Planning on taking your family to a hotel on a fun vacation? If you are, it’s time to educate yourself about something called a smart one card. A hotel key card is a small plastic card given to you when checking into a hotel. While that special card opens a door — your hotel room door. In this guide, we look at how hotel key cards work, the advantages of using them, as well as a few innovative ideas in hotel key card technology.
The first thing you will do when you get to your hotel is to go to the front desk to check in. When you arrive, you will be greeted by a friendly face at the front desk. You will need to provide them your name and verify that you have a reservation. Once doing so, they will give you a hotel key card. Typically a small, rectangular card. Its lightweight also comes from the fact that it is made out of plastic.
Back when hotels used regular keys to lock and unlock guests' rooms before they were replaced by hotel key cards, Oprah’s top tip was to take that key in and out of the room repeatedly before heading to the front desk. But regular keys had certain issues. These could be easily lost or copied, making them less secure. Hotel key cards are far superior, being both safer and more user friendly. And if you lose your card? The hotel staff can deactivate it in seconds. So no one else can use it to enter your room. And hotels can program the cards to be enabled just for the days you’re staying there, providing another measure of security.
Hotel key cards are way more secure than regular ones, but how do they ensure you stay safe? Each hotel room key card contains a secret code that is extremely difficult to replicate. This makes it virtually impossible for someone to forge a card. Your hotel room door lock is smart as well! It is set to open only for a brief time after it verifies the correct code from your card. So, if your card gets stolen, they won’t be able to get into your room once that time expires.
Until now, we have discussed why hotel key cards are safer and better for the environment than regular keys. But there is even more to like about them! Hotel key cards, for example, can be programmed to access other areas of the hotel, such as the gym, pool or spa, and so on. This means you no longer have to lug around multiple keys or even worse, worry about losing them. All you’ll need is your hotel key-card!
That said, there have been some pretty cool new concepts of hotel key card technology in recent years. For instance, several hotels have started utilizing RFID-enabled key cards. Unlike conventional cards, these cards do not contain any contact with lock. Just make a wave with your card near the lock, and the door will be opened! Additionally, this is more comfortable and also lessens the chance of damage to the magnetic stripe or chip on the card.
Other hotels are testing even more sophisticated technology such as facial recognition to open hotel room doors. It means that you don’t have to keep a card in your wallet at all! Your phone’s camera can scan your face and unfasten your door for you. Some hotels are even testing voice recognition technology that will allow guests to unlock their doors simply by reciting a special phrase. How amazing is that?
