Many hotel chains are racing to replace plastic room keys with digital options, including Apple Wallet and Google Wallet apps. Plastic hotel key cards have had a tough time in recent years. During the pandemic, touch is taboo, so the touchless trend accelerated. Cybersecurity concerns surrounding critical hotel technology are growing. Earlier this year, researchers discovered Hotel plastic keys have loopholes This could make up to 3 million keys a target for hackers and take years to fix.
Internet security concerns have prompted many hotel chains to accelerate plans to revamp hotel room door locks. While major U.S. chains have had digital key capabilities for years, Google Wallet and Apple Wallet are stepping in to offer hotels the ability to save guests' room keys to their wallet, allowing them to enter their room simply by tapping the back of their phone against the door on the card reader near the handle.
Hilton Hotels has its Honors app that allows guests to check in and use their room keys via their smartphone. Guests at the 119-room Harpeth Hotel in Franklin, Tennessee, a Hilton hotel, can check in digitally and store their keys in a Google or Apple Wallet app.
“The benefit of digital check-in is that your phone is your key,” said Kimberly Elder, director of sales at Harpeth Hotel, adding that many guests still prefer plastic key cards.
Eli Fuchs, regional director of operations at Valor Hospitality Partners, said digitalization is the next wave in hotel room door technology.
“The traditional hotel room key is dead,” Fox said.
However, some security experts warn that even newer locking methods are not foolproof.
“Keyless systems can bring new threat vectors to hotel security operations to manage,” said Lee Clark, cyber threat intelligence production manager at the Retail and Hospitality Information Sharing and Analysis Center (RH-ISAC).
While Clark said these threats can be mitigated through security control policies and configurations such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), these introduce extra steps that troubled guests may not always want to skip.
Clark said it's unlikely that all hotels will replace all key cards with digital keys anytime soon because some guests may prefer key cards or may not have personal devices compatible with digital lock systems, as well as the fees.
“Transitioning to digital and keyless lock systems will incur significant costs in terms of equipment, installation, maintenance and security,” Clark said.
Hotel chains begin to require digital key systems
Human habits also continue to get in the way.
For example, JD Power's hotel research data found that only 14% of branded hotel guests used digital keys during their hotel stay. Even guests who downloaded the brand's app on their phones used plastic key cards.
JD Power data shows that among guests with hotel company/brand apps, 30% use digital keys and 70% use digital keys. Most of the time it's plastic cards.
On the other hand, many hotels simply do not have locks installed that enable digital entry.
Andrea Stokes, head of hospitality at JD Power, said: “Several large hotel chains, whose apps are most likely to support digital keys, are starting to require hotel franchisees to install new door locks as part of updating their brand standards.”
While customers have been slow to adopt digital options, JD Power's data does show that keyless customers feel more secure than those using plastic cards.
“Guests who use digital keys rate hotel security significantly higher than guests who don't use digital keys,” Stokes said.
Chad Spensky, CEO of Allthenticate, which develops smartphone access and credential management, compared plastic keycards to passwords, which cybersecurity experts consider low-tech and outdated.
“Despite glaring security holes and clunky user experiences, we still use passwords. Likewise, keycards are likely here to stay,” Spinsky said.
The real promise of digital cards, he says, is not security but convenience.
“While the card implementations are no more secure than plastic cards, their user experience is far superior,” Spinsky said. If you have to choose between a bunch of plastic cards and a smartphone, “the phone is the clear winner.”
Consumer convenience factors are driving hotel chains to seek digital keys. While digital keys provide additional attack surface, they also allow for quick course corrections.
Spinsky said one of the biggest problems with keycards is that when a vulnerability is discovered, there's no easy way to patch it. “Patches for smartphones can be released almost immediately over the air,” he said.
Haven’t figured out the plastic key card yet
Mohamed Erdem, No system is foolproof and people shouldn't let digital inputs give them a false sense of security, warned the University of Las Vegas' William F. Harrah College of Hospitality Administration and chair of the resort, gaming and golf management department. Safety.
“Everything can be hacked, everything can be compromised,” Erdem said. “If someone has hacking intentions, that's what's going to happen.”
Don't count out plastic key cards just yet, Elderham said. Some magnetic keycards require a swipe, while newer radio frequency identification (RFID) cards only require proximity or can be loaded onto a phone. Erdem said RFID technology is improving, making plastic keys more versatile.
“RFID is not obsolete,” Erdem said, adding that it allows those who want less interaction to download an app, get a key, activate it and then enter the room.
“Hotels will push for mobile applications due to sustainability and cost considerations,” Erdem said, but added that some people will always prefer physical plastic keys. He said that the advantage of digital plastic keys is human nature. “People forget their wallets, they forget their IDs, but they don't forget their phones.”
But in Las Vegas, where people typically head to their hotel rooms with their winnings from the blackjack tables and slot machines, there's an old-fashioned, low-tech option that makes the doorstep discussion moot.
“There is always a safe in the room and guests should use it if they have something very valuable,” Erdem said.
