I have stayed at multiple hotels where a machine hands out key cards or numeric access codes when you enter your name and date of birth.

When you leave you just throw the key card into a box or feed it back into the machine.

No smartphone necessary.

Thanks for the info. I haven't traveled since COVID, so I don't know how things have changed. I bet hotels made a lot of changes due to COVID.

I know this is OT: But I am tired of every business I go to bugging me to use their app for everything. I don't want another app to keep track of, and I do not want to get texts all the time.

Thankfully some companies just send you a QR-code via email to interact with what ever system they are using.

If I remember correctly one of my hotels I used sent me a pin code or such via email and then they had a self service to get a keycard, which used the pin code.

I've rarely seen this as well. Mostly at a Yotel in Manhattan.

Then suffer the inconvenience.

Honestly it's such a small minority of people that it doesn't make business sense to accomodate for this sort of customer

To the place where it leaves people who don't want to use modern banking - somewhat possible but difficult.

Which itself becomes less convenient in various ways without a smartphone.

Increasingly marginalized and having to go through time-consuming hoops. There are a lot of things you're not technically required to have in the US like credit/debit cards, bank accounts, and government issued ID. But living a typical middle class lifestyle without them is... difficult.

I was recently denied opening a PO Box because I no longer have a working phone number. This is apparently "required contact information" (by USPS regulation).

Parking in my town is largely paid for via an APP — which is frustrating for somebody not using a mobile phone. The coin-accepting meters are rapidly disappearing.