OpenWays Introduces Mobile Master Key
OpenWays announces the launch of Mobile Master Key to address the logistical and costly hurdles of having to manage the loss of staff master key cards. Appropriate administration of master keys is critically important for the safe and secure management of a hotel.
With OpenWays Mobile Master Key, neutralizing a lost or stolen master key happens with the push of a button. There are no locks to walk to and reprogram. The company points out that since reporting the loss now has limited consequences, staff members are more inclined to immediately report a loss vs. trying to find their plastic card for hours before eventually reporting the loss to hotel security. Mobile Master Key enables housekeeping, engineering, maintenance and of security staff to use a simple mobile phone without the risk of card damage.
In addition to the online and real-time control of Mobile Master Key, management can now track their use while also running reports and analyzing statistics. This can be conducted from anywhere -- including in front of the door itself -- without the burden of uploading lock data with a handheld device to then download it to a central computer to eventually see what happened.
Tony Kotelman, chief engineer at the Holiday Inn Suites Chicago O'Hare Rosemont, is a fan of Mobile Master Key. As one of the first properties to install the solution, he said having a mobile method for propagating electronic locks after a traditional plastic master key has been lost is the most efficient way to operate. (Click here to view Kotelman discussing Mobile Key by Holiday Inn.)
"It’s not uncommon to find a room key laying on the ground, and it could be disastrous if that key is a master belonging to hotel staff,” Kotelman said. “Rather than having engineering walk to each door in order to cancel the master code in every lock of the hotel – and for us that’s over 300 doors – we can simply cancel it online and re-issue new credentials at the server level. Being able to do this online is saving us a lot of time, and our staff can be used more productively to resolve other guest or facility issues.”
On average it takes two minutes per lock to switch out a traditional master key code using the manual process. For a property with 350 rooms or more, it can take up to a full day or longer just to reprogram master key settings at the lock. During this time, security is compromised, and no one can really be sure that every lock was reprogrammed.
“We are extremely happy with Mobile Key because we don't worry any longer about lost keys,” Kotelman said. “It was very easy to install and took only four days to get the entire property equipped. Now when we find a lost keycard, or if housekeeping tells us their master key isn’t working, we can stop the credential in real time, and without any hassle get a new credential issued. It also gives us real-time tracking and audit trail of all keys, including master keys.”
Visitors attending the International Hotel/Motel & Restaurant Show in New York Nov. 13-15 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center are invited to see the OpenWays Mobile Master Key solution in Booth No. 3172.