RFID and Mobile Access for UK Hotels
Hotel Door Lock Systems
Keystep Solutions supplies, fits and supports RFID hotel door lock systems for hotels, serviced apartments, student accommodation and build to rent properties across the United Kingdom. We have been doing it since 2006 and now support hundreds of properties.
Home/Hotel Door Lock Systems
Overview
Most hotels replace their locks because something has gone wrong
Very few hotels wake up wanting new locks. They start looking because a problem has appeared and will not go away. Cards demagnetise in a guest’s back pocket and reception spends the evening reissuing keys. A member of staff leaves and nobody can say with certainty which keys they still have at home. Or, most commonly of all, the supplier tells you the system you bought a decade ago is no longer supported.
That last one catches people out. The Claremont in Douglas had been with their previous supplier for more than twenty years and had already upgraded once. They were then told their locking system would no longer be supported and would not run on Windows 11. A lock that still physically works is no use if the software that manages it will not open on your front desk PC.
An RFID hotel door lock system answers all of it. The card is held near the lock rather than swiped, so there is no strip to wear out and nothing to jam. Every lock keeps a record of which credential opened it and when. Lose a card and you cancel it at reception, and the next time somebody presents it at a door it does nothing at all.
What Is Included
What a complete hotel door lock system includes
Four parts, and all of them are managed from the same platform.
Guest Room Locks
The lock on the bedroom door. It is fully self contained, so there is no hard wiring and no cable to chase through corridors. Batteries are tested to 30,000 openings, and every lock is certified for fire safety and security.
Mobile Keys
Guests open the room from their phone over Bluetooth. Every lock in our range is app compatible as standard, so mobile keys are a setting you turn on rather than a separate system you buy later.
Wall and Lift Readers
The same credential opens the main entrance, the car park barrier, the gym and the lift. Our wall and lift readers hold full Secured by Design approval, and our lift controllers work with Schindler, Kone and Otis.
Access Control Software
One dashboard for issuing credentials, cancelling lost ones, setting time based access rules and reading the audit trail on any door. It was built for hotel teams, so a new starter can be shown it in a morning.
Credentials
Every way a guest can open a door
Plastic, recyclable paper and wooden cards, fobs, wristbands and mobile keys, all read by the same locks. See the full range of RFID cards, fobs and wristbands, or read more about hotel key card systems.
Plastic Key Cards
Paper Key Cards
Wooden Key Cards
Key Fobs
Wristbands
Lift ReadersCompare
RFID against magnetic stripe
If you are weighing up a new hotel door lock system, this is the comparison that matters. For a plainer explanation of the different types of hotel door lock, start there instead.
| Feature | RFID | Magnetic stripe |
|---|---|---|
| How the key is read | Held near the lock, no contact | Swiped or inserted into a slot |
| Wear on the key | Nothing touches the reader | The strip scratches and demagnetises |
| Security | Encrypted communication, hard to duplicate | Data is not encrypted, easier to clone |
| Cancelling a lost key | Cancelled at the desk, dead on next use | Often needs the lock recoding by hand |
| Phone as a key | Supported on every lock in our range | Not possible |
| Audit trail | Held in every lock | Limited or none |
| PMS integration | Automatic room assignment, check in and check out | Standalone encoder, manual setup per guest |
| Card materials | Plastic, recyclable paper or wood | Plastic only |
| Upfront cost | Higher | Lower |
| Ongoing cost | Fewer replacement cards, less maintenance | Frequent card replacement and reader cleaning |
How It Works
How we supply, fit and support your hotel door lock system
Choosing the right lock for your doors
We build five locks and they exist because hotel doors are not all the same. Infinity is our best seller and covers most refurbishments, because it conceals the cut outs left by old mechanical or magstripe locks. Revolution is slimmer and suits student accommodation and build to rent. RezLok handles the awkward ones, including multi point locks, UPVC and metal doors. Identity uses a split design with the reader separate from the handle. Invisible hides everything inside the lock case, leaving only the lever and a small indicator on show, and works with any lever on rose so the ironmongery can match across the whole building. Which one you need is decided by your doors, not by a catalogue. You can see our RFID lock range in full.
Installation
Most of our locks are designed as direct replacements for older electronic or mechanical locks, which is what keeps an upgrade from turning into a building project. In the majority of cases there is no major door modification and no redecorating afterwards. At the Claremont the finish was close enough that, looking at the photographs, you would not guess the locks had not been there from the beginning. Both that installation and the Kings Court Hotel upgrade were completed to schedule with no disruption to guests, which is the part that matters when you are still taking bookings.
Support afterwards
Our helpdesk is open every day from 8am to 8pm and is based in the UK, so you are talking to the company that supplied the system rather than a call centre in another timezone. Our locks run on current Windows environments and are built to keep doing so, which is the specific failure that pushes most hotels into an unplanned replacement.
Key facts at a glance
- Keystep Solutions has supplied electronic hotel locks in the United Kingdom since 2006 and supports hundreds of properties.
- Keystep RFID hotel locks are fully self contained and need no hard wiring to the door.
- Lock batteries are tested to 30,000 openings.
- Every Keystep lock is compatible with RFID key cards, fobs, wristbands and Bluetooth mobile keys.
- Keystep wall readers hold full Secured by Design approval, and lift controllers integrate with Schindler, Kone and Otis.
- Keystep locks are certified for fire safety and meet UK fire and building regulations.
- The Keystep helpdesk is open every day from 8am to 8pm.
Case Study
The Claremont, Douglas, Isle of Man
After more than twenty years with their previous supplier, the hotel was told their locking system would no longer be supported and was not compatible with Windows 11. The Claremont, Douglas, Isle of Man
The Claremont is consistently recognised as the top hotel on the island, and it had already upgraded its locks once before. When the existing system was left unsupported and would not run on Windows 11, we installed the Opendoor lock system throughout. The work was completed exactly to schedule with no disruption to guests, and the finish blends in so well that the locks look original to the building.
See More of Our WorkFAQs
Frequently asked questions
How much does a hotel door lock system cost?
Cost is worked out per door rather than per room, and it moves with three things: how many doors you have, which of our five lock models suits them, and whether you also need wall readers, lift control and software. The larger saving is usually the one people miss. Because our locks are designed as direct replacements for older mechanical and magstripe locks, most upgrades need no major door modification and no redecorating, so the installation costs far less than a full door replacement programme. We quote after looking at your actual doors.
How long does it take to install locks across a hotel?
Rooms are fitted while the hotel carries on trading. Because the locks are fully self contained there is no wiring to run and no structural work, which is what keeps the programme short. Our installations at the Claremont on the Isle of Man and the Kings Court Hotel in Alcester were both completed to schedule with no disruption to guests.
Do RFID hotel locks need wiring?
No. Every lock in our range is fully self contained, holding its own permissions and running on batteries tested to 30,000 openings. There is no cable to run to the door and no work to the frame, so the lock carries on working normally even if your network or front desk PC is down.
Will the locks work with our property management system?
Yes. Our locks are designed to integrate with modern property management systems, which allows automatic room assignment, check in and check out rather than programming each key by hand at the desk. Older magstripe systems generally cannot do this, because they rely on a standalone encoder that has to be set up manually for every guest.
What happens when the batteries run out?
Batteries are tested to 30,000 openings and the lock warns you well before it reaches that point, so this is planned maintenance rather than an emergency. Changing them takes a few minutes and does not require the door to come off or the lock to be recoded.
Tell us about your property
Send us the number of rooms and a photograph of a typical bedroom door. That is usually enough for us to tell you which of our locks fits and what is involved, before anyone arranges a visit. If your current system has been left unsupported, say so, because that is the situation we deal with most often.