Hospitality · Access Control and Mobile Key
Access Control and Mobile Key, From Reservation to Door.
Electronic locks, mobile keys delivered to the guest's phone, staff zones and back-of-house doors, cameras and monitoring, mapped to the property-management system so the reservation becomes the key, in the United States, Hawaii, and Europe.
Access Control and Mobile Key
The Reservation Is the Key.
SALTO issues a secure digital key directly to a registered guest's smartphone, sent over the air from its ProAccess SPACE management software through the JustIN Mobile app, after the front desk checks the guest in through the property-management system; guests who prefer it still get a physical smart key at reception. The demand is measurable: Hilton reported nearly 14.3 million Digital Keys downloaded from January to August 2024, with more than 870,000 shared with travel companions, and its Connected Room runs in more than 2,400 hotels.
The locks are the visible half. The rest is staff zones and schedules, housekeeping access by floor and shift, back-of-house doors, elevators, and gates on one system, cameras that cover the corridors and the loading dock, and a monitoring plan for the overnight. In Europe the hotel stays the data controller for guest data under GDPR wherever it is processed, which shapes what the access system keeps and for how long.
01 · Guest
Mobile Key, Card as Backup
A digital key to the phone on check-in, a card at the desk for those who want one, and both mapped to the reservation so they expire when the stay does.
02 · Staff
Zones, Shifts, and Back of House
Housekeeping by floor and shift, engineering everywhere, contractors by door and hour, back-of-house doors, elevators, and gates on the same system, with an audit trail.
03 · Cameras
Covered and Monitored
Corridors, lobbies, loading docks, and parking on UniFi Protect, with live monitoring for the overnight and retention set to what the law and the operator need.
At a Glance
Hotel access in brief.
- SALTO mobile key
- SALTO issues a secure digital key directly to a guest's smartphone, sent over the air from ProAccess SPACE management software to a registered iOS or Android device through the JustIN Mobile app, after the front desk checks the guest in through the property-management system; a physical smart key at reception remains an option.
- Guest demand
- From January to August 2024, nearly 14.3 million Hilton Digital Keys were downloaded and more than 870,000 were shared with travel companions; Hilton's Connected Room technology is deployed in more than 2,400 hotels.
- Guest data
- Under GDPR, hotels remain the data controller for guest data even when it is processed through a third-party vendor's system, and remain liable if that system is breached.
Sources: SALTO, hotel room digital key; Hilton, 2025 travel trends; Hilton, Connected Room; The Hotel Blueprint, PMS vendor data-breach liability.
Reading on Access Control and Mobile Key
Guides and related work.
- Access architecture from reservation to door →
Locks, mobile keys, PMS mapping, staff zones, and back-of-house doors on one system.
- What hotel locks involve →
- SALTO →
- Live-monitored cameras for hotels →
- Hotel Wi-Fi and networking →
Questions About Access Control and Mobile Key
Access Control and Mobile Key, Answered
How does a reservation become a mobile key?+–
The front desk checks the guest in through the property-management system, the access software issues a digital key over the air to the guest's registered phone, and the key expires with the stay. A card at reception stays available for guests who want one, and the mapping between the PMS and the locks is what we build and document.
Can housekeeping, engineering, and contractors be on the same system?+–
Yes, with zones and schedules: housekeeping by floor and shift, engineering everywhere, contractors by door and hour, and back-of-house doors, elevators, and gates on the same platform with an audit trail the operator can read.
What about the cameras?+–
Corridors, lobbies, loading docks, and parking on UniFi Protect, with retention set to what the operator and the law require, and live monitoring for the overnight where the property wants it. The cameras ride the same segmented network as the locks, away from the guest Wi-Fi.
Can you do this in an open hotel?+–
Yes. Rollouts are phased by floor or wing, guest-room work is done in short housekeeping windows, public spaces are converted overnight, and the old and new systems run side by side until the last floor is cut over. Most properties never close a room.
Who supports the property after opening?+–
We do, remotely first. Cave Watch monitors the network, the guest-room systems, the public-space AV, and the lighting, fixes most faults without a visit, and schedules one when it is needed; Crestron XiO Cloud, the Lutron dashboard, and UniFi give the technician and the property the same view. Firmware and programming updates are staged floor by floor, and the support agreement names response times and what the on-site staff handle.
More From Hospitality
More on hotel technology.
Start Here
Walk the Property With Us.
Bring the drawings if the hotel is on paper, the room mock-up if it is in design, or the list of what no longer works if it is open. We will tell you what we would do, in what order, what it would take, and how the rooms get commissioned without closing the floor.
Start a Projector call · +1 (888) 712-2283 · [email protected]