I can't remember the last time I had to show my physical card at the hotel (US travel only). I agree that as long as you've made the reservation with that card you should be ok, but not sure what country you're traveling in. I even had a stay in May that I had my son listed as an additional guest and he was able to check in before my arrival and the room was still billed to my card. I never even went to the front desk. I also get alerts from Amex that the card was not present when they run a pre-arrival hold on the card.