I’m back and you guys didn’t even know I was gone! But, it’s true. Last week I headed out to Philadelphia for the PRSM trade show held at the Philadelphia Convention Center and I got a little taste of hotel access control in the wild.

Our hotel was located smack dab in the middle of downtown, and my room offered a fantastic view. However, just like with any big city, there’s the issue of vagrants and vandalism. So, it was no shock to me when everyone who stayed at the hotel had to use key cards to access any area of the hotel.

And this wasn’t relegated to just the room doors and entry into the hotel– even the elevators wouldn’t let you choose a floor without a swipe of your card first.

Hotel Access Control Complaints

More than once I heard people on the elevators complain.

“Why do we have to swipe our card every time?”

“They should just make you swipe your card to get on the elevator in the lobby.”

“I don’t understand why once we’re in the hotel we have to use our card to go anywhere in the building.”

And that’s when I would smugly say something about possibly being murdered in their sleep if the hotel allowed just anyone without a card access to any of the floors.

(Ok, not really, I wanted to!)

Why Is Hotel Access Control Necessary

To almost anyone not in the security industry or unfamiliar with hotel access control, the constant requirement of a card swipe to do just about anything seems like overkill.

Aren’t the door men enough?

Aren’t there locks on the outside doors?

In all, honesty, yes, those two things are probably enough, but is it worth the risk?

With the hotel industry, it’s not worth the risk if a doorman has an off night and someone slips past. It’s not worth the risk if someone walks in directly behind a guest of the hotel and makes it to the lobby. The hotel’s reputation would be at stake, not to mention the safety and security of the guests.

Even with the card readers on the elevator, the system wasn’t fool-proof. If someone swiped their card right before you, you could just ask them to hit your floor’s button. The point is that it was an added level of security to help deter risk and one that seemed very necessary to me.

Have you seen people complain about hotel access control measures? What’s been their beef?