Guide
What Door Locks Do Hotels Use?
Most hotels today use contactless RFID electronic locks, opened by holding a key card, fob, wristband or phone near the door. They replaced the magnetic stripe cards you had to swipe, which in turn replaced metal keys. A typical hotel room door also carries a second, purely mechanical lock on the inside that only you can operate.
The short version
- Most door locks in hotels are now RFID electronic locks, opened without contact by a card, fob, wristband or phone.
- The lock is battery powered and self contained, so it keeps working if the hotel’s network goes down.
- Your key card does not carry your personal details. It carries a code for one room and a set of dates.
- The inside latch or swing bar is mechanical and separate from the electronic lock, so nobody can override it with a card.
- Hotel locks record which credential opened them and when, which is why lost cards can be cancelled instantly.
What are those locks on hotel doors called?
There is no single name, because there are usually two or three separate devices on the same door and people use the words loosely.
The main one, the reader you tap your card against, is an electronic hotel lock or RFID lock. RFID stands for radio frequency identification, which simply means the card and the lock talk to each other over a very short distance without touching. You may also hear it called a key card lock, a contactless lock or a smart lock. In the trade they are usually described by their format instead, such as a lockset, a handle set or a mortice lock, which refers to how the lock is built into the door rather than how it is opened.
The bar or hinged latch on the inside is a different thing entirely. That is a privacy latch, a swing bar or a security bar depending on its shape. It is mechanical, it has no connection to the electronic lock, and it cannot be opened from the corridor with any card. Some doors also have a deadbolt you throw by hand and a door viewer, which is the correct name for the peephole.
The Four Types
The four types of door locks in hotels
Door locks in hotels have moved through four generations, and you will still find all four still in use somewhere in the UK.
Mechanical key locks
The original. A metal key, cut to a pattern, that opens one door. Still found in very small guesthouses and in historic properties where the door hardware is part of the character. The problem is what happens when a key is not returned. There is no way to know how many copies exist, and the only real fix is to change the lock.
Magnetic stripe cards
The card you had to swipe or push into a slot. These were the industry standard for decades and are the reason many people still expect a hotel key to fail occasionally. The stripe is a physical surface, so it scratches, wears and demagnetises. The data on it is not encrypted, which makes it comparatively easy to copy.
RFID contactless locks
What most hotels use now. The card, fob or wristband is held near the lock rather than swiped, so there is no contact and nothing to wear out. Communication between card and lock is encrypted, which makes duplication much harder. The lock stores its own permissions and runs on batteries, so it works during a power cut or a network outage.
Bluetooth mobile keys
The newest, and usually an addition to RFID rather than a replacement for it. Your room key is sent to an app on your phone before you arrive, and the door opens over Bluetooth. This is what allows a hotel to offer self check in without keeping someone at the desk overnight. Most hotels that offer mobile keys still issue physical cards as well, because phones run out of battery.
How It Works
How an RFID hotel lock actually works
The card does not contain a key, and it does not contain anything about you. It holds a code. When you check in, the hotel writes that code to the card along with the room it should open and the dates it should work for. Hold the card near the lock and a small aerial in the card is powered by the lock’s own signal, just long enough to send the code across. The lock compares that code against the permissions stored inside it and opens if they match.
Two things follow from that, and both surprise people. The first is that the lock is making the decision by itself. It is not phoning the front desk, which is why a hotel’s wifi going down does not lock everybody out of their rooms. The second is that a lost card can be dealt with without touching the door. The hotel cancels the code, and the next time that card is presented anywhere in the building it simply does nothing.
Every one of those events is recorded. The lock keeps an audit trail of which credential opened it and at what time, which exists mainly so that hotels can investigate a report of a missing item or check that a contractor only entered the rooms they were meant to.
Common Questions
Common questions about door locks in hotels
Why did my key card stop working?
With a magnetic stripe card the usual cause was physical: a scratched or demagnetised stripe. With RFID cards it is almost always one of three things. The stay was extended at the desk but the card was not reissued, so it expired at the original checkout date. The card was placed against another RFID card, such as a contactless bank card, in the same wallet slot, which can confuse the reader. Or the lock’s batteries are near the end of their life, in which case other rooms on that floor will be fine.
Will my phone wipe my key card?
Not an RFID card. There is nothing magnetic on it to erase. This was a genuine problem with magnetic stripe cards, and phone magnets could contribute, which is where the story comes from. It does not apply to the contactless cards used by most hotels today.
What happens if the lock’s batteries die while I am inside?
Nothing. You can always open the door from the inside by hand, because that is a fire safety requirement, not a feature. From the corridor, staff have a mechanical override and can change the batteries in a few minutes without removing the door or reprogramming the lock. Good quality hotel locks warn the hotel long in advance. Ours are tested to 30,000 openings on a set of batteries.
Can hotel key cards be hacked?
Magnetic stripe cards could be cloned relatively easily, because the data on the stripe was not encrypted. Modern RFID cards use encrypted communication, which makes duplication far harder. It is worth keeping in perspective: for the overwhelming majority of guests, the more useful precaution is the mechanical latch on the inside of the door, which no electronic system can override.
Does the hotel know when I entered my room?
Yes, in the sense that the lock records which card opened it and when. This is normal and it is how hotels investigate disputes and check staff and contractor access. The record is of the credential, not of you personally.
Can I use my own extra lock on a hotel door?
Portable travel locks and door jammers exist and plenty of people carry them. Two practical points. They will not work on every door, because they depend on the gap and the frame. And they must never obstruct your ability to get out quickly, since hotel doors are part of the building’s fire escape route under UK fire safety regulations.
For Hoteliers
If you run a hotel rather than stay in one
Most people reading about door locks in hotels are guests. If you are on the other side of the desk, the questions are different ones: what a changeover costs, how long the rooms are out of use, and whether the system will still be supported in ten years. That last one catches more hotels out than any other. The usual trigger for replacing a working lock system is not failure, it is the supplier withdrawing support or the software refusing to run on a current version of Windows.
FAQs
Frequently asked questions
What are the locks on hotel doors called?
The main lock is an electronic hotel lock, usually an RFID lock, also called a key card lock or contactless lock. The bar or hinged latch on the inside is a separate mechanical device called a privacy latch, swing bar or security bar, and it cannot be opened from the corridor.
What door locks do hotels use?
Most hotels now use contactless RFID electronic locks, opened by holding a key card, fob, wristband or phone near the door. These replaced magnetic stripe cards, which replaced metal keys. Many hotels also offer Bluetooth mobile keys through an app alongside physical cards.
What are the four types of door locks used in hotels?
Mechanical key locks, magnetic stripe card locks, contactless RFID locks and Bluetooth mobile keys. RFID is the current standard in UK hotels, and mobile keys are usually added alongside it rather than replacing it.
Do hotel door locks work without electricity or wifi?
Yes. Hotel locks are battery powered and store their permissions inside the lock itself, so they open normally during a power cut or a network outage. The lock decides whether to open on its own rather than checking with a central system.
Why do hotel key cards stop working?
The most common reasons are that the stay was extended without the card being reissued, that the card was stored against another contactless card, or that the lock’s batteries are near the end of their life. Unlike old magnetic stripe cards, RFID cards cannot be demagnetised by a phone.
Thinking about your own property’s locks?
We supply and fit RFID hotel lock systems across the UK and have been doing it since 2006. If your current system has been left unsupported, or you are still running magnetic stripe cards, that is the conversation we have most often.