kes’ h(app)y technology, also known as its hyper app, actually attracts, retains and grows lifelong guests by offering an experience that feels unique and upgraded. With the ability to avoid the front desk and customize rooms to individual preferences, hotels are able to build long-term loyalty and leave users feeling happily surprised.

While industry adversaries attempt to mimic its sophistication with other versions of keyless entry technology, none matches the unprecedented hotel experience y!kes unleashes. Competitors’ front-desk bypass applications require guests to physically utilize their mobile device to unlock a hotel room by holding their phone up to the door handle (not much different from using a keycard). With y!kes, users can keep their phone tucked away and need only the app running in the background to unlock the door. As a result, competitors inflict a more invasive and time-consuming solution when compared to y!kes.

The company’s initial public debut was in 2012 at HITECH, the world’s largest hospitality technology tradeshow, and was recognized for its groundbreaking system when it was awarded a 2012 Indiana Innovation award. Its industry-first system unlocked a new era of proximity-aware technology, and the team has spent the last two years refining its proprietary system even further.

The Indianapolis-based company continued to innovate and grow throughout 2014, bringing in new employees and creating promising relationships with some of the world’s leading hotel brands. With keyless entry gaining momentum in the market, international brands have expressed unprecedented interest in integrating y!kes-enabled systems into their properties.

y!kes focuses on maximizing the hotel infrastructure to perfect, streamline and simplify the guest experience. By eliminating the multi-step process, the company intends to deliver the hotel stay of the future, and expand it to other markets.

y!kes serves as both a software and hardware solution, presenting the next generation of proximity-aware technology through the advancement of Bluetooth capabilities. Offering hotel properties specifically engineered y!kes devices for install in the lobby, room floors and doors, and offering consumers a customizable mobile app available for download on smartphones, these patented technologies work together to alter consumers’ experiences as soon as they step foot on the property.

y!kes’ h(app)y technology retrieves data from onsite Property Management Systems (PMS) and provides guests with room number confirmations via the app on check-in day. The company is revolutionizing the hotel industry and redefining proximity technology. It is the only company to develop the hardware and software needed for secure, seamless hotel navigation through keyless access requiring only a touch of a door handle and a tucked away smartphone.

With the hotel industry already jumping on board, there are many other vertical markets where y!kes is hoping to provide significant impact, including retail, multi-unit housing and more… Looking towards the future, y!kes will continue to utilize proximity technology to better the overall customer experience.