Is there some system that transmits information to your door card reader on what the new key is, or is it something different entirely?
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IT guy here, depends what kind of system they use. The most common are RFID which are the type you hold near the door or insert and it reads them.
The door locks are linked back to a bit of software that control access to the doors. The cards are pre-programmed to have an ID number and they are all loaded into the system. So when you give a person a card, you grant that card number access to the door.
If you lose your card, you tell the front desk, they block that card as lost, and give you a new one, which they put on the allow list. If the lost card is used anywhere, it has no access, and typically will alert security.
How do they know the card number when it’s lost?
Cards are pre loaded and when given to a guest they are noted as being assigned. If they are lost you lookup cards that can access the door, and remove the missing one.
How do they reprogram my card?
They typically don’t , the card has a set ID. They give you a new card with a new ID, they add the new ID to the system with access to your door.
Anything else I should know?
These cards allow them to track you, or their employees. Swipe a card, they know you accessed that area. Stuff missing in your room? Check the card logs to see who accessed your room, look at that the card assigned to the maids went in…. alert security.
card 43782 opens room 220
Card lost
clerk disables card 43782
new card 90661 now opens room 220
I don’t know if it’s exactly the same as the software we use for the security doors at my job, but that works as follows…
Each card has it’s own unique identifier.
Guest A checks in, A’s card is assigned to their room door using it’s unique ID. Guest A can now freely enter the room.
Guest A checks out, and Guest B checks in. Guest A’s card is deactivated, and Guest B’s card is activated. Now B can freely enter, but A no longer can.
The better question should be how can they charge you $10 for a credit card sided piece of plastic.
Key cards are merely numbered cards that broadcast their numbers.
The magic is actually in the door lock and server. The door look reads the card, it sends that signal to the server, the server decided if that specific card can open the door.
This allows multiple cards to open the door. Housekeeping cards, hotel staff, extra cards you can pay for. It’s actually not a big deal, but they make it seem like a big deal.
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.
The card itself just had an ID number that identifies itself. When you swipe your card in the lock the lock asks a central database, “Hey, card number 001 just asked to come in. Is it allowed?” Then the database tells the lock yes or no. To change the card you can just allow a new one to that lock and disable the old one. If the card is lost completely you can just tell the system to ignore it from now on and it will never allow it access again. Since every card had a unique identifier, much more complex than my 001 example you will never run out of potential card IDs and cards could arguably be used on multiple independent systems without conflict.
Caveat: this is a typical product set up. Some products may vary or operate with a completely different system.
Yes, but if you have 2/3 keys it could mess up those keys too. To avoid locking out the roommates you should bring theirs to be reprogrammed too.
The answers here are just downright silly.
The hotel has a PMS (property management system) that interfaces with the key machine.
When making new keys the PMS asks the desk user if you want to make a new key (wipes all previous keys) or a duplicate of the currently issued keys (creates a copy, doesn’t wipe other keys.) If you choose to make new keys, all keys still work until that new key came in contact with the lock. The programming on the new key tells the lock to forget all previous keys and only work for the newly programmed ones. When you don’t pay or your card comes up fraudulent, we make a new key and swipe it on your lock, without even opening the door; it wipes your keys and forces you to come to the desk so we can straighten out your billing.
Source: Hotel GM for the last 17 years. 23 years in hotels.
The key hold a value assigned at the desk, the door lock can give enough power to the key so it can read what value that key has, if the lock recognize the key it unlocks. Any blank card can be programmed with the values you want
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