This text describes the advantages for hotels as a result of implementing the online system for monitoring and controlling access to the hotel rooms.
Issues that the online electronic hotel lock system solves
Preventing check-ins off the books
- Until a guest is registered in the PMS, it is impossible to issue a keycard. If the lock system is integrated with a PMS, the administrator can issue guest cards only in the hotel property management system (PMS). One cannot provide a room keycard without conducting a transaction in the hotel management system. If a check-in is canceled in the PMS, a guest card immediately becomes invalid. If the administrator changes a room in the PMS after check-in, the guest card turns out to be invalid for the initial room. These common ways to check in a guest off the books do not work in the HSU online system.
- Controlling the passage of guests through the doors in real time. You can see immediately who and when has passed through each particular door in the context of the name of an employee and guest, even in case the guest card was issued from the PMS.
- Controlling the period within which a staff card remains inserted into an energy-saving switch. Also, there is a function of remotely turning off the power supply in a particular room. For monitoring the status of rooms in the HSU online system, there is a special report on the use of service cards in rooms. If a long presence of a staff card is detected, you can manually turn off the light in the room for any period without limits.
- Restricting the validity period of staff cards according to the working hours of employees. For line staff, such as maids, the cards may be limited in accordance with their schedules. For example, such cards may work from 8 a. m till 9 p. m. This option prevents employees from using their cards to check in guests secretly.
Revenue growth and loss reduction (with integration with the hotel PMS)
- It is possible to use a guest card as a payment tool. In this case, the decision to pay for something in restaurants, bars, SPAs, and rental shops comes to a guest easier.
- Food control at the buffet.
Both of these features become available on installing the HSU PMS integration module. When a guest card is issued from the PMS, the integration module returns to the PMS the serial number of the card issued for the guest. The restaurant system, by reading the card, finds out the card number and requests the details of the guest using this number in the PMS. Then, the restaurant and hotel systems exchange information on closing restaurant services to the guest's account in the hotel system. Additionally, the function of exchanging PMS and restaurant POS systems is supported by recording data to the virtual track of the card (used in Fidelio Suite 8 and Opera).
* The features require configuring on the part of the PMS.
Staff work monitoring
- Monitoring the movement of staff in real time. All passage events are reflected in real time in the passage report. You can see in the log not only the passages of guests, but also all passages of the staff, including through service doors.
- Monitoring the maids' cards by the period of staying a card in the pocket of an energy-saving switch. You can track who and when turned on and off the light in a particular room. The report contains the moment of turning on and off the electricity and the holder of the card with which the electricity was turned on. If the staff card remains in the switch for more than one hour, such an event is automatically reflected in the exception log, which allows you to track the unusual use of the room.
Equipment condition monitoring
- Instead of a weekly inspection, an engineer can see the locks' charge levels and equipment status in real time. In an offline system, the function of monitoring the battery charge level falls on the maid service. As a result of this, the engineers may not be informed in time about the need to replace the lock batteries. The human factor may lead to the following: a maid does not know about such a duty, a staff member has forgotten to inform the engineer or was simply too lazy to do this. This may lead to a malfunction of the lock upon arrival of a guest. The battery level is displayed in the list of locks in the online system. A glance at the report provides the full information about the batteries of which locks require replacing.
Remote check-in and check-out guests in apartments and guesthouses
- In addition to the card, a guest can open the lock using the application on the smartphone or by entering a passcode. You can also use this method of authorizing guests when checking them in without the need to visit the reception. If you have all the guest's data to comply with the legal requirements for guest registration and trust the guest, you can issue an electronic key to check them in the room without their personal presence. An electronic key on a smartphone, like a code, is issued for a specified period and becomes automatically invalid after the end of the period of stay in the hotel.
- In case of breaking the rules of living in the hotel, access to the guest can be blocked remotely. The same applies to the card loss in the hotel. As soon as a guest reports the loss of a card, it can be immediately blocked from the administrator's workplace.
- A lock can be opened remotely from the administrator's workplace. If a guest, for example, has some difficulties with the application on their smartphone or entering a passcode, you can remotely open the door for the guest without making them feel uncomfortable when trying to solve the issue standing right in the hallway.
Why is the HSU online lock system convenient?
The hotel owner takes full control over the operation of the hotel
- Acquiring data from locks and generating reports at any time. There is no need to synchronize the lock data with the software, using data cards or a programmer like in an offline system, to browse the log of passages through a particular door. In the online system, information is available in real time. Similarly, in real time, the hotel owner or manager can monitor the use of electricity in a particular room: who and when turned on the light, and for how long period.
- Immediate check-in and check-out of guests. By blocking the authorization of guests on the room lock, whether it be a card, an electronic key in the application, or a code, access to the guest's room is blocked instantly without the need for physical access to the lock. On the one hand, this increases security of guests and the hotel. For example, if a guest has lost a keycard, the card can be blocked immediately upon a phone call from the guest. On the other hand, it simplifies the management process. For example, you need to suspend the guest's authorization on the room door lock, if you need to invite the guest to the reception for making the next payment for accommodation.
- Power supply management in the rooms. The online hotel access control system includes a network energy-saving switch (“card pocket”). Since the switch is connected to the server, it tracks a guest's check-in in the system and does not turn on the light in the room if the guest is not checked in. In case of integration with the PMS, the light in the room will not turn on if the guest is not checked into your hotel property management system (PMS). In the case of using a staff card as a guest one, all such events are recorded in the specialized report on unusual use of electricity in the room. In addition, the tool makes it possible to remotely turn on and off the light in a particular hotel room. If you see that an employee has left the card in the room switch and the light has been on for long enough, you can turn off the light in the room remotely to spare the hotel's electricity. You can also turn the light on. The remote control of the room light takes precedence over a card. Accordingly, a card will not turn on the light in the room until the switch is turned back to the standard operation mode by the owner. These tools are developed to prevent the illegitimate use of rooms by hotel staff when the owner or manager is absent.
- All these functions are available remotely via the Internet. Since the system is controlled using a browser, a simple publication of the system's server on the Internet on the hotel's router makes it accessible from any part of the world on any device. There is no need to install any software on users' devices.
No PC software installation is required
- Employees need just a browser to work, the system is installed on a compact micro-server. The compact micro-server means a small computer of the nettop type, which is as small as an average book. Installing the hotel access control software on a hotel micro-server is our strong recommendation and the advantage of our system at the same time. Of course, we support remote server installation. The software can be installed on a virtual or physical machine in a data center. The so-called cloud installation is also possible. Such equipment as gateways, encoders, energy-saving switches can connect to such a remote server without issues and work stably. Also, a PMS integration module can be used in such a scheme. In this case, you do not need any additional server equipment in the hotel, but in case of a failure on the provider's network, the hotel may come across a situation when it is impossible to issue guest keycards. We have heard about such unpleasant situations from other manufacturers on the market. We can recommend a scheme with a remote installation of the system in the cloud only if you feel 100% safe that no such failures can occur. In any other cases, installing the system on a local computer in a hotel is a strong advantage that ensures the fault tolerance of the hotel's ACS.
- There are no restrictions on the operating system. Since working with the system requires only a standard browser and no installation of any drivers, you can use any operating system. For example, Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Linux. The only thing we recommend is an FHD screen resolution (1920x1080 dots (pixels)). With HD resolution (1280x720) the work becomes less comfortable.
- Replacing a PC at the reception does not require reinstalling the system. You just open the link in your usual browser (Chrome, Safari, etc.) and keep working. No special PC setup is required.
Reading information about passages and monitoring battery charge level is performed remotely.
- Reducing engineering effort. Due to the option of monitoring the state of lock batteries, it is easy to plan the work of an engineering service to replace batteries in the electronic locks. The work becomes planned instead of urgent without the need for individual control of each lock in the hotel.
- Regular inspections can be replaced by a simple analysis of reports on the operation of the system.
The system keeps working when you have no internet access.
The components of HSU online lock system
Online Electronic Hotel Locks
- Transmitting data and receiving commands from control gateways or energy-saving devices.
- Proven by time and numerous installations of electromechanical components. From a mechanical point of view, they are not new devices whose reliability you will have to test for yourself, but devices that have been operating for many years in hundreds of hotels. The locks have a new electronic unit that provides the functions described above.
Online Locks Gateway HSU-BTGW
- The device to be placed in the hallway and connected via Ethernet to the hotel's local network.
- Transmits commands and collects information from locks and access controllers.
- Each gateway can serve up to 32 locks 100 m away at a frequency of 433 MHz using the energy efficient Sub-1G protocol.
Online Energy-Saving Switch HSU-FK002-BT
- Managing power supply. The room is powered only on using a guest keycard in the system. The device makes it possible to remotely turn on and off the light in the room.
- Accounting the period of staying a guest and an employee in the room. Generating security events in case of using a staff card and a guest one.
- Replacing the gateway, while the switch connects to the server via Wi-Fi or Ethernet and controls the lock via BLE. The capability to connect to the server via Wi-Fi makes it possible to install an online switch in a working hotel, where laying additional communication lines to the switch is impossible.
Online System Proximity Encoder HSU-CE-BT
- The device is designed for issuing guest and service cards.
- Connects via Ethernet to the hotel server.
- It is used in the HTLock ACS software workspace and in the PMS integration module. It does not require drivers for the operating system, and can be used with any OS.
Online System Portable Programmer HSU-HS
- The device is designed to quickly configure a large number of locks in medium-sized and large hotels. It is used to set up energy-saving switches online.
- When the server fails, the programmer can issue cards and passcodes offline using an application on a mobile phone.
It is an optional component as a lock programmer, but it is required when setting online energy-saving switches.
Online System Wall Controller HSU-HAC-BT
The device works the same as an electronic online lock, but it has a relay output with normally open (NO) and normally closed (NC) contacts. This allows you to control the following devices:
- An electromagnetic or electromechanical lock installed on a door where the installation of a classic mortise lock is difficult or impossible (for example, a glass door).
- Using the device as a turnstile or barrier reader to control access to the territory of the entire hotel and its dedicated areas (for example, the beach, or premises (for example, a SPA area).
- Installing as a simple elevator controller, if the device controls the permission of a group of buttons in the elevator.
The device supports authorization by card, application, and passcode.
Online System Software - HSU HTLock
- The software is developed to control the HSU online system of hotel locks.
- It should be installed on a dedicated compact micro-server in a hotel to ensure system Internet fault tolerance. Cloud installing is acceptable if there is no risk of a communication channel failure.
- Working requires only a standard browser. You can easily gain access from any part of the world.
- Compatibility with any OS on users' computers: Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Linux.
- All equipment components are connected via TCP/IP protocol. No hardware drivers are required to be installed on users' computers.
PMS Integration Software
- The device provides mutual work of the PMS with HSU HTLock (online) and ILMS (offline) hotel lock management software.
- It can work simultaneously with two systems for the transition from offline locks to online ones step by step.
- The device works with a PMS via TCP/IP protocol. It has a simple, well-documented API for integration, supports HSU protocols for integration with most PMS and FIAS for integration with Suite 8 / Opera.
- It provides convenient mechanisms for PMS to integrate with third-party systems such as POS systems for restaurants, SPA, etc.
- It has been tested with most popular property management systems.
If you have any questions about the operation of the HSU online system, please, contact us in any convenient way.