Canary Technologies, a San Francisco company that sells guest management software to hotels, announced on February 3, 2026 that it had acquired the assets of OpenKey, a Dallas-based provider of mobile room keys. Neither company disclosed the price.
A Canary spokesperson told Hotel Dive that the deal had been finalized in January. Canary described the transaction as an asset acquisition rather than a purchase of the whole company.
OpenKey's technology will be folded into Canary's existing Mobile Key product. The main gain for Canary is OpenKey's set of partnerships with door-lock manufacturers, which lets Canary offer phone-based room keys on more lock models and with more manufacturers than before.
What OpenKey built
OpenKey was founded in 2014 and was one of the early companies to let hotel guests open their room doors with a smartphone. It worked with hotels, resorts and casinos, and connected to existing hotel systems so properties could offer keyless entry, fully remote check-in and integration with their own branded apps.
When it raised its Series A in 2016, the company was based in Plano, Texas, and was led by founder and chief executive TJ Person, according to Dallas Innovates. Its locks used Bluetooth, and it had launched a white-label app that hotels could brand as their own. At the time it was in talks with hotels in Mexico, Hong Kong and the Middle East.
Stephen Bodnar was OpenKey's chief executive at the time of the sale. The company did not report its headcount or the number of hotels using its product.
“We're investing in this technology to help hoteliers meet guest's rising expectations for mobile-first guest room access.”
Why Canary is buying
Mobile keys depend on compatibility with the physical locks already fitted to hotel doors, and hotels use locks from many different manufacturers. Each lock brand or model a provider supports opens up more potential customers. Buying OpenKey's lock integrations was a quicker route for Canary than building each of them itself.
Canary sells what it calls an AI-powered guest management system. Besides mobile keys, it includes mobile check-in, AI-driven guest messaging, digital tipping for staff and dynamic upselling of room upgrades and extras. The company says it serves more than 20,000 hotels in over 100 countries, with clients that include Marriott International, Four Seasons, Choice Hotels, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, BWH Hotels and InterContinental Hotels Group.
Canary told Dallas Innovates that adding OpenKey's coverage to its platform should speed up the hotel industry's move toward mobile-first guest services, in which check-in, room access and requests to staff all run through the guest's phone.
Harman Singh Narula, Canary's co-founder and chief executive, said the acquisition made Canary's mobile key offering the broadest on the market and was aimed at guests who expect to reach their room using their phone.
The funding behind both companies
OpenKey raised an $8 million Series A in 2016, led by the Dallas-based Ashford Group of Companies with participation from Phoenix American, Dallas Innovates reported at the time. CB Insights puts OpenKey's total funding at $8 million and also lists the Plug and Play accelerator among its backers.
Canary is considerably larger. In June 2025 it raised $80 million in a Series D round that valued the company at about $600 million, according to Hotel Dive. The company was named to Deloitte's Fast 500 list for the second year running and received nine HotelTech Awards.
What happens to hotels
Canary said the deal would let more hotels around the world use its full guest management system, with OpenKey's technology adding to the coverage of its mobile key product. Bodnar said the combination would allow more hotels to offer a digital guest journey from end to end.
The companies did not say whether the OpenKey brand or app would remain in use, or how existing OpenKey hotel customers would be moved onto Canary's platform.
