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Up Next in Room Key Technology: Proximity-Based Keycards?

Most of our talk about hotel key cards lately has concerned whether they're recyclable or not, but the whole "ease of use" factor is a pretty important to us, too. They can be fiddly things when you have to insert them a particular way or swipe them at just the right speed, and we've been frustrated by them more than once.

Thankfully, over at the X Room at the Courtyard Newark University of Delaware, the prototype room where they try out lots of new gadgets on real guests, they are looking carefully at proximity-based keycards. With these, we won't need to worry about inserting them in the right direction or even finding them in our bags: just holding them vaguely near the door should open it, and the X Room people are also considering using this technology to sign restaurant checks and access other hotel services, like gyms or pools.

This is the kind of technology trial that makes experimental rooms like the X Room useful – much better than that distressing running alarm clock that forces you out of bed to turn it off.

[Photo: rick]