How many of us are old enough to remember getting a real metal room key at the hotel front desk? We just had to put it in the slot, turn it and we were in the room.

Those days are gone in most hotels. Now we get those plastic things that look like credit cards. We drop them into the slot on the door, a little light goes on, we turn the handle and the room door opens. However, if we’ve put the plastic key card too close to our cell phone or some other magnetic item, the room door wouldn’t open. Then we had to go griping back to the front desk for a new one.   

New advances may soon replace those troublesome key cards. Rumors are that developments are being made where smartphones and other personal electronic devices will open hotel room doors.

In the future, after your little gizmo has been individually activated when you check in at the hotel front desk, you can go key-less and card-less to open the hotel room door. Of course, that won’t guarantee that the room has been cleaned, or prevent you from seeing the unchecked-out occupant still in bed.