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Text a room. Hotels.com now allows you to check rates and book rooms via Sprint cellphones.

Better yet: Text a flight. Air Canada now allows you to use SMS to check in to your flight using SMS (via USA Today). Boarding passes still need to be issued at the airport, but can be done via a kiosk. (The benefit of checking in early? Guarantee a spot, in case of overbooking… seat selection… early bird gets the worm for upgrades…)

European and Asian carriers have offered SMS check-in for some time, but this is something that North American airlines have been remarkably slow to adopt. My guess: SMS lowers lower costs vs. human check-in, but raises them over other automated options, which the carriers would rather push. The cost to the airlines to check in with a person averages $3.62. The cost to use an airport kiosk: $0.52. The cost to check in online: $0.16. SMS check-in, since it’s a two step process and still involves the kiosk, might come in a notch above that $0.52 level. I’m sure it’s cheaper than, say a toll-free number that airlines would set up for check-ins, and certainly cheaper than checking in with a human being. But I bet it’s more than plain-vanilla kiosk, and far more than online check-in. Or am I missing something?

(image: ajblachman on flickr)