Many hotel chains are scrambling to replace the plastic room key with digital options, including Apple Wallet and Google Wallet apps. Plastic hotel key cards have been around for several years. During the pandemic, touching was taboo, so no-touch trends accelerated. And cybersecurity concerns have grown around hotel key technology. Earlier this year, researchers discovered a vulnerability in plastic hotel keys which could make up to three million keys easy prey for hackers and take years to fix.
Cybersecurity and safety concerns have prompted many hotel chains to accelerate plans to convert hotel room door locks. While major U.S. chains have had digital keys enabled for years, Google Wallet and Apple Wallet offer hotels the ability to store guests’ room keys in their wallets, allowing them to access their rooms with a simple tap of back of their phones. against a reader near the door handle.
Hilton Hotels has the Honors app, which allows guests to check-in and use a room key via their smartphone. The 119-room Harpeth Hotel in Franklin, Tennessee, is a Hilton property, and guests can check in digitally and store keys in the Google or Apple Wallet app.
“The advantage of digital check-in is that your phone is the key,” said Kimberly Elder, director of sales for the Harpeth Hotel, adding that many guests still prefer plastic key cards.
Eli Fuchs, regional director of operations for Valor Hospitality Partners, which has Hilton and Holiday Inn Express hotels in its portfolio, says digital technology is the next wave in hotel room door technology.
“Traditional hotel room keys are facing the end of their existence,” says Fuchs.
However, some security experts warn that even the newest locking methods are not foolproof.
“Keyless systems can introduce entirely new threat actors to managing hotel security operations,” said Lee Clark, director of cyber threat intelligence production at the Retail and Hospitality Intelligence Sharing and Analysis Center (RH-ISAC).
While Clark says these threats can be mitigated through security control policies and configurations, such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), they introduce extra steps that annoyed visitors may not always want to go through.
Clark says it’s unlikely that all hotels will replace all key cards with digital keys anytime soon, because some guests may prefer a key card or may not have a personal device compatible with digital lock systems, along with the cost.
“The transition to digital and keyless locking systems involves significant costs in equipment, installation, maintenance and security,” Clark said.
Hotel chains are beginning to require digital key systems
And human habits continue to get in the way as well.
For example, data from JD Power’s hotel survey found that only 14% of total branded hotel guests used digital keys during their hotel stay. Even visitors who downloaded the brand’s app to their phones used the plastic key card.
According to JD Power data, among guests who have the hotel company/brand app, 30% use a digital key and 70% use a plastic card most of the time.
On the other hand, many hotels simply haven’t installed locks capable of digital entry.
“Many large hotel chains, whose applications are more likely to support digital keys, are beginning to require the hotel franchise owner to install new door locks as part of the brand’s updated standards,” said Andrea Stokes, head of hospitality practice at JD Power.
Despite slow customer adoption of digital options, JD Power data shows that keyless customers feel more secure than those using plastic cards.
“Guests who use ‘digital key’ provide significantly more positive ratings of hotel security compared to those who did not use digital keys,” said Stokes.
Chad Spensky, CEO of Allthenticate, which develops smartphone access and credential management, compares the plastic key card to passwords, which cybersecurity experts consider low-tech and dated.
“We all still use passwords, despite glaring security holes and a boring user experience. In the same way, key cards are likely to remain,” Spensky said.
He says the real promise of digital cards is less about security and more about convenience.
“While card applications are no more secure than their plastic counterparts, their user experience is far superior,” Spensky said. If you’re given the choice between shuffling a pile of plastic cards or having your smartphone, “the phone is a clear winner.”
The consumer convenience factor is pushing hotel chains forward in their quest for digital keys. While the digital keys offer an additional attack surface, they also allow for quick course correction.
One of the biggest problems with keycards, Spensky says, is that when a vulnerability is discovered, there’s no easy way to patch the vulnerability, “With smartphones, patches can be pushed over the air almost instantly,” he said.
Don’t count out the plastic key card just yet
Mehmet Erdem, professor and chairman of the department of resort, gaming and golf management at the University of Las Vegas, William F. Harrah College of Hospitality, cautions that no system is foolproof and that people should not let digital input give them a false impression safety.
“Everything can be hacked, everything can be breached,” Erdem said. “If someone has the intention to hack, it will happen.”
Erdem says not to count the plastic key yet. There are magnetic key cards that require scanning, and the newer radio frequency identification (RFID) cards that simply require proximity or can be inserted into a phone. Erdem says RFID technology is improving, which makes plastic keys more versatile.
“RFID is not obsolete,” Erdem said, adding that it allows people who want less interaction to download the app, grab the key, turn it on, and go into the room.
“Because of viability and cost, hotels will push for mobile apps,” Erdem said, but added that some people will always prefer the physical plastic key. The advantage of the digital version of a plastic key, he said, comes down to human nature. “People forget their wallet, people forget their ID, but they don’t forget their phone.”
But in Las Vegas, where people usually head to their hotel rooms full of winnings from the blackjack tables and slots, there’s an old-fashioned, low-tech option that makes the conversation at the door the talk of the town.
“There is always a safe in the room, guests should use it if they have something very valuable,” said Erdem.
