Hotel key card is also called hotel card. It is a plas­tic card with a mag­net­ic stripe or RFID chip that is used to gain access to a hotel room. Instead of a tra­di­tion­al met­al key, the key card is insert­ed into a card read­er or waved near a sen­sor to unlock the door. In addi­tion to room access, there are oth­er ways to use hotel cards, includ­ing access to hotel ameni­ties, on-site pay­ments, loy­al­ty pro­grams and more. The card makes hotel man­age­ment more trans­par­ent and effec­tive, the check-in and check-out process faster, and door access more con­ve­nient and secure.

Hotel key card types

There is a wide vari­ety of hotel cards, but the two most com­mon­ly used in hotels include

Mag­net­ic Stripe Cards: Mag­net­ic stripe cards are one of the most com­mon types of hotel key cards. They have a mag­net­ic stripe on the back that con­tains encod­ed infor­ma­tion. You need to insert the card into the mag­net­ic stripe read­er to gain access to the room.

RFID Cards: The RFID cards use Radio Fre­quen­cy Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion (RFID) tech­nol­o­gy. It con­tains an RFID chip that can be pro­grammed to allow access to the hotel room and the right to use the water & elec­tric­i­ty in the room.

How hotel key card work?

Mag­net­ic hotel cards use mag­net­ic stripe tech­nol­o­gy to store infor­ma­tion that is read by a card read­er. When a guest inserts a mag­net­ic hotel card into a card read­er on a hotel room door, the card read­er reads the infor­ma­tion stored on the mag­net­ic stripe and authen­ti­cates it against the hotel’s access con­trol sys­tem. If the infor­ma­tion match­es, the door lock opens, allow­ing the guest to enter the room. The tech­nol­o­gy pro­vides a secure and con­ve­nient way for guests to enter their hotel rooms.

RFID hotel cards use radio fre­quen­cy iden­ti­fi­ca­tion (RFID) tech­nol­o­gy to wire­less­ly trans­mit data to a card read­er. When a guest waves an RFID hotel card near a sen­sor on the hotel room door, the card read­er rec­og­nizes the card’s unique infor­ma­tion and authen­ti­cates it with the hotel’s access con­trol sys­tem. If the infor­ma­tion is ver­i­fied, the door lock opens, allow­ing the guest to enter the room. This tech­nol­o­gy pro­vides a con­ve­nient and effi­cient way for guests to enter their hotel room and is known for its reli­a­bil­i­ty and secu­ri­ty.

Mag­net­ic hotel cards vs RFID hotel cards

Mag­net­ic hotel cards and RFID hotel cards are both used for access con­trol in the hotel indus­try, but they use dif­fer­ent tech­nolo­gies. Here’s how they com­pare:

Fre­quent­ly used RFID chip for hotel key card:

The main types of RFID chip for key cards are High Fre­quen­cy (HF), which oper­ates at 13.56 MHz. Com­mon chips are

• NXP Mifare Clas­sic 1k/4k
• Fudan 1k
• NXP Mifare Ultra­light EV1
• NXP ICODE SLI
• NXP Mifare Ultra­light C
• NXP NTAG 213/215/216
• TK4100

Fre­quent­ly used mag­net­ic stripe for hotel key card:

• 300 Oe,
• 650 Oe,
• 2750 Oe
• 4000Oe

Hotel Card Types

The types of hotel cards are vari­able. Any mate­r­i­al or prod­uct that can be enabled with an RFID chip is suit­able. Com­mon types are plas­tic card, wood­en card, met­al card, epoxy tag, wrist­band or wood­en ring.

Pop­u­lar brands of door locks

Ving­card, Salto, Saflok, Kaba, Oni­ty, Adel, Betech, Hefele, MIWA, Ilco, Tesa, Sar­gent, Cisa, Timelox, Inho­va etc.

How to make your own hotel key card?

Step 1: Send us your design or art­work, bet­ter vec­tor art­work in AI, PDF or CDR file. Tell us your detailed require­ments such as quan­ti­ty, chip mod­el, print­ing require­ments.

Step 2: We’ll make a proof sheet accord­ing to your require­ments for your approval before pro­duc­tion.

Step 3: After proof sheet is con­firmed, you can arrange pay­ment. Pro­duc­tion can then be arranged imme­di­ate­ly.

Step 4: After pro­duc­tion is fin­ished, we’ll arrange ship­ping. You’ll soon receive your own hotel key cards.

Let’s make your own hotel card now!