The advisory role of Hotel Supply does not stop with hotel products, over the years we have built up a network of experts who are happy to think along with you about the other facets of your hospitality company. One of these partners is Timp & Simons Hospitality Electronics, located in Zaandam.

Timp & Simons supplies and installs products and services in the field of electronics. Whether it concerns televisions, complete hotel and / or room systems including content, electronic locks, WiFi and camera security (CCTV), Timp & Simons is the go-to partner for hotel electronics. The Timp & Simons team stands for complete unburdening and is a certified supplier of Philips, Samsung, LG and Onity, among others.

In this blog, Pieter-Jan Schoonhoven of Timp & Simons takes you through the developments and additional dangers in the field of “the smart hotel room”.

The smart hotel room

Technological developments are a hot topic in the hotel industry; for example, technical gadgets can make the hotel operation safer and more sustainable and costs can be saved through smart investments. This sounds like music to your ears, but what are the dangers of these initiatives that together form the smart hotel room?

Today’s hotel room can be equipped with a wide range of technologies, for example, all devices in the room can be interconnected and automatically switch between day and night mode and presence sensors register whether the guest is present in the hotel room and adjust the temperature and lighting accordingly. adjusted.
Before the guest has even arrived in the room, they are already registered on their phone by means of an automatic check-in via the app and the smartphone changes into a room key that communicates with the door lock via Bluetooth.

Bluetooth door lock

The Direct Key system from Onity works on the basis of Bluetooth Low Energy. In addition to the low battery consumption, this technology has the great advantage that your guests do not need to be directly connected to the internet and / or a server to access their room. The key has to be downloaded once and remains accessible on the smartphone for the entire duration of the stay. This makes it possible to use our digital keycard in places where there is no or poor reception, such as in parking garages & elevators.

DirectKey App

Onity has developed its own application that guests can easily download. This application ensures fast, seamless and secure communication between the Property Management System (PMS), the smartphone and the lock.

Benefits

Application of bluetooth room locks in a hotel has many advantages for your guests and the hotel operation in general:

• Less card (key) usage, which reduces plastic consumption. In addition, you reduce possible virus spread because your guests use their own device to grant themselves access to your hotel.

• The Onity system works remotely, the lock does not have to be activated on site before the guest can connect. This allows the guest to be helped even in the absence of a receptionist.

• Returning guests only need to install the app once. On their next visit, they will receive the digital keycard directly in their app.

• The Direct Key option can be added in your own loyalty app which is now often used at hotel chains.

Safe with RFID

Another technological development in the field of hotel equipment is the safe with RFID lock or; Radio Frequency Identification. This type of safe is opened using the hotel room key or smartphone on which the room key is downloaded, very user-friendly.

Safety

After downloading the digital key on the smartphone, a connection to a server or the internet is no longer necessary. This service is extra secured by the application of 128-bit AES encryption, which ensures that the data used is encrypted, making it unusable for third parties. Bluetooth locks and safes with RFID lock are therefore very suitable and safe for the hotel industry. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, these technologies have had the added security advantage that the guest uses his / her own device, further preventing virus spread.

References

Onity is a preferred supplier of, among others, Accor, Marriott, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Hilton, Rezidor, Kempinski, Wyndham, Starwood, Hyatt, Mélia.
Within Marriott and Hilton hotels, the DirectKey system is running satisfactorily and has been added to their own loyalty app.

With thanks to Pieter-Jan Schoonhoven – Sales Director