HOTEL ROOM KEY CARD INFORMATION - Southern California law
enforcement professionals assigned to detect new threats to personal security
issues, recently discovered what type of information is embedded in the
credit card-type hotel room keys used throughout the industry.
Although room keys differ from hotel to hotel, a key card obtained
from the "Double Tree" chain was found to contain the following information:
Customers (your) name, partial home address, hotel room number,
check in date and check out date, and customers (your) credit card number expiration date!
When you turn a key card in to the hotel's front desk your personal information is there for any employee to access by simply scanning the card in the hotel scanner. An employee can take a handful of key cards home and using a scanning device - access the information via a laptop computer and go shopping at your expense. Simply put, hotels do not erase key cards until an employee issues the card to the next hotel guest. Usually it's kept in a drawer at the front desk with your information still encoded.the bottom line is, keep the key cards or destroy them! NEVER leave them behind and NEVER turn them in to the front desk when you check out of a room. They will not charge you for the card.
FYI: This from the person who ran the homeland security office in
Alaska under a previous administration. His suggestion is to carry a
small strong magnet in your travel kit to "wipe" the card before you turn it in.
(Of course you probably won't want to have a magnet with you if you
use a laptop computer as it could harm your hard drive.)
Do hotel key cards have guests' personal information on them?
We surveyed several major hotels in California, Nevada, and Florida and the consensus was emphatic: No hotel key cards have any personal information on them, not even the guest's name.
There are some hotels, such as the Hard Rock and Portofino Hotels in Orlando, Florida, that have allow key cards to be used for purchases, but there is no identifying information on the key card.
The purchases are billed to the room number and added to the guests hotel charges.
I've tried to enter my room after check out time and found the key expired.
Though it looks like the rumor was started because crooks were using the keys to put credit card information on them. (;
Matt
Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 | 02:00 PM
"This from the person who ran the homeland security office in Alaska under a previous administration."
Whoever came up with that attribution had quite a sense of humor. And it's wonderfully subtle too. How many administrations have we had a homeland security office under?
Hotel Manager
Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2004 | 11:56 AM
I can tell you 100% this is a hoax. Working in the Hotel industry for 10 years now, and currently at a "Double Tree" I can assure you there is no information on key cards other than which lock it opens. All of your personal information is in a completely different system. My guess is this was put out by the people that sell hotels these cards as they are very expensive, and the more people take, the more we need to buy them.
Big Gary
Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2004 | 01:06 AM
The key card thing is no doubt false (why would the hotel bother to put all that on your key card?), but note that all the information the writer claims is on the card is information the hotel gets anyway when you check in. If you don't want the hotel staff to have access to your name, address, and credit card info, you'd better not stay in that hotel, or else register under a fake name and pay in cash.
Well, the Hotel employee or who ever was incharge in that Card key, should delete those information before they handed it to another client. But for safety reason I might just do what you recommended. Thanks
A whole new key, with a different code, is created for each room with every change of guest. The codes from the previous use are wiped out by the computer and replaced with a new pattern that is also sent electronically to the room lock. The key cards are anonymous and easily changed, making it nearly impossible for a would-be burglar to pick up a card and break into a room.