RFID Key Cards, Fobs and Wristbands
Hotel Key Card Systems
A hotel key card system has three parts: the cards your guests carry, the locks that read them, and the software your reception team uses to issue and cancel them. Keystep Solutions supplies all three to hotels, serviced apartments and leisure venues across the United Kingdom.
Overview
The card is the only part of the system your guests ever touch
Guests never see your lock model and they certainly never see your software. What they see is a card handed across the desk at check in, and whether it opens the door first time. That is the whole of their impression of your access system, which is why the card deserves more thought than it usually gets.
RFID cards are read by holding them near the lock, so nothing is swiped and nothing wears out. That single change removes the most common complaint at any front desk, which is the guest walking back down because the key has stopped working. Magnetic stripes scratch and demagnetise. An RFID chip has no contact surface to damage.
Going contactless also opens up materials a magnetic stripe never allowed. Cards can be plastic, recyclable paper or wood, and the same lock reads a fob or a wristband just as happily. For a spa, a gym or a holiday park, a wristband solves a problem a card never could, because guests have nowhere to put a card.
What Is Included
What makes up a hotel key card system
Three working parts, plus somebody to call when one of them stops behaving.
The Credentials
What the guest carries. Plastic cards for everyday use at volume, recyclable paper cards for properties cutting down on plastic, wooden cards where the finish matters, plus fobs for staff and contractors and wristbands for spas, gyms and resorts.
Locks and Readers
The locks on the bedroom doors and the readers on everything else: main entrances, reception, car park barriers, pedestrian gates, lifts and parcel lockers. See our hotel door lock systems for the full picture.
Access Control Software
Where reception issues a credential, cancels a lost one, sets time based rules and checks which card opened a given door. Housekeeping and contractors get their own permissions with their own hours.
UK Support and Resupply
Somebody to ring when a lock stops reading, on a helpdesk open every day from 8am to 8pm. Cards are a consumable and you will be buying them for as long as the property is open, so it is worth having the lock supplier and the card supplier be the same company.
Credentials
Plastic, paper, wood, fobs and wristbands
Every one of these is read by the same locks and issued from the same software. Browse the full range of RFID cards, fobs and wristbands.
Plastic Key Cards
Paper Key CardsWooden Key CardsKey Fobs
Wristbands
Mobile KeysCompare
Choosing a card material
Every material below works with the same hotel key card system, so the choice comes down to finish, cost and environmental impact rather than compatibility.
| Plastic | Recyclable paper | Wood | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best suited to | Everyday use at volume | Properties reducing plastic use | Boutique and country house hotels |
| Durability | Most durable, reused many times | Lightweight, suits shorter stays | Durable and guests tend to keep them |
| Finish | Full colour print | Full colour print | Natural, high end finish |
| Environmental position | Reusable, but plastic | Recyclable | Renewable material |
| Cost position | Most cost effective | Middle | Premium |
How It Works
Getting a hotel key card system into a working property
Working out what the card needs to do
The starting point is not the bedroom doors, it is everything else. A property with a gym, a car park barrier and a lift needs the card to do four jobs rather than one, and each of those is a different piece of hardware. Our wall and lift readers hold full Secured by Design approval and cover main entrances, reception areas, automatic doors, pedestrian gates, car park barriers and parcel lockers, and our lift controllers work with Schindler, Kone and Otis. Getting this list right at the start is what stops guests being handed a card for the room and a separate fob for the gym.
Issuing and cancelling
Reception issues a card in seconds. If a guest loses one, the old credential is cancelled and a replacement issued from the same dashboard, and the lost card stops working the next time anybody presents it at a door. Nothing needs recoding by hand. Staff, contractors and long term residents get their own credentials with their own permissions, and access can be set by time as well as by door, which is how housekeeping and contractors are given the floors they need during the hours they need them.
Knowing who opened what
Every credential leaves an audit trail. The software records each access event and produces downloadable reports, so a question about who entered a room, and when, has an answer rather than a theory. For most hotels this sits unused for months and then settles a dispute in five minutes.
Key facts at a glance
- A hotel key card system is made up of the cards, the locks that read them and the software that issues them.
- Keystep supplies RFID hotel key cards in plastic, recyclable paper and wood, as well as fobs, wristbands and Bluetooth mobile keys.
- RFID cards use encrypted communication, which makes them much harder to duplicate than magnetic stripe cards.
- RFID cards are read without contact, so there is no magnetic strip to scratch or demagnetise.
- A lost hotel key card is cancelled at reception and stops working the next time it is presented at a door.
- Keystep access control software keeps an audit trail of every credential and produces downloadable access reports.
- Keystep Solutions has supplied UK hotels since 2006 and its helpdesk is open every day from 8am to 8pm.
Case Study
The Kings Court Hotel, Alcester
The hotel moved from traditional mechanical keys to RFID, with Bluetooth mobile key access, as part of onboarding to Best Western. The Kings Court Hotel, Alcester, Warwickshire
Kings Court is a historic Warwickshire property known for weddings and events, and it needed to meet Best Western brand standards on access control. It went from mechanical keys straight to a full RFID credential system with the option of Bluetooth mobile keys. The transition was delivered on time, on spec and with no disruption to guests, and the hardware sits so naturally against the building that it looks original. Ringwood Hall Hotel in Chesterfield made the same move for the same reason.
See More of Our WorkFAQs
Frequently asked questions
How does a hotel key card system work?
Each card carries an encrypted code rather than the key itself. At check in, reception issues that card with the room it should open and the dates it should work. When the guest holds it near the lock, the lock reads the code, checks it against its own permissions and opens if it matches. The lock makes that decision on its own and does not need a network connection to do it.
Can hotel key cards be copied or hacked?
RFID cards use encrypted communication, which makes them much harder to duplicate than the magnetic stripe cards they replaced. Data on a magnetic stripe is not encrypted, which is why those cards can be cloned with inexpensive equipment. This is the main security reason hotels move across.
What happens if a guest loses their key card?
Reception cancels the lost card and issues a replacement from the same dashboard, which takes seconds. The cancelled card stops working the next time it is presented at any door in the building, so there is no need to change the lock or recode it by hand.
Are there alternatives to plastic key cards?
Yes. We supply recyclable paper cards for properties reducing their plastic use and wooden cards where a premium natural finish suits the property. Both work with the same locks and the same software as plastic cards. Guests can also use a Bluetooth mobile key on their phone and carry no card at all.
Can one card open more than the bedroom door?
Yes. The same credential can open the main entrance, the car park barrier, the gym, pedestrian gates, parcel lockers and the lift, and you set which of those each card reaches. Our lift controllers integrate with Schindler, Kone and Otis, so floor access can be restricted to the floor a guest is staying on.
For a plainer explanation of how hotel door locks work, including what happens to a card when it is cancelled, start with our guide.
Talk to us about cards, locks or both
If you know how many rooms you have and what else guests need to reach, that is enough to start. Tell us whether you are replacing an existing system or fitting one for the first time, and we will tell you what is involved.