The writer, some time ago, stayed at a hotel in Florida, Miami. This was necessary so as to facilitate attendance to a wedding. At the end of the stay, one of the members of the wedding party said, “Do not give back the room key”. After some discussion, his rationale for keeping the room key was revealed. Key card systems have been in use in hotels for more than 15 years. In the United States of America (USA), key card systems are in use for
almost every hotel room. Caribbean hotels are increasingly converting from traditional room keys to key card systems. Hotel key cards are widely used because of their numerous benefits. Among the advantages that a hotel enjoys when using key cards is that it becomes simpler and cheaper for them when they have to deal with lost keys. Converting to hotel key cards also provides assistance in conducting investigations. Every hotel knows the headache of having a guest who claims that something was stolen from their room. Invariably, trying to investigate if the item was really stolen and how it was done presents a degree of difficulty in establishing who may have gone into the room and when did they go there. The use of key cards certainly provides significant assistance in these situations. The information stored on the cards allows the hotel to easily identify which key card was used to unlock the door and thus, who went into the room, and at what time they entered the room. This allows the hotel, at the very least, to eliminate potential suspects.
The use of hotel key cards can also help hotels contain their energy costs and in the Caribbean, energy cost is a significant factor in the overall
running of a hotel. It is not uncommon for a hotel guest to be out of their room for the entire day and yet, leave the air-conditioning unit and
lights on for the entire day. Some hotels, in an attempt to control these costs, have instituted a policy with their room cleaning staff that when
they have completed cleaning a guest’s room, if the room is unoccupied, to turn off the airconditioning unit and lights.
Using key cards and linking these to the air conditioning and lighting controls in each room simplifies the task of controlling the energy costs. In order to operate the lights and air conditioning, the guest must insert their room card into a small reader in the room. When the guest is leaving the room, because they must have their room card to reenter the room upon their return, the guest would remove the key card from the unit and this automatically powers off the air-conditioning and lights. These various advantages help hotels contain costs which, in turn, help reduce hotel room
rates.
Despite their widespread use, a misconception persists about these room key cards, making some hotel guests reluctant to use them and causing some persons to not want to return the key cards at the end of their hotel stay.
There is the belief that when the hotel activates the key card for use by the guest, that personal information is placed on the room card. People believe that hotels do not erase the information placed on these cards until they re-issue the card to the next guest, at which time the personal information is overwritten with the personal information of the new guest. People further believe that until that personal information is removed, hotel staff can take the room card and scan the information to a laptop computer and then use that information to go shopping on the Internet at your expense. As a result, some hotel guests refuse to return the cards and, instead, seek to take them home and destroy them.
This common misconception had its genesis in 2003 when the Pasadena Police Department issued a warning about these key cards. The warning was the result of a Sergeant being told by a detective about these cards having personal information. The Sergeant did not check the information, but issued a warning. It has been said that nothing ever dies or goes away on the internet. And although the Pasadena Police Department issued a retraction of the warning, the misconception has multiplied, spread and remained active for years on the Internet.
In reality, no personal information is placed on hotel room cards. The key card would only have the guest’s room number and departure date and in some instances, the name of the guest. Thus, there is no information on the room card that someone can use to go shopping on the Internet and so, no reason to retain these cards at the end of your hotel stay.