What’s the Difference? 125 kHz vs. 13.56MHz RFID hotel door locks

RFID Hotel door locks now are mainly use the 125KHz and RFID13.56MHz.
Many newbies may not clear what is the difference between 125KHz and 13.56MHz RFID Hotel door lock.

Actually they are both the major 2 types RFID technology widely used in Hotel door lock system especially in hotels.
They both use contact-less key(room card) and provide very similar using experience.

In the whole RFID Hotel Door Lock system usually includes 3 basic elements-The lock, Room key and encoder.

These three elements are interrelated and indispensable.
They should be used the same RFID technology otherwise they can not compatiable with eachother.

RFID Door lock system for Hotel

For instance, the 125KHz room key(card) can only be read by 125KHz lock and 125KHz key encoder.
Same happens to the 13.56MHz system.

Comparison of 125KHz and 13.56MHz RFID Hotel door locks

	125KHz RFID Hotel door locks	13.56MHz RFID Hotel door locks
Room Key Working Frequency	125KHz	13.56MHz
Major brand used	Temic E5551Atmel T5557	Philips Mifare S50
Room Key detect distance on hotel door lock	Contactless Less than 2cm	Contactless More than 3-5cm
Room key Read/write life	More than 100,000 times	More than 100,000 times
Capacity	264bit/330 bit	8K bit
Reliability of data saved in Room key	LowEasy lost	HighNever lost
Hotel Door lock manufacturing cost	Low	High
Room Key encoder manufacturing cost	Low	High
One card Application in hotel	unavailable	Available
Security	Simple EncryptionEasy copy by special device	DES EncryptionNot easy copy

From the above form you could understand the differences between these 2 contact-less technology.
For the hotel application, the 13.56MHz RFID technology will be better in security,Reliability and system expansibility.

RFID hotel door locks use 13.56MHz better

Security-The hotel room usually places the customer’s valuables. It requires high security.
13.56MHz tech’s encryption is in higher security level than 125KHz tech.

Using experience-Technically the room key(card) working distance are same in 125KHz and 13.56MHz.
But in hotel door lock real using, they are different.
The reason is the door lock’s material- metal.

In most hotel door lock, the antenna will be surrounded by metal,except the front and back.
The metal will decay the RF signal.
Bonth 125KHz and 13.56MHz RFID signal will be affected.
In this environment, the higher frequency（13.56MHz）still keeps an acceptable working distance in 3-5cm, better than 125KHz(left only 1-2cm).

System expansibility-13.56MHz RFID based on 8Kbit capacity card.
This card can contain much more data than 125KHz card.
Take KAHN Hotel Access control System for example, it allows one card access many regions.

In KAHN Hotel door lock System one card could access to guest rooms, elevator, Swimming pool.
The KAHN Software provide guest key programming function in front desk.