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Ask HN: Would you check into a hotel if they gave you a local smartphone?

1 points by tixocloud ↗ HN
Would you choose a particular hotel if they gave you a free mobile travel assistant that you can use for Internet, Google Maps, currency conversion, discounts on food, drinks, activities as well as Wifi hotspot for your phone?

We're aiming to make global travel easier and the first thing we want to do is help people get access to Internet beyond the free public wifis, without the need of looking up local SIM providers, renting a pocket wifi and no roaming fees.

We think this solution will be useful but in order to make it free for travellers, we're partnering with hotels. We're also looking at potentially partnering with AirBnB hosts and help them make their host experience better and generate extra revenue.

8 comments

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Cozumel
What guarantee would there be that you don't backdoor the phones before handing them out? (not saying you would, but it's a potential attack vector)
tixocloud
I guess you're thinking what if the phones get hacked by someone else and steals personal information?
lwlml
I think this seriously discounts how "personal" these devices are for people. It would be like loaning a toothbrush to someone who already has one of their own and expecting it to be returned.

At best, perhaps a loaned portable WiFi device that provided a walled-garden branded for the particular Hotel's services would be more likely to be accepted.

tixocloud
Yes, effectively that's what the smartphone will function as - a loaned portable Wifi device.

We don't expect that people would use our devices for personal use? I'd expect them to use their own devices for their own personal apps.

lwlml
I misread your original submission-- so I'm wrong on what you were offering.
tixocloud
Sorry for the confusion - what did you originally think it was?
lwlml
Read "mobile" and confused it with the noun some use for a mobile-phone instead of an adjective describing something else.

English is a pain sometimes. :)

redmaple
Why not just make an app instead of loaning out a physical device