No, hotel key cards do not store information that can be used to steal your identity

Travelers are used to getting plastic key cards that unlock their room when checking into hotels or motels. These cards are typically activated by an employee before a guest can use them. 

VERIFY reader Terry texted us to ask if personal information is stored on these key cards, making it a security risk to return them to the front desk at the end of a stay.

“I have been told that motel keys are to be discarded or shredded instead of turned back in when you check out of a motel because personal information can be stored on them so someone could steal your identity perhaps. Is this true?” Terry said. 

THE QUESTION

Do hotel key cards store personal or financial information that could be used to steal your identity?

THE SOURCES

• Spokesperson for the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA)

• Kisi, a physical security system company

• Mews, a technology company that serves the hospitality industry

• Pasadena Police Department

THE ANSWER

No, hotel key cards do not store personal or financial information that could be used to steal your identity.

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WHAT WE FOUND

Hotel key cards usually contain information like your room number, the length of your stay and perhaps a guest number assigned to you by the hotel. Hotels do not store sensitive personal information on your key card.

“Hotel key cards simply contain the info required to access applicable hotel rooms and amenities during a guest’s stay,” a spokesperson for the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) said. “They do not contain any personal or financial information.”`

Most hotel key cards are magstripe cards, which you swipe to unlock your door, or RFID cards, which you tap to get into your room, according to Kisi, a physical security system company. Some RFID cards are also “smart cards,” which store slightly more information and can be used for more than just unlocking a guest’s room.

The majority of hotel key cards in the U.S. store only your room number and the length of your stay, Kisi says. This is typically the only information stored on a magstripe card, according to Mews, a technology company that serves the hospitality industry.

Kisi says RFID hotel key cards might also store your guest number, or the number used to identify your loyalty program account, “on occasions.” 

Smart RFID cards can be used to give guests access to additional hotel facilities, such as the hotel’s gym. They can also be used to make payments and can integrate with a hotel’s loyalty program, Kisi and Mews say. But the cards only need your room number for the former and your guest number for the latter.

When a guest uses a smart key card to pay for things at a hotel, the cost of those things gets added onto the guest’s bill at checkout. Kisi says smart cards used in this way allow the hotel to get a record of all a guest’s expenses from around the property at once instead of tallying the bills from separate places in the same building one-by-one.

But an identity thief looking for credit card or bank account numbers would not find any of that stored on a guest’s card. The key cards just link the purchases to the correct account. 

A Snopes article from 2003 sourced the rumor to a warning email from a detective with the Pasadena Police Department in Pasadena, California.

The Pasadena Police Department later issued a correction to that warning.

“As of today, detectives have contacted several large hotels and computer companies using plastic card key technology and they assure us that personal information, especially credit card information, is not included on their key cards,” the Pasadena Police Department wrote. “It would appear that no hotels engage in the practice of storing personal information on key cards.”