How Can Hotel Guests be Secured with Technology

Travel & Hospitality Tech Outlook | Monday, February 17, 2020

The travel and hotel industry must prioritize the safety and security of their guests by implementing the appropriate technology.

FREMONT, CA: For the hoteliers who are reluctant to adopt the Internet of Things for them, the loudest argument against it is security and privacy concerns. They can argue that whether electronic lock fitted in the doors of the guest room can let hackers exploit it. The hoteliers can also say if television can be used for eavesdropping or filming the guests or not. However, there is some smart device for the guestrooms that have been developed by thinking about the security of the guests, including the given below technologies.

Electronic In-Room Safes

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In the mainstream hotels and resorts, the electronic in-room safes have become a common factor as a proper substitute for the vital manual safes. One of the necessary items for opening electronic in-safe rooms is the personal digital assistant connection. Moreover, if any damage occurs to the safe or the items inside it, the concerned party can also print audit-reports for the police and to get insurance by merely connecting to a computer. There are also several types of smart electronic in-room safes, and the significant difference among them is the process in which data is collected and stored.

Intelligent Panic Exit

The emergency doors that are fitted with panic bars are known as smart panic exist, and they are controlled with stand-alone electronic locks. The panic bars have an orbital latch attached to it that makes it easy to open along with an anti-card device. However, these features make the intelligent panic exit model perfect for improvising safety and security.

Therefore, the hotels need to make a combination of the quick panic that exists with several smart devices so that they can provide better protection to their guests and property during emergencies.

Gangway and Muster Control System

The gangway and muster control system is used in the marine vessels so that they can keep away sea piracy. It becomes easy for the ship operators to keep records of the travelers boarding the sea with the advanced access control systems. The application consists of the gangway and musters control software, a radio frequency identification card scanner, 200 blank cards, a computer system, a camera, a radio frequency identification card printer and encoder, and color ribbons.

Magnetic Stripe and Smart Cards

Magstripe, commonly known as the magnetic stripe card, consists of data implanted on a stripe when the card is swiped through a reader, it will quickly get decoded to allow transactions. For ages, the stripe card has been a cost-efficient key for the hotel rooms. The basic information about a guest a written on the magnetic layer of the card during their check-in, but it has its time limit that is set until their check-out. The electronic door gets triggered when the magnetic stripe card is verified by the door card reader, therefore, making sure that the authorized person can only gain access to the room.

However, there is also some downfall to the magnetic strip cards because sometime the card might get demagnetized and fail to operate. The cards are also vulnerable to hacking because the cybercriminals can easily steal the information or generate duplicates by reading and copying the data.  

To make it tricky for illegal users while they try to get access or duplicate information, the smart card utilizes smart chip technology, cryptography, and other encryption.

The complicated systems and numerous devices make it difficult for the travel and hospitality industry to make sure about safety at every corner. Whether the information is accumulated in transit or in-use by the systems, the industry must focus on privacy and security if they want the business to grow.

The manufacturers and IoT developers have played a crucial role in improving cybersecurity with the help of secured technologies.

See Also: Top Travel and Hospitality Solution Companies

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