MONHEIM AM RHEIN, GERMANY—Hey Lou Hotels is making hotel access as simple as possible. Guests receive their room key directly in their smartphone wallet, with no additional hotel app and no loyalty account required. Together with its hotel and technology partner 9dots, as well as technology providers Mews and Vingcard, an ASSA ABLOY company, Hey Lou has implemented wallet-based room keys as a standard across all its properties, making it one of the first hotel groups in Europe to do so at scale.
The solution is already fully deployed and live across all seven Hey Lou hotels in Germany, covering more than 1,000 rooms.
Seamless Access—No Keycard, No App
Following online check-in, the room key is automatically added to the guest’s digital wallet on their smartphone or watch. Using NFC technology, guests can access their room and all relevant areas, including entrances, elevators and other authorized access points.
The result is a fully digital, frictionless guest journey without the need for additional applications. At the same time, hotels significantly reduce operational effort in key management.
Fully Integrated Across All Properties
The rollout is powered by the seamless integration of multiple core systems.
The Mews Hospitality Cloud generates the digital key within the property management system and automatically delivers it to the guest’s mobile device. Secure access and validation are handled by Vingcard door locks and its Vostio Access Management solution, acting as the central access layer across all touchpoints. 9dots orchestrates and integrates all systems, ensuring a standardized setup and consistent operation across all hotels. This creates a fully digital end-to-end process—from key generation at check-in to usage throughout the stay.
“By introducing wallet-based access across all properties, Hey Lou is taking a clear step toward fully digital hotel operations,” says Martin Kemmer, Founder and Managing Director of 9dots. “Together with Mews and Vingcard, we have built a scalable solution that delivers real convenience for guests and measurable efficiency gains for operators.”
More Convenience, Less Plastic
In addition to improving the guest experience, the wallet key significantly reduces the use of plastic keycards. Each digital key replaces physical materials and logistics.
With this implementation, Hey Lou Hotels, 9dots, Mews and Vingcard demonstrate how open platforms and established access technologies can work together to create practical digital standards for the hospitality industry, enhancing both guest convenience and operational efficiency.
