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With any technology implementation, adoption takes time. There are many factors involved to ensure positive delivery of mobile key to guests, along with keeping up with constantly changing guest demands. “It isn’t simply about installing locks, but also the ability to seamlessly integrate with disparate hotel systems and third-party mobile applications, among other things, to ensure streamlined operations,” Aznar continued.
Fale believes that hotels have questions about ease of use, security and costs and that is reducing adoption speed. “Hotels need to look for technology that offers a superior guest experience,” he said. “The solution should make it quick and easy for guests to use their mobile key to unlock their guestroom along with assigned access-controlled areas on the property. We like to call it a seamless journey—from parking to elevators to their guestroom.”
Hotels also will need a mobile-access system that complements the security features that already exist in hotel locks, such as access permissions and audit trails. On top of the first level of encryption assigning access rights for a stay, the best systems will provide an additional security layer with a 128-bit AES encryption key that is unique to the door lock for which the credential was generated.
Hoteliers are by nature risk-adverse and very focused on return on investment, Shedd said. The hotel as an asset always has plenty of places that could use extra investment—rooms, lobby, bathrooms, bar, etc. “Mobile key is still cutting-edge technology in the hotel industry, so we’re on the early part of the adoption curve that we’ll see will begin to pick up significantly as more adoption occurs,” he said. “This time next year, you’ll see more demand for mobile key than we can service as hoteliers perceive the technology to be more mature and less risky.'
How to reduce chance of a ransomware attack
An Austrian luxury hotel says it is ditching electronic room cards for old-fashioned locks and keys after having its systems frozen by blackmail-hungry hackers. The Romantik Seehotel Jaegerwirt, in the Austrian Alps, said that one recent infection with ransom software resulted in the complete shutdown of hotel computers.
The husband and wife management team said they were forced to pay roughly 1,500 euros (nearly $1,600) worth of electronic currency to restore their network. “When the hackers got the money, they unlocked the computers, making them all run as normal again,” hotel co-manager Christina Brandstaetter said.
