in hotels, if you lose your room key card, how are they able to reprogram the new one so it works and the old one doesn’t?

Question

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

Answer 1

When I worked at a student ID office, the mag strip on the card had an ID number plus a rotating digit that started at zero. If we made a replacement card, we printed a new one with a “1” digit. We then updated our system software so that only the “1” card would work.