NFC system offers hotel check-in and room access via mobile

Hotel guests will use their mobile to check in and access their room under a new system developed by hospitality security company VingCard Elsafe

Hotel guests will use their mobile to check in and access their room under a new system developed by hospitality security company VingCard Elsafe.

The near field communication-based system will securely send guests’ room number and digital key to their mobile phone on arrival. They can then bypass the front desk and open their room by holding the phone near the door lock.

“Because our solution uses NFC, it requires no additional action by the guest such as dialing a number at the door, making it the quickest, most convenient and reliable solution on the market,” said Tim Shea, Global President for VingCard Elsafe. 

“This is game-changing technology for the hotel market that doesn’t require additional hardware expense to deploy.”

The system also provides a layer of security by allowing hotels to add, remove and update access rights for individual devices. If a device has been lost or stolen, the service can instantly block it from unlocking doors.

VingCard Elsafe’s NFC solution uses new locks that communicate with a central server. The server can monitor an individual lock’s battery life and eliminate the need for the encoding and recoding of cards.

It is also backwards compatible, making it suitable for hotels with existing RFID locking systems.