# 28-Property Hotel Key Card Rollout — 2.4M/Year

URL: https://proudtek.com/case-studies/hospitality-hotel-key-card-rollout/
Source URL: https://proudtek.com/case-studies/hospitality-hotel-key-card-rollout/
Generated: 2026-03-16T01:42:30.697Z
Kind: page
Publisher: Proud Tek Co., Limited
Author: Proud Tek Co., Limited
Credentials: ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015, RoHS Compliant, CE Marking, REACH Compliant
Image: https://proudtek.com/landing-images/hospitality-hotel-key-card-rollout-hero.jpg
Image Alt: Hotel guest tapping a blue RFID key card on a stainless steel door lock reader

## Description
A South-East Asia hotel group operating 28 properties under three sub-brands migrated from magnetic-stripe key cards to MIFARE Classic 1K contactless...

## FAQ
- Q: Can a smaller hotel group (5–10 properties) get the same unit price you quoted here?
  A: Within 15–25%. The $0.34/card branded SKU price quoted in this case study reflects 2.4 M cards / year across 28 properties on a 12-month rolling supply commitment. A 5-property group running 350,000 cards / year on a 6-month rolling commit typically lands in the $0.38–0.42 / card range for the same MIFARE Classic 1K chip and 0.84 mm PVC body. Below 100,000 cards / year the price ladder is steeper because lamination tooling amortises across fewer units.
- Q: How was the migration sequenced across 28 properties without disrupting guest stays?
  A: Property by property, in the off-season window for each brand tier, with a 30-day overlap during which the front desk encoded both magnetic and RFID cards. New arrivals received an RFID card, existing guests who already had a magnetic card kept it until checkout. The lock platforms accepted both credential types during the overlap window. The full estate migration took 18 months calendar time, of which Proud Tek's manufacturing portion was the 8-month rolling production cycle.
- Q: What happens when the customer eventually moves to DESFire EV3?
  A: Proud Tek produces both chip families on the same production lines and the artwork files are interchangeable, so the DESFire EV3 SKU is a back-end chip swap with no front-of-card visual change. The customer plans to begin the DESFire migration once the lock-platform vendors complete their AES-128 firmware update (currently scheduled for FY28). The chip cost step-up is approximately $0.20 per card and the encoder upgrade at each property is a software-only operation.
- Q: Did the customer evaluate a mobile-key alternative?
  A: Yes, and they retained mobile keys as a premium-tier benefit for the luxury sub-brand. For mass-tier and mid-tier properties the physical card remained the primary credential because (a) guest mobile-key adoption stalled at 28% and (b) the card is also the in-room receptacle for the room-energy switch and the breakfast voucher punch. Mobile-key and physical-card coexist; the physical-card volume did not materially change after mobile-key launch.

## Machine Routes
- JSON: https://proudtek.com/machine/case-studies/hospitality-hotel-key-card-rollout.json
- Text: https://proudtek.com/machine/case-studies/hospitality-hotel-key-card-rollout.txt