Which makes sense. Even building a new property, I don't really see a net benefit to hardwiring the door locks.

The only real advantage to hardwiring the locks would be to lock out someone from the front desk. They can still lock someone out without a wired connection, it just takes a visit to the room. It's probably not worth the cost, considering how seldom this would happen.

Another option would be WiFi if the hotel is already set up for it, but this still means a WiFi reciever in every lock, and a power source for it.

A little update on this thread;

It's become clear on a couple of recent trips that current systems code an expiry date/time on the key. When I've asked for a late checkout I've had to hand over the keys for a new expiry time to be coded onto them.

Snopes and FTers are both great sources for separating facts from myths: ^

http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/hotelkey.asp

Indeed they are, but I would take this snopes article with a grain of salt. As I mentioned in an earlier post in this thread, as a former hotel manager, I've never heard of any hotel encoding credit card numbers or any other personal information on key cards, nor can I imagine any reason why they would want to do so. That information is stored in the the hotel property management system and would be of no earthly use on the key card.

I can only imagine that much of the information on the Snopes article stems from some sort of a misunderstanding.

Er, the Snopes article is actually debunking the story:In the article, a number of sources are quoted that spread the story, but the commentary on them doesn't support them.

In response to the long ago post (hoping someone still monitors this forum):

"It's become clear on a couple of recent trips that current systems code an expiry date/time on the key. When I've asked for a late checkout I've had to hand over the keys for a new expiry time to be coded onto them."

What is strange is that at a somewhat older motel in Sacramento that I doubt would go to the expense of hardwiring the locks, the key cards cease to work for the rooms I have occupied at perhaps 3:00am rather than at checkout at 11:30am.

When this first happened, I assumed I had been careless and scrambled the magnetically-stored information. It has happened four times. I will be asking the manager about this.

I'm surprised that RFID/Bluetooth locks haven't gained more use since they seem to be harder to clone vs. the magstripe on the current/old style keycards. They also would allow features like being able to unlock your room with your phone (potentially enabling zero contact with any front desk staff).

However, given the sequence number thing OP describes, perhaps the additional cost of the newer locks still isn't justifiable for many hotel locations.

The RFID system is very expensive. A hotel will usually prolong the life as long as possible and is likely to only consider changing if too many issues are coming up with the older system (e.g. magstripe cards consistently fail to read) and the cost of repairing the lock units starts to outweigh the cost of a new system.