Do you know about the hotle key cards!!If no,read it out!!!!!
By tonytt2009
@tonytt2009 (1706)
China
May 26, 2009 4:33am CST
For those of you who travel a lot, it's important to know about the hotel key cards.
This is pretty good info. Never even thought about key cards containing anything other than an access code for the room!
HOTEL KEY CARDS
Ever wonder what is on your magnetic key card?
Answer:
a. Customer's name
b. Customer's partial home address
c. Hotel room number
d. Check-in date and out dates
e. Customer's credit card number and expiration date!
When you turn them in to the front desk your personal information is there for any employee to 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.
Simply put, hotels do not erase the information on these cards until an employee reissues 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!
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 into 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.
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!
Or, if you have a small magnet, pass it across the magnetic strip several times. Then try it in the door, it will not work. It erases everything on the card.
4 people like this
12 responses
@Amorti (200)
• Turkey
26 May 09
That is a really important detail. Thanks for that!
From now on, i will use magnetic materials to see if it really works on erasing the data.
Is there are way for other people to read the personla details of another person through that card? anything like a gadget or a program, converting the data? If so, it's much more dangerous.
@tonytt2009 (1706)
• China
27 May 09
Ya,using the magnetic materials is the first reaction of my good friend`as it may be a little bit different in China,most of the hotels need the key cards when checking out~~lol~~
For your concern,I think the ones that can touch your key cards should be the employee of hotels and in this case,your risk should be lower`~BUT,I believe it highly depends on which hotels you're in~~for some kinda 5 star hotels,I think it's safety as it's managed better.
What do you think?
@lkbooi (16070)
• Malaysia
26 May 09
Hi tonytt, thanks for sharing the detailed and valuable info about the hotel key cards with us here. Luckily I like to keep such key cards as one of my collections. I have nearly a small box of various hotel key cards. I keep them after check out from hotels. Some of them are keys cards from local hotels whereas others are from foreign hotels.
Most of them are well designed with attractive images of beautiful landscapes of the hot tourist sites, delicious foods, the magnificence appearance of the hotels and etc, on one side of the cards. Other than the pictures captured, these are also the memorable things during our vacations as well 
I believe such hobby could keep me safe from the revelation of my personal particulars 
I believe such hobby could keep me safe from the revelation of my personal particulars
1 person likes this
@tonytt2009 (1706)
• China
27 May 09
Well,such a great idea~~in fact,I mentioned the exactly idea to my wife yesterday after receiving this information,she reminded me that we have to return the key card to the hotels at least in China as some of the hotels will charge you for the loss of key cards,say up to $100 something~~lol~~
BUT I know situation is different out there~maybe I will have them collected in the future~~lol`~some of them really good looking~well designed~~
Thanks for your idea~
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (157647)
• United States
26 May 09
Great information. I was thinking of the magnet solution myself. It should work, protect you, and make the potential thief very frustrated.
1 person likes this
@tonytt2009 (1706)
• China
27 May 09
Yes,so should we bring some kinda magnet material along with us when travelling somewhere~~
@MizzLadyB08 (1174)
• United States
26 May 09
That was very good information and I am pretty sure that many people do not know that about the hotel key cards. Thanks a lot for this information it can really help someone. Me myself I always pay cash for a room because it is hard to trust the employees that work at those hotels.
1 person likes this
@tonytt2009 (1706)
• China
27 May 09
Paying cash is a good way to avoid the unnecessary loss/potential loss of us~~but I like to use credit card when travel~Anyway,just bear in mind this topic,enjoy mylot~`
@alokn99 (5717)
• India
28 May 09
This is very useful information. But at the same time i wonder if this is a norm for all hotel key cards, because i have the housekeeping having a set of key cards. Then there have been times that they have issued a key card with no registration done on the room. I guess the next time i'll have this verified from some close friends in the industry and make sure i destroy the card if this is what is on the key card.
@mipen2006 (5528)
• Australia
26 May 09
Thanks tony. that is amazing information, and an average person like me would never have given it a thought.
1 person likes this
@kun2349 (23381)
• Singapore
28 May 09
I know about everything in the card, but it's always a must to return to front desk upon checking out, or we will be charged for missing cards.. That's as far as i know because hotels in bangkok does that.. ON top of that, i have tried that twice with different hotels and the results are the same.. haha =D
At least our data will be over write once it's re-issued right?? So in the meanwhile, it's left in the care of those hotel front desk, and if there's any discrepancies in our credit statements, we can hold the hotel staffs responsible ^_^
@nekonyanta (892)
• Philippines
29 May 09
Wow. I didn't know this. Thanks for sharing this information. It would really help lots of unaware travelers. Though, for the record, during the few times that I did check into a hotel, I actually kept the key cards as some sort of souvenir. I guess now I'm thankful I did so. It's quite dangerous, considering that identity theft crimes are quite rampant on the internt. 
Hope everyone gets to read this post.
Hope everyone gets to read this post.
@Shellyann36 (11385)
• United States
19 Jul 09
That is a good bit of information there! I never realized that they contain such information on the person using them! I will always remember this though. It is not very safe to have that sort of private info just lying around waiting for someone to pick it up and steal it! Thank you for telling us all about it!
