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Hotel Room Key Card Security Alert

Filed under SAFETY

When you check out of a hotel that uses the credit card type room key, the clerk often will ask if you have your key to turn in, or there is a box or slot on the Reception counter in which to put them? It’s good for the hotel because they save money by re-using those cards. But, it’s not good for you?! Although room keys differ from hotel to hotel, they normally carry the following information:

1 – Customers (your) name.
2 – Customers partial home address.
3 – Hotel room number.
4 – Check in date and check out date.
5 – Customer’s (your) 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.

The bottom line is, Keep the card or take it home with you or destroy it. NEVER leave the key behind in the room or room wastebasket, and NEVER turn it in to the front desk when you check out of a room.