Electronic hotel locks now become the necessities for modern hotels. Because a sharp decline in the confirmed COVID cases in 2022, the third year of the pandemic, will bring hope to the rebound of tourism worldwide.
The logic is-When global travel picks up, hotels will have revenue, and maybe new hotels will be built, then the market of locks for hotels will recover.
Travel in 2022 Will Be Even Busier Than Pre-pandemic Times, According to New Report
While tourists are come back, the hotels business become better. The global hotel business has been suffering for more than two years, leading to a huge loss.
Everyone will spent in the oncoming rebound in 2022. Avoiding the unwise purchase of hotel door locks is one of the most important tips.
Unlike simple articles such as beds, towels and TVs, a hotel lock consisting of software and hardware is relatively complex and offers more snares.
Moreover, There is no regret pill for hotel locks.
For the TV, if feel not good, can return and change. There is no loss at all.
However you can not change a lock easily.
Once you choose the locks, that means you choose the everthing in future of this lock.
You will have to bear all the possible consequences that this hotel lock may bring in the future.
For example the failure rate, the cost of maintenance. The time spent on locks troubles, which consumes money and makes the room unavailable for rent.
It is therefore quite necessary to realize what kind of products does not deserve buying.
The followings may be stupid tax (or tax on stupidity)
1.New look Electronic hotel locks.
Hotel locks made of more modern ways will not bring any material improvement in the user experience.
The modern ways typically includes
-Cool color, nomally black
-CNC cutting
-No plastic housing on front(put PCB inside)
-Split design.
-more sophisticated shape with diamond embedded or raised patterns.
You will have to pay more for these ‘improved’ appearance.
These locks remains old lock features and the guest’s experience in the hotel is not improved.
These are a game widely known as-old wine in new bottles
Old wine- the old features, old working flow, old ideas.
New bottles-new look, new appearances.
Despite the new bottle, the wine remains the same flavor and is utterly the same as before.
We everyone knows the falling of nokia phones.
The truth was that nokia played the game old wine in new bottles too long.
The same thing is now happenning to hotel locks.
The new bottles hotel lock does not have better quality because when they are designed the first matter is the look only.
2.Networking function electronic hotel locks.
Many networking functions seem very appealing.
However, the reality is not the case.
Remote opening doors Anything that connects with the networking involves two issues:Power consume and the performance.
Remote opening door
This function sounds amazing — you can unlock the door lock of a specific room right at the hotel front desk, and all it takes is a single click of the mouse.
But in reality, you can’t even use it a few times a year. You don’t have much opportunity to use it.
Remotely check door opening records
This is another feature that most network electronic hotel locks tout. You can see which door opened, or check opening records (Audit trail records)
But the logic is like that- If no theft or accident occurs, these door opening records are meaningless.
If have theft or accident in a room, then after the events the opening records checking is acceptable.
Remotely checking don’t make any sense, except feeling advance.
The hotel lock handset(PDA,handheld device) could complete download opening records very good in most hotel lock system.
Remote delete cards
That is to say, user can invalidated a card whenever he want. This is generally a standard function of access control systems.
In fact, this is not a hotel demand. It is relative to longer-term accommodation demands such as schools.
The hotel lock sales company will package this technology and make it seem like a function that hotels need.
Always connecting is a issue.
For devices that rely heavily on the network, staying connected all the time has become a burden.
There are too many links in this network.
Any small component that malfunctions can lead to network congestion.
In my opinion, the electronic hotel lock shouldn’t rely heavily on the network.
Smart Plug is an example.
Smart plugs are popular for controlling lamps or appliances remotely.
But low-quality plugs cause delays and sometimes don’t respond to commands. After testing several, I found many struggle on congested Wi-Fi networks.
3.Mobile phone as key electronic hotel locks
Use mobile phone as the key of electronic hotel locks. That is overrated tech.
The reason is very simple. This technology has been around for 20 years. Do you think it has become popular in the hotel industry?
In fact, its popularity rate is very low, far lower than that of RFID technology in hotel door locks.
Its use rate remains below 20% until today.
In Asia and Europe, hoteliers even won’t consider the mobilephone opening door locks because it could not work together with the energy saving switch.
The mobilephone opening solution in North American hotels could be popular than Asia
-North American likes high tech, no matter it real use or not.
North America has a good economic level, is relatively wealthy and is willing to try new technologies
-North American Hotels are old.
Hotel equipment in north america mostly finished in the 1990s when energy saving switches were not invented yet, and overhauling wires is strenuous, electricity switches fail to get a widespread application in North America.
Most of the hotels in North America use a master switch instead.
Interesting topic – is mobile phone door opening really necessary?
I believe that the heart of this issue is not whether to take a phisical card key or not (to put a virtual card in the smart phone), but how to make the guests get the room key card speedily.
Mobile phone door opening is born with a bunch of problems itself, for example:
1.Downloading of the app: a lot of people are unwilling to put another app in their strained phone memory space, to just open a door.
2.It is not a room key card that the tourists hate, it is the lengthy check-in procedures and long waiting time.
3.A card itself will not bring an extra burden, because firstly it is carried shortly only during the hotel stay, and secondly, a thin card can be put behind the phone case if all other ways are not available.
4.Locks for hotels supporting mobile phone opening often feature high energy consumption and unstable battery with a short life.
Another essential issue is, with the room card capable of opening the door. So door opening by a mobile phone is just an alternative.
Unlike the room card that is as indispensable as the four wheels of a car, the mobile phone door opening is just a spare tire in the trunk.
A door lock remains sound regardless if a mobile phone can unlock it or not. Mobile phone door opening is rather an innovation sheerly for making innovation than a practical innovation. The door lock manufacturers, unable to figure out how to make innovation, have brought smart phones into the field and care little if the new way doesn’t work well.
The mobile phone door opening is, after all, a repeat thing of room key card.but is it the only way to improve the hotel lock system?
To sum up, there are many hotel lock products that do not deserve your money. Hotel bosses, on alert for your un-infinite cash and spend it on the most needed place, and welcome the return of tourists from all over the world!
