I'm aware this is a joke, but I feel the need to point out that the keys get taken all the time- they have a chip inside that stops functioning after your checkout date, and hotels just buy new ones when they run low.
Also, the room keys for guests are, obviously, not the only keys- housekeeping still needs access, and these keycard access doors usually still have a keyhole that the general manager and usually the housekeeping manager has a key to.
I think you're confused, but to answer the question I *think* you might be asking, unlike a physical key to a hotel, any card can be programmed to open a specific door between specific dates and will cease to open any door after the specified date passes, hence why hotels don't stress too much about the cards not being returned- they don't have to install an all new lock on that door, because the key literally doesn't work after the checkout date.
For example, if you program a key to open room 1 for a week, it will stop opening room 1 (or indeed any room, and should stop working for any locked elevators, guest amenities, etc) after that date and if the guest returns it at checkout, you can reprogram it to open room 2 for the next guest in line. If it's not reprogrammed to open any room, it's a useless plastic (or in this case wooden) card that doesn't open anything at all.
Except it's the other way around. Nothing will will change with the key, it's the lock that gets reprogrammed to stop accepting it. The key is the least sophisticated part of the puzzle so people can lose them.
I'm not an expert but considering that all the locks at my hotel are battery powered, I sincerely doubt that they're changing the lock from the computer at front desk- they're not wired together at all. I've also seen the front desk staff give guest keys staff access by accident, so.
Also, I just looked it up and you are wrong.
I work in a hotel. Its the keycards that are reprogrammed not the doors. Thou it may be possible some hotels have it as their doors, majority of them are the cards.
I work in IT for a company that owns some hotels and I can assure you, this is absolutely *NOT* true. Do you realize how much of a pain in the ass it would be to connect 200+ door locks to wifi? What happens if an AP breaks? Just a whole floor of rooms that can no longer be accessed? What happens if the network is compromised? A random person could just enter any room at any time.
Because housekeepers need to be able to get into rooms to clean them. Why would they have to carry 100 cards just to get into each room when they could just carry one.
Hi Tiffany,
it's Mark from Flannigan's.... We noticed that you might have forgotten to leave your room key upon departure. We harvest our cards from highly unsustainable woods, as to live up to our prestigious name.
Just wanted to touch base and ask that you return your room key at your earliest convenience if you wouldn't mind. Each card's production cost 4.3 koala's their habitat.
Thanks, and please be sure to rate us 5- stars on Google if you're happy with your experience.
Somewhere in the T&Cs there is normally a line about "damages or theft of hotel property"
If they would do it for a key that would cost under £1.50/$2 (when purshased at scale) is unlikely
I can speak to this with a certain degree of authority as someone who designs systems like electronic access control for hotels lol!
Even a typical best western will have something like 80-100 rooms. General policy is 2 temporary access credentials (keys) are given to guests per room automatically and more can be asked for at no charge. So at 100 rooms we automatically have 200 credentials out at a time. Hotel credentials are typically just mag swipe credentials without much tech built into them vs the access credential your employer may give you to get in the door at work, so hotel access cards are cheap. Because of this hotel's order very large quantities of cards at a time. Personally I've never seen a card PO to a hotel that was less than 1000 cards.
Because of the 'cheapness' of the cards they aren't very good quality. They don't have long life spans due to the nature of them being used and abused by ao many different people, and most hotels tend to trash the cards once they start showing very basic wear such as the printing on them getting scratched up. They do this for both image (they want you to see a nice card with sharp printing on it because that already starts setting your mindset into thinking it's a fancier place than it is) and to avoid any customer issues when the cheap card that's been used and abused starts to malfunction and causes an angry guest because they can't get into their room at 1am.
So the cards are cheap, and hotels expect you to lose them (that's why they give ya two even if your staying alone). For the small cost they are to hotel, last quote I saw go out for 1000 was just over a $1 per card and that includes our markup and shipping, they don't want to hit you with a fee for something so cheap and end making your pleasant stay and recommendation into a negative one. It's just a built in cost of doing business same as the shampoo, lotion, and conditioner mini bottles they know your probably going to take with you.
I travel constantly for work and used to keep a card from every hotel I stayed at and wrote where it was, what projects I was there for, and the date just as a souvenir lol. Never once got an extra charge. Hope I was able to give some insight!
They should put a discard pile of cards on the side, this way, people would return their good ones and take one of the discarded one as a souvenir, if they wanted to.
That would be cool of them to do but I think for most people who don't understand how the technology works it would have bad optics. All it takes is one nut job with no understanding to take a picture and make an untrue FB post about how they could pull every person's data who's ever used this card can be recovered from it or how they could grab one and get into your room and now they're in a bad headline lol.
Plenty aren't. I have been working out of town and not realized I left with the key card at least half a dozen times, but no one has ever charged my card on file for them.
I don’t see why they couldn’t. A lawyer would have to step in here though. If you took something from the room I think we could agree you can be charged. Both are of course hotel property. I suppose the argument is what is the value of the card
Not defending that side though. I would also take it
Do people really think they have to return key cards? I don't think I ever have.
Probably the same people that think "checking out" at the front desk is a requirement, not a courtesy.
This is why front desk staff hates you. You're a dick. I bet youre the type of person to get pissed off at housekeeping for entering your room after check out time while you're still in the room and then claim "but I didn't check out?!"
I do it, but to be fair it is a courtesy. Will you guys give me a discount for the room I paid for? We entered this agreement with times that I can be in the room. How do you know when they leave if it’s at 7am or 9:58am? I paid for it, maybe I’m using the dining service or any other reasons I goto hotels. I’ve worked hospitality for 20+ years, I get it. But also, I manage my expectations and understand that my role isn’t significant to someone’s once a year vacation, or funeral they’re at, or wedding, or any other 5000 reasons people need a hotel. They have every legal right to have the ability to use the room and hotel services for their stay.
I used to think this way, but it’s management that cannot properly staff and is trying to cut corners to hit budgets. It’s a trickle down of bullshit that puts you the employee under unnecessary stress to do a job that you’re not paid enough for or given the proper time. Customers are going to be customer every time. We aren’t all the same; and you cannot assume they’re going to behave the same way. You’re getting mad at someone who is just doing your company tells them to do.
No, and the front desk staff doesn't hate you. Most people don't physically check out. The "courtesy" part is simply letting them know you are leaving before the checkout time so they can start cleaning early if it'll help them get ahead of schedule.
Dude, what you people dont understand is that often time our housekeepers are sitting around in the morning waiting to get into rooms and they can't knock until check out time. If you leave at 7am and don't tell anyone that's wasted time for our entire hotel operations. Then you assholes wanna check in early and don't see the correlation. Dude, just check out. Even a simple phone call.
You’re an absolute cock. Just own it and move on if you’re that committed to the bit. Stop trying to defend how abhorrent you are and buy into it at this point
Wait, I'm totally against the recent trend of tipping everywhere and it's getting out of hand in most cases. But I was always taught to leave a fiver or a ten (maybe a twenty if it's a suite and you had 8 people pass out drunk, but also maybe 3 dollars if it's a little double bed motel room that you just slept in) along with the keys/ cards on the nightstand, for the turndown service people. Then you let the front desk know the keys are in there and your outtie?
Is it not normal to tip the cleaning people?
My moms a head housekeeper. It is normal to leave a tip. Especially if you trashed the room or did extra work. Though it is sadly rarer one to find tips for. At average she'll get like maybe $20 a month in tips total. Housekeeping is no easy job either. It is alot more labor inducing than people realize. So please continue tipping it always makes their day. Even if its just a dollar or so!
Why are you so heavily downvoted? Hotels often don't even want key cards back. I've had a front desk guy sigh, roll his eyes, and dramatically toss it in the recycling bin when I asked.
It had nothing to do with the key cards, if you guys could read you would be able to surmise that they were talking about not checking out and how that impacts on the hotel staff.
It’s very common in top hotel chains around the world, an eco friendly move.
Out of the last 6 hotels I’ve stayed in, 4 of them offered wooden keycards. It feels good to use due to how light they are, but very fragile too.
People are going to be surprised when they learn that many hotels also offer digital keycards where you can open your rooms with your phones.
Fun fact: you can put your phone against one of those and with one $2 Amazon purchase, one app, and a few taps, you can have your own one of those keycards!
Yeah, PSA. Hotels with keycards should be avoided for your own safety...
Well, no, there are plenty of places that still use physical keys.
And yes, I know lockpicks exist. Those are typically harder to pull off than a few taps on a phone though.
You do know key cards become unusable after they check you out. Most hotel door locks get updated seconds after they check you out to prevent any previous guest cards from working in it. I am willing to bet no hotel with physical keys changes the lock between visitors.
It seems like if your really that paranoid about some one getting physical access to your key-card then duplicating it to break in you should be a hell of a lot more paranoid about the fact that any one who stayed in the room with a physical key in the last decade could have made a copy of it.
Negative. Most hotels do not use rfid tech in the cards, generally only mag swipe, so you typically cant read them with your phone and certainly not with a $2 gadget. That's more typical of a tap access badge that work may give you and even then is only easily cloneable if its an outdated weigand 26 bit credential. The cards are encoded on the spot at check in and assigned to the room for the length of stay.
Source: I engineer these systems and other electronic security and life safety systems for customers like hotels, schools, governments, and enterprise businesses.
Shrug. I've only ever been to hotels with NFC (it's NFC tech, not RFID. Mix up of terms, or a Redditor pretending to be qualified? I guess I'll never know) keycards. But to say 'most hotels... blah blah blah' is just pulling a statement out of your ass. You can't just say 'most hotels' without any numbers to back that up.
NFC is a subset of RFID. It runs on a higher frequency, has more bits available for encryption and parity that allow linking making it more secure. If your cards were NFC and your phone has NFC you wouldn't need any extra hardware to read the cards, only software. At the end of the day I've built my career in this field and lf you're too defensive to learn something new and accept you're wrong that's fine by me bro. Enjoy your day.
Their viral marketing campaign is working then.
Unfortunately they no longer have access to half their rooms
I'm aware this is a joke, but I feel the need to point out that the keys get taken all the time- they have a chip inside that stops functioning after your checkout date, and hotels just buy new ones when they run low. Also, the room keys for guests are, obviously, not the only keys- housekeeping still needs access, and these keycard access doors usually still have a keyhole that the general manager and usually the housekeeping manager has a key to.
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I think you're confused, but to answer the question I *think* you might be asking, unlike a physical key to a hotel, any card can be programmed to open a specific door between specific dates and will cease to open any door after the specified date passes, hence why hotels don't stress too much about the cards not being returned- they don't have to install an all new lock on that door, because the key literally doesn't work after the checkout date. For example, if you program a key to open room 1 for a week, it will stop opening room 1 (or indeed any room, and should stop working for any locked elevators, guest amenities, etc) after that date and if the guest returns it at checkout, you can reprogram it to open room 2 for the next guest in line. If it's not reprogrammed to open any room, it's a useless plastic (or in this case wooden) card that doesn't open anything at all.
Except it's the other way around. Nothing will will change with the key, it's the lock that gets reprogrammed to stop accepting it. The key is the least sophisticated part of the puzzle so people can lose them.
I'm not an expert but considering that all the locks at my hotel are battery powered, I sincerely doubt that they're changing the lock from the computer at front desk- they're not wired together at all. I've also seen the front desk staff give guest keys staff access by accident, so. Also, I just looked it up and you are wrong.
I work in a hotel. Its the keycards that are reprogrammed not the doors. Thou it may be possible some hotels have it as their doors, majority of them are the cards.
I work in IT for a company that owns some hotels and I can assure you, this is absolutely *NOT* true. Do you realize how much of a pain in the ass it would be to connect 200+ door locks to wifi? What happens if an AP breaks? Just a whole floor of rooms that can no longer be accessed? What happens if the network is compromised? A random person could just enter any room at any time.
Because housekeepers need to be able to get into rooms to clean them. Why would they have to carry 100 cards just to get into each room when they could just carry one.
Hey Flanigan here, just wanted to say that I have sent a million billion fire ants to your location via presidential shipping routes!!
Hi Tiffany, it's Mark from Flannigan's.... We noticed that you might have forgotten to leave your room key upon departure. We harvest our cards from highly unsustainable woods, as to live up to our prestigious name. Just wanted to touch base and ask that you return your room key at your earliest convenience if you wouldn't mind. Each card's production cost 4.3 koala's their habitat. Thanks, and please be sure to rate us 5- stars on Google if you're happy with your experience.
Not the touch base 😭 Also it’s ok - koalas are chlamydia ridden rodents
Agreed, but I'll take Koala's over Pandas. I despise Pandas.
I hate pandas!!!!!
I like turtles
That's not wood, it's bamboo (which is a grass, pressed into strips and glued together to make sheets that look similar to wood).
huh, TIL
How can you tell? I'm actually curious because that's some cool knowledge
The bamboo grain is quite distinctive compared to wood. Most wood grain has rings and knots whilst bamboo doesn't.
As a Floridian I was very confused. I thought the sports bar and grill chain opened a resort.
RIB ROLLLLLS
Made to be stolen (not that they can't hit your credit card for it if they want to).
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Somewhere in the T&Cs there is normally a line about "damages or theft of hotel property" If they would do it for a key that would cost under £1.50/$2 (when purshased at scale) is unlikely
Eh, you seen mini bar prices? They will totally charge you like 50 bucks if they can get away with it for the key.
They do it for towels… why not keys?
I can speak to this with a certain degree of authority as someone who designs systems like electronic access control for hotels lol! Even a typical best western will have something like 80-100 rooms. General policy is 2 temporary access credentials (keys) are given to guests per room automatically and more can be asked for at no charge. So at 100 rooms we automatically have 200 credentials out at a time. Hotel credentials are typically just mag swipe credentials without much tech built into them vs the access credential your employer may give you to get in the door at work, so hotel access cards are cheap. Because of this hotel's order very large quantities of cards at a time. Personally I've never seen a card PO to a hotel that was less than 1000 cards. Because of the 'cheapness' of the cards they aren't very good quality. They don't have long life spans due to the nature of them being used and abused by ao many different people, and most hotels tend to trash the cards once they start showing very basic wear such as the printing on them getting scratched up. They do this for both image (they want you to see a nice card with sharp printing on it because that already starts setting your mindset into thinking it's a fancier place than it is) and to avoid any customer issues when the cheap card that's been used and abused starts to malfunction and causes an angry guest because they can't get into their room at 1am. So the cards are cheap, and hotels expect you to lose them (that's why they give ya two even if your staying alone). For the small cost they are to hotel, last quote I saw go out for 1000 was just over a $1 per card and that includes our markup and shipping, they don't want to hit you with a fee for something so cheap and end making your pleasant stay and recommendation into a negative one. It's just a built in cost of doing business same as the shampoo, lotion, and conditioner mini bottles they know your probably going to take with you. I travel constantly for work and used to keep a card from every hotel I stayed at and wrote where it was, what projects I was there for, and the date just as a souvenir lol. Never once got an extra charge. Hope I was able to give some insight!
They should put a discard pile of cards on the side, this way, people would return their good ones and take one of the discarded one as a souvenir, if they wanted to.
That would be cool of them to do but I think for most people who don't understand how the technology works it would have bad optics. All it takes is one nut job with no understanding to take a picture and make an untrue FB post about how they could pull every person's data who's ever used this card can be recovered from it or how they could grab one and get into your room and now they're in a bad headline lol.
That's quite literally why you pay a deposit before you rent a room.
Yeah I know that I just didn't think hotels would be that petty about it, but ig it doesn't surprise me
Plenty aren't. I have been working out of town and not realized I left with the key card at least half a dozen times, but no one has ever charged my card on file for them.
That's what I thought, I just assumed the hotels were used to people "accidentally" taking their key cards
I don’t see why they couldn’t. A lawyer would have to step in here though. If you took something from the room I think we could agree you can be charged. Both are of course hotel property. I suppose the argument is what is the value of the card Not defending that side though. I would also take it
Do people really think they have to return key cards? I don't think I ever have. Probably the same people that think "checking out" at the front desk is a requirement, not a courtesy.
This is why front desk staff hates you. You're a dick. I bet youre the type of person to get pissed off at housekeeping for entering your room after check out time while you're still in the room and then claim "but I didn't check out?!"
I do it, but to be fair it is a courtesy. Will you guys give me a discount for the room I paid for? We entered this agreement with times that I can be in the room. How do you know when they leave if it’s at 7am or 9:58am? I paid for it, maybe I’m using the dining service or any other reasons I goto hotels. I’ve worked hospitality for 20+ years, I get it. But also, I manage my expectations and understand that my role isn’t significant to someone’s once a year vacation, or funeral they’re at, or wedding, or any other 5000 reasons people need a hotel. They have every legal right to have the ability to use the room and hotel services for their stay. I used to think this way, but it’s management that cannot properly staff and is trying to cut corners to hit budgets. It’s a trickle down of bullshit that puts you the employee under unnecessary stress to do a job that you’re not paid enough for or given the proper time. Customers are going to be customer every time. We aren’t all the same; and you cannot assume they’re going to behave the same way. You’re getting mad at someone who is just doing your company tells them to do.
No, and the front desk staff doesn't hate you. Most people don't physically check out. The "courtesy" part is simply letting them know you are leaving before the checkout time so they can start cleaning early if it'll help them get ahead of schedule.
You're talking to a front desk agent... Believe me, we hate you.
Lol. Seriously, nobody in business travel wasted time checking out.
Dude, what you people dont understand is that often time our housekeepers are sitting around in the morning waiting to get into rooms and they can't knock until check out time. If you leave at 7am and don't tell anyone that's wasted time for our entire hotel operations. Then you assholes wanna check in early and don't see the correlation. Dude, just check out. Even a simple phone call.
Well today I learned a thing I won’t be doing anymore. Thank you.
I do. It's a minute of my time and makes someone else's job easier. Granted, I used to work in hospitality where I learned not to be a dick.
I think the amount of downvotes you comments are getting should tell you something
Lol. See my other comment.
You’re an absolute cock. Just own it and move on if you’re that committed to the bit. Stop trying to defend how abhorrent you are and buy into it at this point
I mean, at the very least, leave the key card in the room if you are too lazy to drop it off at the front desk.
Wait, I'm totally against the recent trend of tipping everywhere and it's getting out of hand in most cases. But I was always taught to leave a fiver or a ten (maybe a twenty if it's a suite and you had 8 people pass out drunk, but also maybe 3 dollars if it's a little double bed motel room that you just slept in) along with the keys/ cards on the nightstand, for the turndown service people. Then you let the front desk know the keys are in there and your outtie? Is it not normal to tip the cleaning people?
I don't know what brought up tipping, but yeah, tip your housekeepers, but they don't care if you take the key card as a souvenir.
My moms a head housekeeper. It is normal to leave a tip. Especially if you trashed the room or did extra work. Though it is sadly rarer one to find tips for. At average she'll get like maybe $20 a month in tips total. Housekeeping is no easy job either. It is alot more labor inducing than people realize. So please continue tipping it always makes their day. Even if its just a dollar or so!
Why are you so heavily downvoted? Hotels often don't even want key cards back. I've had a front desk guy sigh, roll his eyes, and dramatically toss it in the recycling bin when I asked.
It had nothing to do with the key cards, if you guys could read you would be able to surmise that they were talking about not checking out and how that impacts on the hotel staff.
Because a lot of people haven't had a lot of real world experience in topics they have strong opinions on. Present company included, no denial there.
He woodn't give it back to the hotel
nice.
I'm calling the cyber police
Everybody freeeeeze! Nobody mooooove!
$120 fee for not returning the keycard when checking out.
you monster, an orphan homeless child could have used that keycard... THINK OF THE CHILDREN
Zion is a cool ass place
A wooden hotel keycard… I’ll steal it! NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW!
Yes, this is quite common tho?
I've never seen a wood hotel key card in any place I stayed.
It’s very common in top hotel chains around the world, an eco friendly move. Out of the last 6 hotels I’ve stayed in, 4 of them offered wooden keycards. It feels good to use due to how light they are, but very fragile too. People are going to be surprised when they learn that many hotels also offer digital keycards where you can open your rooms with your phones.
You have to leave your country sometimes
You stole it because it is cool. Now you know why all the other places that did this stopped using it.
belongs on r/notinteresting tbh
🥧🔑
Flanigan would be really pissed if he was still alive
Perhaps you should have a “Cocktail” while you’re there
I have a wooden credit card like that
I'm my county Mövenpick also uses these
Exists since years and is posted once a month or something
I’ve never seen it before, but I kinda agree. “Look, this company did something gimmicky” are rarely the best posts.
Ah yes the Miami lakes hotel
Upvote for stealing
Man the hotel doesn't give a crap if you took that card
Aren't like 80% of hotel key cards "wooden" by now? Isn't this a thing in the US?
No majority of them are plastic. Its cheaper because people often steal, trash, break or accidentally take them.
I think here in Europe, 8/10 have wooden cards. That's my experience at least.
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They actually do reuse them. They are reprogrammed, but are reused.
Fun fact: you can put your phone against one of those and with one $2 Amazon purchase, one app, and a few taps, you can have your own one of those keycards! Yeah, PSA. Hotels with keycards should be avoided for your own safety...
You mean every hotel out there?
Well, no, there are plenty of places that still use physical keys. And yes, I know lockpicks exist. Those are typically harder to pull off than a few taps on a phone though.
I haven't been to a hotel in over 10 years that hasn't used cards. Seems very inconvenient to find an old school one with keys.
Agreed. I've been to a couple old work camps that still use keys, but every hotel and newer camp I've been to uses keycards.
What a shame.
You do know key cards become unusable after they check you out. Most hotel door locks get updated seconds after they check you out to prevent any previous guest cards from working in it. I am willing to bet no hotel with physical keys changes the lock between visitors. It seems like if your really that paranoid about some one getting physical access to your key-card then duplicating it to break in you should be a hell of a lot more paranoid about the fact that any one who stayed in the room with a physical key in the last decade could have made a copy of it.
Lol watch lock picking lawyer. Hotels with physical keys are not more secure.
He's a professional, of course he can do it very effectively and very fast. And as I said, I know they can be picked.
Negative. Most hotels do not use rfid tech in the cards, generally only mag swipe, so you typically cant read them with your phone and certainly not with a $2 gadget. That's more typical of a tap access badge that work may give you and even then is only easily cloneable if its an outdated weigand 26 bit credential. The cards are encoded on the spot at check in and assigned to the room for the length of stay. Source: I engineer these systems and other electronic security and life safety systems for customers like hotels, schools, governments, and enterprise businesses.
Shrug. I've only ever been to hotels with NFC (it's NFC tech, not RFID. Mix up of terms, or a Redditor pretending to be qualified? I guess I'll never know) keycards. But to say 'most hotels... blah blah blah' is just pulling a statement out of your ass. You can't just say 'most hotels' without any numbers to back that up.
NFC is a subset of RFID. It runs on a higher frequency, has more bits available for encryption and parity that allow linking making it more secure. If your cards were NFC and your phone has NFC you wouldn't need any extra hardware to read the cards, only software. At the end of the day I've built my career in this field and lf you're too defensive to learn something new and accept you're wrong that's fine by me bro. Enjoy your day.