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In the hospitality industry, hotel key cards are a symbol of convenience and technological innovation. Their primary function is to unlock the room door, replacing traditional physical keys.
Furthermore, these cards perform a variety of tasks, simplifying the guests’ stay and optimising the management of the accommodation facility.
Hotel key cards can be programmed with these functionalities:
Hotel smart cards provide access to restricted zones such as guest floors, wellness areas, and car parks, ensuring a more secure and convenient experience for guests while enabling more efficient management of the facility.
Integrated with the hotel’s energy management system, smart cards are inserted into the energy saver – the slot located inside the room near the entrance – to enable the lights to turn on. When the card is not inserted into the slot, the lights switch off, optimising energy consumption.
Key cards can act as prepaid electronic wallets, allowing guests to make purchases at bars, restaurants, boutiques, and vending machines within the hotel, without the need to carry coins or cash.
A simple tap of the card can activate paid extra services, such as sunbeds, Wi-Fi connection, or spa services, further personalising the guest’s stay.
Key cards can be integrated with hotel management systems, providing valuable data to improve operational efficiency and personalise the guest experience.
Key cards for hotel rooms work with different technologies:
Magnetic stripe cards: available in LoCo or HiCo frequencies, these cards need to be swiped through a reader.
Contactless cards are the best option for RFID access control for hotels, offering a smoother and more intuitive user experience. Furthermore, thanks to contactless RFID technology and advanced encoding, they ensure a high level of security against counterfeiting.
At Partitalia, we offer a wide range of materials for our hotel smart cards: they are available in standard PVC and PETG. Additionally, eco-friendly hotel key cards are made from degradable PVC and recycled PVC, which retain the same technical characteristics as standard materials but are more sustainable.
RFID cards are also made from wood, a biodegradable and recyclable material. These eco-friendly hotel key cards are both attractive and elegant, thanks to the natural grain of the wood, adding a unique touch to the hotel’s image.
Hotel key cards offer various customisation options, with barcode printing, brand logos, or details of the services offered into the card’s design.
At our facility we provide printing and customisation of key cards for hotel using different techniques: 4-colour offset printing, silkscreen printing with gold and silver colours, digital printing, UV spot varnish, and hot stamping for PVC and PETG; offset, silkscreen printing, and laser printing for wood.
Customisation is carried out using thermographic printing, laser printing, inkjet printing, and embossing for plastic materials, and laser and inkjet printing for wood.
In this section we have collected the most common questions concerning hotel key cards and their use in the hospitality sector.
A hotel key card is a magnetic stripe, contact chip, or RFID card used as an electronic key to access rooms and other restricted areas of the hotel. Magnetic and chip contact cards operate by insertion into a reader placed on the door lock, while RFID cards are simply inserted by approaching the reader. This technology replaces traditional physical keys, simplifying access management for both guests and hotel staff, while also enhancing operational efficiency and the overall guest experience.
RFID key cards can be programmed with different functionalities: access control to rooms and restricted areas, such as the spa and parking; energy saving, to enable automatic switching on and off of lights in the rooms; electronic purse, to make purchases at bars, restaurants and vending machines within the hotel.
Compared to traditional keys, hotel key cards are more secure, as they protect against unauthorised access, protecting the safety of guests. In addition, they simplify access to different areas of the hotel, and improve staff management of rooms and common areas.
Yes, RFID hotel keys increase security, as they are difficult to duplicate thanks to advanced encryption, which protects the data stored inside the card and prevents unauthorised access.
Sì, le key card per hotel possono essere personalizzate con diverse tecniche di stampa a seconda del materiale utilizzato (PVC, PETG o legno). È possibile stampare il logo dell’hotel, colori specifici e design unici sulla superficie della card, migliorando il branding e l’esperienza del cliente. La personalizzazione può anche includere dati di contatto dell’hotel, messaggi di benvenuto o promozioni speciali.
RFID hotel cards can also be used as an electronic wallet: they hold prepaid credit that can be spent on various hotel services, such as vending machines, bars, restaurants, wellness centres, and sunbeds.
