Is there some system that transmits information to your door card reader on what the new key is, or is it something different entirely?
In: 1028
I worked at the front desk of two hotels from 2007-2009.
Both hotels used different key card systems, but both worked the same:
Keys could be made for any room number, and for anything from 1 day to 14 days or so. The default was one day.
Let’s say I make a card for Mr Smith in room 101. He is staying with us for four days.
After day 1, he decides to leave, and we resell the room to someone else. Technically, Mr Smith’s room key would still work for the remaining three days, should he choose to return.
The first hotel, you just had to hope it was never an issue. It honestly never was as the above scenario would be relatively rare in the first place. Most of the time, the person programming the key wouldn’t change the default date, causing the key to expire after one day anyway. We had to reactivate expired keys a lot. Additionally, Most people book one or two nights only, and most people don’t cancel mid trip. Buuuut the unsettling possibility was always in the back of one’s mind.
The second hotel had a more robust system that was linked to our booking software. Keys automatically had the correct check out date assigned, buuuut the system also had a clever feature where if a new key was made for a different reservation in the same room, using the key on the door would cause the lock to expire any other key cards made before that point. Meaning that, even if we have our scenario with Mr Smith above, the next guest will invalidate Smith’s card by the act of swiping their own card.
Latest Answers