a keycard carol

[azurelunatic]

Modern hotels have switched to keycards as of quite a while ago. It's a nifty technology, and some years ago I read a contraband manual on them as some improving weekend reading. It turns out the cards themselves are delicate motherfuckers, and will lose their programming when in the same pocket as a cellphone, when within an adjacent waving hand of a cellphone, and probably due to static shock when stored in, and taken out of, a nylon pocket in a late, dry, Fairbanks fall.

There was one day when everybody -- especially me -- had trouble with them. It may have been the third day, or maybe the fourth. I think it was Sunday. I had to go to the front desk at least three times, despite my subsequent precautions.

On the third trip (that day; there had been at least one the previous day) my brain commenced tumbling around "I did it again" when I was on the elevator, and by the time I got down to the desk:

"Oops I did it again,
I blanked out my card
It's not that difficult--" I sang, presenting my card to the clerk on duty, who had been taking all the keycard-related shenanigans with good humor.

Oh, baby, baby.

After that I wised up, and realized that I had with me a perfectly good RFID-blocking, cellphone-signal-jamming, hard shell aluminum wallet, and took to carrying it around in that.

Comments

[niqaeli]

It depends on the keycard system, actually. It's only the magnetics that are delicate flowers and some are more delicate than others; it depends on how strong the magnetic encode is (which depends on the keys/system). The thing is, they're designed to be delicate as hell -- the idea being, we'd rather the hotel keys get wiped than, say, your phone or your credit cads.

But yeah, also, RFID keys are not nearly so delicate as the magnetics. They're just also much more expensive -- both the keys themselves and the systems for them.

But yes, that is an excellent place to keep a hotel key so it does not get wiped. A lot of hotels will tell you not to keep it in your wallet because of credit cards; but in my experience it's never credit cards in wallets that wipe hotel keys. It's magnetic snaps and clips, which many wallets have.

[azurelunatic]

Totally magnetic.

The hardshell wallet is not the place where I tend to keep credit cards these days, and the clasp is purely mechanical. Whee!

[snippy]

Heck, all my purses have a magnet closure--and that's enough to clean off the card, most of the time. This is a great idea, I'm getting an RFID card protector right away.

[azurelunatic]

I hope it's working out well!