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Many hotel chains are racing to replace plastic room keys with digital options like the Apple Wallet and Google Wallet apps. Plastic hotel key cards have struggled in recent years. The touchless trend accelerated during the pandemic, when touch was taboo. And cybersecurity concerns have grown around hotel key technology. Earlier this year, researchers Plastic hotel keys are vulnerable This leaves up to three million keys easy prey for hackers, and could take years to fix.
Cybersecurity and safety concerns have many hotel chains accelerating plans to upgrade guest room door locks. Major U.S. chains have offered digital key features for years, but Google Wallet and Apple Wallet have now entered the market, offering hotels the ability to store guests’ room keys in their wallets, allowing guests to enter their rooms by simply tapping the back of their phone on a reader near the door handle.
Hilton Hotels has an Honors app that allows guests to check in and use their room keys on their smartphones, and at the 119-room Harpeth Hotel in Franklin, Tennessee, a Hilton hotel, guests can check in digitally and store their keys in either the Google or Apple Wallet app.
“The beauty of digital check-in is that your phone is your key,” said Kimberly Elder, sales manager at Harpeth Hotels, adding that many guests still prefer plastic key cards.
The next wave of hotel room-door technology is digital, said Eli Fuchs, regional operations director for Valor Hospitality Partners, which owns hotels including Hilton and Holiday Inn Express.
“The traditional hotel room key is reaching the end of its existence,” Fuchs said.
But some security experts warn that even the new locking methods aren’t foolproof.
“Keyless systems can create an entirely new threat vector for hotel security management,” said Lee Clark, cyber threat intelligence production manager at the Retail and Hospitality Information Sharing and Analysis Center (RH-ISAC).
Clark said these threats can be mitigated through security control policies and configurations such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), but these require extra steps that busy guests may not always want to take.
Clark said it’s unlikely that all hotels will immediately replace all key cards with digital keys because some guests prefer key cards, don’t have personal devices that work with digital lock systems and the cost can be high.
“The move to digital and keyless locking systems involves significant costs in equipment, installation, maintenance and security,” Clark said.
Hotel chains make digital key systems mandatory
And human habits continue to get in the way.
For example, JD Power hotel survey data found that only 14% of guests at branded hotels used a digital key during their stay. Even guests who had the brand’s app downloaded to their phone used a plastic key card.
According to JD Power data, of guests who have a hotel company/branded app, 30% use digital keys and 70% In most cases, it is a plastic card.
However, many hotels do not offer digitally-enterable locks.
“Several of the major hotel chains whose apps are more likely to support digital keys have begun requiring hotel franchise owners to install the new door locks as part of their updated brand standards,” said Andrea Stokes, head of J.D. Power’s hospitality practice.
Although customers have been slow to adopt digital options, data from JD Power suggests that customers who use keyless cards feel safer than those who use plastic cards.
“Guests who use a ‘digital key’ give the hotel a significantly more positive rating of safety than guests who do not use a digital key,” Stokes said.
Chad Spensky, CEO of AllCenticate, a company that develops smartphone access and credential management, compares plastic key cards to passwords, which cybersecurity experts consider low-tech and outdated.
“We still use passwords despite glaring security holes and poor user experience, and key cards are likely here to stay as well,” Spensky said.
The real appeal of digital cards is convenience, not security, he says.
“Card adoption is not more secure than plastic cards, but the user experience is much better,” Spensky said. Given the choice between carrying multiple plastic cards or having a smartphone, “the smartphone is the clear winner.”
Consumer convenience is driving hotel chains’ adoption of digital keys, which while increasing the attack surface, also allow for quick course corrections.
Spensky said one of the biggest problems with KeyCard is that there’s no easy way to fix vulnerabilities when they are discovered. “With a smartphone, patches can be distributed over the air, almost instantly,” he said.
Don’t give up on plastic key cards just yet
Mehmet Erdem, The professor and dean of the School of Resort, Gaming and Golf Management at the William F. Harrah College of Hospitality at the University of Las Vegas cautioned that no system is perfect and that digital entries should not give a false sense of security.
“Everything can be hacked, everything can be broken into,” Erdem said. “If someone has the intent to hack, it will happen.”
Erdem says people shouldn’t give up on plastic key cards just yet. Magnetic key cards require swiping, but new radio-frequency identification (RFID) cards require just proximity or can be loaded onto a cell phone. RFID technology is improving, and plastic keys are becoming more versatile, he says.
“RFID is not obsolete,” Erdem said, adding that with RFID, someone wanting fewer interactions can simply download an app, get their key, activate it and go to their room.
“From a sustainability and cost perspective, hotels will push for mobile apps,” Erdem said, but added that there will always be people who prefer the physical plastic key. The advantage of a digital version of a plastic key, he said, is due to human nature: “People forget their wallets, they forget their ID, but they don’t forget their phones.”
But in Las Vegas, where people regularly head to their hotel rooms with stacks of winnings from blackjack and slots, there’s an old-fashioned, low-tech option that makes the door debate moot.
“There is always a safe in the room, so if you have valuables, please use it,” Erdem said.
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