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[SIZE=3]Can anyone verify this information? [/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Ever wonder what is on your magnetic motel key card? [/SIZE][SIZE=2][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Answer:[/SIZE]
<LI class=EC_MsoNormal style="COLOR: black">[SIZE=3]Customer's name [/SIZE][SIZE=2][/SIZE]<LI class=EC_MsoNormal style="COLOR: black">[SIZE=3]Customer's partial home address [/SIZE][SIZE=2][/SIZE]<LI class=EC_MsoNormal style="COLOR: black">[SIZE=3]Hotel room number [/SIZE][SIZE=2][/SIZE]<LI class=EC_MsoNormal style="COLOR: black">[SIZE=3]Check-in date and out dates [/SIZE][SIZE=2][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Customer's credit card number and expiration date![/SIZE][SIZE=2][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]When you turn them in to the front desk, your personal information is there for any employee to gain access by simply scanning the card in the hotel scanner. An employee can take a hand full of cards home and using a scanning device, access the information onto a laptop computer and go shopping at your expense.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Simply put, hotels do not erase the information on these cards until an employee re-issues the card to the next hotel guest. At that time, the new guest's information is electronically 'overwritten' on the card and the previous guest's information is erased in the overwriting process. But until the card is rewritten for the next guest, it usually is kept in a drawer at the front desk with YOUR INFORMATION ON IT![/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]The bottom line is: Keep the cards, take them home with you, or destroy them. NEVER leave them behind in the room or room
Wastebasket, and NEVER turn them in to the front desk when you check out of a room. They will not charge you for the card (it's illegal) and you'll be sure you are not leaving a lot of valuable personal information on it that could be easily lifted off with any simple scanning device card reader.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]For the same reason, if you arrive at the airport and discover you still have the card key in your pocket, do not toss it in an airport trash basket. Take it home and destroy it by cutting it up, especially through the electronic information strip![/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]You can also use a small magnet and pass it across the magnetic strip several times. Then try it in the door, if it does not work it erases everything on the card.[/SIZE]
Based on how my room cards have expired prior to checking out and how they have been recoded without having to obtain my credit card data (yet to extend the stay or check in every week they have to swipe my card)....I would say this info is bogus.
If in doubt, however....breath hard on the card or turn on your phone while in the same zip code as the card. That always seems to wipe mine free of any data so that the door stays locked.
This is a story that's been circulated by chain e-mail over a period of time. It simply isn't true, at least for all the major hotel chains. The whole premise is nonsensical too.
I work at a hotel...when we make keys, we type in the room number, the number of days the guest will be in house and how many keys to make. This is through a program separate from the program we use to check you in.
Is this the same as a magnetic key? The last hotel I stayed at I was given a hard key shaped device and the very end had copper strips that stuck into a door panel that beeped to let you know when the door lock had opened.
Is this the same as a magnetic key? The last hotel I stayed at I was given a hard key shaped device and the very end had copper strips that stuck into a door panel that beeped to let you know when the door lock had opened.
I have to say that I really miss the old-fashioned regular keys. Why can't we just go back to them? They've worked for thousands of years just fine.
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