Cybersecurity and safety issues have prompted many hotel chains to accelerate plans to transform hotel room door locks. While major U.S. chains have had the digital key capability for years, Google Wallet and Apple Wallet are jumping in by offering hotels the ability to save guests' room keys to their wallets, enabling them to access their rooms by simply tapping the back of their phones against a reader near the door handle.

Hilton Hotels has its Honors app, which allows guests to check in and use a room key through their smartphone. The 119-room Harpeth Hotel in Franklin, Tennessee, is a Hilton property, and guests can check in digitally and store keys in their Google or Apple wallet app.