Starwood Hotels & Resorts in the coming months at select hotels will test technology enabling guests to use their mobile phones as room keys.

Guests who are members of the Starwood Preferred Guest loyalty program may opt in and access their keys through the SPG mobile app. Starwood will first introduce the technology at Aloft properties in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan and in Silicon Valley, with plans to expand this year to more W and Aloft properties. Speaking on Monday at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit in Los Angeles, Starwood president and CEO Frits van Paasschen said the program is one of many that the hotel company is developing to turn the SPG app into "a remote control to control their entire experience with us."