Ohio hotel to implement RFID room-key wriststraps

Well, if RFID is good enough for passports and credit cards, then it must certainly be good enough for hotel rooms, right? Apparently that's the logic at the Great Wolf Lodge at Paramount King's Island in Mason, Ohio (that's just outside Cincinnati), which will be implementing RFID-enabled wristbands when the hotel opens on December 14. The wristband will open your hotel room door and pay for food and drinks at various locations while on the theme-park island. Of course, given all that we've heard about RFID being hacked left and right, we're not exactly convinced that making it easier for someone to gain access to your hotel room is a good idea. But perhaps those folks in Mason are too busy reading Blogging Ohio instead of Engadget to worry about such fussiness.

[Via The Wireless Report]

[Nogami @ Dec 12th 2006 4:50AM]

I suppose it's also a benefit for the hotel that they can likely track a guest's every movement throughout their establishment, analyse their spending patterns, etc.

Even though there may not be any "personal information" on the tags, I'm betting attacks on the system will focus more on cloning one, as opposed to trying to get personal info from it.

[IOTA @ Dec 12th 2006 11:40AM]

No! Nobody's going to clone any tags, because the cost is too high, and the benefit is really uncertain. Do you think that visitors to this "fun park" are packin' the Cullinan Diamond?

Track? With a range of 5" at best, I'm not sure this really a solution for that. And if you tell me the "range of RFID is much greater", then you should be shot for ignorance.

[PJK @ Dec 12th 2006 6:18AM]

Forget any Hi-Tech attacks, a decent pickpocket could lift this off your wrist with a quick bump and run, and be back to your hotel room cleaning you out before you knew it was missing.

[IOTA @ Dec 12th 2006 11:43AM]

Yea, the "pickpocket" is going to rip this thing off your wrist w/o you knowing? Have you ever been somewhere that required wristbands, like a concert maybe? It is hard for me to get one off w/o making marks on my wrist.

And tell me, how will they know what room to go to?

[max @ Dec 12th 2006 6:28AM]

here's what's going to happen: some idiot is going to get on the vortex with this thing and it's going to fly right off!... and then immediately hit him in the face....

[raz @ Dec 12th 2006 6:36AM]

... and while he's unconscious some dude in the queue will pick it up, run back to his room and fleece everything...

[Gabriel Luci @ Dec 12th 2006 8:56AM]

The Great Wolf Lodge in Niagara Falls, Canada already has these implemented. A friend of mine recently stayed there and told me about how the wrist bands not only get you into your room, and into the water park, but lets you buy things within the hotel also, charging anything to your credit card.

By the way, they're like those wrist bands you get at fairs. They don't come off unless you cut them off. They're disposible and work only for the days you're at the hotel.

[Pudders @ Dec 12th 2006 8:56AM]

Instead of arm bands why don't they just give there guests a magic marker so they can tattoo their foreheads with the word "tourist".

[Dan @ Dec 12th 2006 1:12PM]

"Instead of arm bands why don't they just give there guests a magic marker so they can tattoo their foreheads with the word "tourist"." -Pudders
that made me rofl

[Brian @ Dec 12th 2006 9:24AM]

I would not wear a wrist band to stay at a hotel. What is that going to look like for the business man who is going to a conference wearing a hokey watch looking thing?

[IOTA @ Dec 12th 2006 11:45AM]

How many conferences are held at "funparks"?

They could easily offer this "tag" in a key fob so as not to insult your manliness.

[Wirelessdeo @ Dec 12th 2006 9:52AM]

even if the tag is cloned, they would nto be able to get into your room (if the hotel has any security) if they see somone going from room to room trying to open doors they can either turn off the wriststrap...or better yet call the boys in blue. the wriststrap does not have your room # on it (just like the mag strip cards lots of places use). What they would be able to do is rack up on charges in the park.

[jbloch @ Dec 12th 2006 10:26AM]

This idea scares me. Someone's gonna lose a hand over this.

[LiquidAg @ Dec 12th 2006 10:41AM]

I think there're some good reasons Great Wolf is standardizing this throughtout their chain. They've been used the RFID bracelets at Poconos, PA since at least as early as this Summer. The bracelet's not just your room key; it's also your ticket to the indoors water park, and it can buy stuff (only if you show another card from the hotel or ID). This family lodge is VERY kids-oriented, so a key attached to a kid's wrist is a lot less trouble since they won't accidentally drop it while running around/going down waterslides/etc. This gives the parents the liberty of not having to escort them everywhere. Plus if they put more RFID readers throughtout the doorways and hallways, the hotel can track your kids' movements if you lose them.

Someone should find out if they put your personal info on it w/ a RFID reader or something.

[IOTA @ Dec 12th 2006 12:01PM]

No, they do not put personal information on the IC. It is just not practical or efficient considering the readers are all connected to their network where a database can be stored.

[Gold Farmer @ Dec 12th 2006 11:22AM]

Lame

[Don @ Dec 12th 2006 5:13PM]

I suppose they would only need to know what hotel you were at, then just roam the halls until a door opened. Bump someone in the lobby, and it's a sure thing.

[Nogami @ Dec 12th 2006 12:16PM]

Maybe they could offer it like an ankle-bracelet... You know, like criminals wear for in-home monitoring... Then it wouldn't be such a fashion eye-sore, and they'd still be able to track you like an endangered species!

[IOTA @ Dec 12th 2006 12:45PM]

Yea, when you want to pay for something or get into your room, you'll lift your leg like a dog.

That's just stupid.

You think the wristbands used at concerts and festivals are eye-sores? I never really cared.

FYI- The picture above is NOT the same wristband in use at the park! They are not nearly as bulky as this active (i.e. battery powered) shown.

[Don @ Dec 12th 2006 5:19PM]

I've thought that RFID would be great on the slopes, allowing for automated lift-ticket punches (as well as tracking vertical feet covered - maybe a neat metric for season ticket holders). Swatch did this in Europe (not using RFID, something else); perhaps they still do.

Another neat deal would be tracking small kids in such a huge environment, or being able to tell a parent or buddy if a person is stuck somewhere on the mountain or safely sipping a toddy in the chalet. It would also let patrols know if (after the lifts closed) when the last rider had left the mountain - or if there were still riders who didn't come back.

[Nikki @ Dec 13th 2006 10:46AM]

Why don't we just skip all the nonsense and get right to where the world is heading towards - barcodes tattooed on our skin so we can be tracked everywhere we go!

[Kumar @ Dec 13th 2006 11:57AM]

Save the fear mongering for people who care everybody. This is probably a good use for this technology. It's a closed environment where you'd be more likely to have your wallet and keys either lifted or fall from you pockets during one of the rides. Makes you wonder how many losers that fear big bro is taking over actually have families and go to theme parks. I'm more worried about kids getting taken than petty material belongings.

That ski area idea is a good one too. Especially if you come up missing, then the resort can tell its rescue peeps which area your rfid tripped last. Except of course for all those turds that like the to have lift tickets to show off on their ski jacket for the next 5 months.

[blogger5 @ Dec 15th 2006 11:03AM]

after reading some commments i realized that not many people know much about RFID technology--which is OK since the use of this technology in waterparks like Great Wolf is new. First, the picture of the wristband is wrong. Great Wolf uses PASSIVE RFID--which btw CANNOT BE USED TO TRACK anyone. Active RFID is what is used to 'track' people.

It is much easier to loose a key or credit card, and have someone use it, than it is to loose one of these wristbands (just a comment for the pickpocket believer)... especially at a waterpark when you're typically wearing a bathing suit and have limited places to put your key and money!

[Jay-J @ Dec 15th 2006 6:03PM]

Actually the wrist bands originally got encoded with information when the system was implemented but this was seen as a security risk so it was changed to only store a ID basically that correlates with the Property Management System to reflect back to the guest, and from what I understand the number isn't the same as the guest number so that won't help as well.

This will be the 3rd or 4th GW resort with this and all future installments will have this as well.

[yooper1019 @ Dec 27th 2006 10:39PM]

I had an RFID wristband at Wild Wadi Water Park in the U.A.E. well over six years ago. It bought my food, opened my locker, and let me into the rides. It's about time we start implementing some Eastern style convenience over here. Maybe not a good idea for hotels but I would like to see them at Theme Parks. Although maybe that's because I found a guys wristband at the water park with $80 on it!

[alfredchew @ Jan 29th 2007 4:46AM]

There is another similar kind of stuff which utilize mobile phone to make all the transaction and gate collections. Perhaps from the same company!!

Alfred Chew
http://fi-fo.blogspot.com