TECHNOLOGY : SECURITY
“ THE NO-TOUCH
DESIGN HAS MINIMIZED THE TIME SPENT FOR SUPPORT AND MAINTENANCE
AND HOUSEKEEPING
FINDS THEM
MUCH EASIER TO CLEAN .”
— MARK GAGE , SOUTHWEST CLUSTER IT MANAGER , HILTON
WORLDWIDE own-operate model are already prioritizing RFID lock upgrades . The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels Ltd ., Hong Kong , announced in 2011 that it partnered with Kaba to install RFID locks in all of its Peninsula hotels , of which it owns a majority stake in all but two . So far , five properties have completed the overhaul from magstripe to RFID locks , including hotels in New York City , Tokyo , Chicago , Hong Kong and Beverly Hills , California . The locks are installed by taking a few guestrooms out of inventory over a few days .
“ We believe in RFID ,” says Shane Izaks , general manager of information technology at The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels Ltd . “ We have about 1,000 guestrooms of our total of 3,000 guestrooms already done and will continue this across the group over the next two years .”
More asset-light hotel management companies are seeing an uptick in RFID lock installations , too . Hilton Worldwide has had VingCard Elsafe Visionline RFID locks installed in several properties it manages in the U . S . Southwest .
“ Appearance is everything , and guests are commenting on the user-friendly look and design ,” says Mark Gage , Southwest cluster IT manager for Hilton Worldwide . “ The no-touch design has minimized the time spent for support and maintenance , and housekeeping finds them much easier to clean .”
At the 223-room The Boulders , A Waldorf Astoria Resort , Carefree , Arizona , Gage says the switch to RFID locks has improved guest satisfaction with the luxury experience . Since some villas and casitas are not within walking distance of the main lodge , guests are taken by golf carts to their guestrooms . When the resort had magstripe locks , guests ’ roomcards would become demagnetized when guests stored them near their cell phones , resulting in a long trip back to the front desk .
“ The Boulders guest satisfaction scores have risen to number one in the Hilton luxury brand ,” Gage says . “ I attribute this ranking to the enhanced guest experience by removing a service failure point . Guests deserve a hasslefree experience while traveling , and any failure is a 100 % failure .”
The failure of the magnetization was an impetus for Peninsula ’ s new brand standard , too . “ The actual RFID is more reliable than a magstripe ,” Izaks says . “ The magstripe coming against the mobile phones is something we ’ d been coming up against in the past .”
NFC ’ s prospects Another looming guestroom door lock technology is near-field communication ( NFC ), which would allow NFC-enabled mobile phones to open guestroom doors .
However , barriers will have to be crossed before it would make sense to depend on NFC for a property ’ s guestroom lock system . Most mobile phones currently in use are not NFC-enabled , and Apple recently passed on adding NFC technology to the iPhone 5 . In addition , phone manufacturers as well as carriers would have to agree to one standard for NFC technology .
“ Carriers have no interest in sharing their SIM card technology with each other , and regulators would not like this , as it would be against competition law ,” says Pascal Metivier , founder and CEO of OpenWays .
It also remains to be seen whether typical hotel guests would consider this more convenient than using a room card to open an RFID lock . While it could add convenience if the hospitality industry focused on making NFC technology interoperable with mobile wallet applications and granting access to spas , parking and staff areas , guests may find physically using an RFID guestroom card easier .
“ Guests prefer RFID cards because they don ’ t have to put their bags down and fiddle with the precise insertion of a card into a slot with a frequently-unreliable reader ,” says Jon Inge , a hotel technology consultant based in Edmonds , Washington . “ Using NFC phones seems a little more cumbersome given the need to access the code on the phone , which takes either two hands or a very dexterous thumb .”
Hoteliers should also be warned that probably no electronic lock is 100 % hacker-proof . “ I wonder if RFID or NFC locks are fundamentally more hackerproof than a magstripe lock without an open access port , as hotels still need a way to override them and get access to the guestroom , as well as a way to read the memory contents ,” Inge says .
52 HOTELS January / February 2013 www . hotelsmag . com