Data stored on hotel key cards

The recent troll about hotel key card information got me thinking of what is
actually stored on them.

Most hotels I've been to they ask you to give the card back, but don't
bother if you don't.. I still have a key card from when I visted Chicago!

Is it just a room/lock code which is put onto the card or is there anything
more? By that I mean that does the system somehow knows that I'm only
staying in the room from Monday - Friday and if I came back on Saturday and
tried to open the door the card would not work?

Mark Hewitt wrote:

Most hotels I've been to they ask you to give the card back, but don't
bother if you don't.. I still have a key card from when I visted Chicago!

I was two days ago at Meridien Etoile in Paris with a 200-persons group.
The hotel wouldn't give back the advance deposit to the organization
unless everybody - including those who didn't use the phone or the
minibar or any service - did check out at the reception leaving the key
card.

--
Luca Logi - Firenze - Italy e-mail:

Hi,
a key card has nothing to do with using mini-bar or phone, but it is an
expense that hotels like to avoid ....especially when we know that groups
already pay a room rate lower than a walk in customer.
Then groups stay very often one night only....consider a group a day all
year around and all of them keeping the key card..it is on top of other
troubles ( ashtray, coffee spoon, towels, bed sheets..etc, yeap I have seen
all) an expense that can be controlled easily.
Phil Jumbo

"Luca Logi" wrote in message
...
Mark Hewitt wrote:

Most hotels I've been to they ask you to give the card back, but don't
bother if you don't.. I still have a key card from when I visted
Chicago!

I was two days ago at Meridien Etoile in Paris with a 200-persons group.
The hotel wouldn't give back the advance deposit to the organization
unless everybody - including those who didn't use the phone or the
minibar or any service - did check out at the reception leaving the key
card.

--
Luca Logi - Firenze - Italy e-mail:

"Mark Hewitt" wrote:

Is it just a room/lock code which is put onto the card or is there anything
more? By that I mean that does the system somehow knows that I'm only
staying in the room from Monday - Friday and if I came back on Saturday and
tried to open the door the card would not work?

It is a look code and a date/time code.

Greetings from Cologne

Andreas

Mark Hewitt wrote:
Is it just a room/lock code which is put onto the card or is there
anything more? By that I mean that does the system somehow knows that I'm
only staying in the room from Monday - Friday and if I came back on
Saturday and tried to open the door the card would not work?

The systems vary, but sometimes there is an expiration on the card, so if
you change your mind and stay another couple extra days you'd have to have
your card re-encoded. Also, the cleaning staff may have a special card that
they put in after they do the post-checkout cleanup which cancels the last
guest card's access to the room.

For cost reasons the locks themselves are rarely in direct communication
with a central computer. Instead, they simply contain instructions and
identification codes that guide their behavior, and periodically someone
comes and connects a device to them to reprogram them or download logs of
past activity.

miguel
--
Gator is spyware!

"Mark Hewitt" wrote in message ...

Is it just a room/lock code which is put onto the card or is there anything
more? By that I mean that does the system somehow knows that I'm only
staying in the room from Monday - Friday and if I came back on Saturday and
tried to open the door the card would not work?

Yes, it's programmed to work only for the duration of your visit.

Incidentally, a few years ago I was on a business trip with some other
people. We each had laptop computers issued by our employer. One of
the fellows CLAIMED that his laptop was stolen from his hotel room.
The hotel had a record of each time his room door was opened, and
whether it was opened by cleaning personnel or by his keycard.

Mark Hewitt wrote:

The recent troll about hotel key card information got me thinking of what is
actually stored on them.

Most hotels I've been to they ask you to give the card back, but don't
bother if you don't.. I still have a key card from when I visted Chicago!

Is it just a room/lock code which is put onto the card or is there anything
more? By that I mean that does the system somehow knows that I'm only
staying in the room from Monday - Friday and if I came back on Saturday and
tried to open the door the card would not work?

I think that's true - I forget where it was, but the day I was planning
to check out (check-out time was about three P.M.), when I went back to
my room after breakfast to finish packing, my keycard wouldn't work, so
I had to go back down to the desk to get someone to let me in.