From RFID hotel locks to Your Mobile Key: innovative access systems for every hotel

More than ten thousand customers in over a hundred countries, with a total of 1.5 million locks already installed. Hotek Hospitality Group has built up this impressive track record over the past 25 years. From Etten-Leur in the Netherlands, managing director Dolf Mulder and his team are developing an innovative range of ingenious key card systems, hotel accessories and security solutions for the hospitality sector. From holiday parks to cruise ships, the company offers offline and online applications based on the latest technologies for every customer.

Since its establishment in 1999, Hotek Hospitality Group has become the market leader in future-proof hotel locks. "Forget the traditional key for hotel rooms. A hotel lock with key card, equipped with a contactless RFID system, works much easier than an ordinary key," confirms managing director Dolf Mulder. "Within our range of trendy hotel locks, we offer various models, all of which are reliable, secure and low-maintenance. Moreover, every customer can count on our Hotek fitters for flawless installation and personalised after-sales service."

Hotek Hospitality Group is not only a trendsetter in innovative and designer hotel locks, but also a reliable supplier of RFID technology. "We supply RFID locks and RFID cards for every door," says Dolf. "Through Radio Frequency Identifcation technology, information is stored or read from a distance via an RFID tag. Because Hotek's RFID locks have a reader, you can use an RFID card via radio frequency to smoothly unlock a hotel door. The use of an RFID lock and its accompanying card creates a pleasant hotel experience: guests do not have to carry a large or awkward key and the card fits easily into a wallet."

The guest experience is taken another level higher when, as a hotel operator, you use so-called mobile keys. The Hotek team developed a unique cloud hosted platform - Your Mobile Key - which allows both hotel guests and employees to easily open a hotel lock electronically with their smartphone, without having to use an app. Dolf explains, "With our web app Your Mobile Key, you are completely independent from a third party and always have access to the cloud. Our IoT-based software allows hotel locks to interact with the mobile phones of your hotel guest and staff via a secure internet connection. This technology also allows online data to be sent and received in real time, allowing you to build a future-proof and secure online access control system."

Some 350 hotels in the Benelux currently work with this unique technology. "One of our USPs is that we develop and build mobile access solutions that take maximum account of the wishes and needs of hotel operators," Dolf points out. "Having built up the necessary knowledge and expertise in our industry for a quarter of a century, we offer every customer an all-in service, from development and production to assembly and installation of access systems. Of course, we don't tolerate any compromise on security either. For example, Your Mobile Key uses 256 AES encryption, the highest security standard on the market. Our cloud platform runs on private hosting, so we are not dependent on external applications such as Windows Azure. Each lock we offer is unique with its own encryption key. And also very important: we monitor 24/7 how our platform is running. This offers our customers extra peace of mind and comfort."

Last but not least, sustainability is paramount at Hotek Hospitality Group. "We strive to provide eco-friendly solutions that both lower costs and reduce the carbon footprint of our customers in the hotel industry. For example, through our smart technologies, we help to drastically reduce the use of plastic hotel badges."■