Which Key Card Works With Your Lock?

Start by identifying your lock

The card follows the lock, never the other way around. Before you can order a single card you need three facts about your door hardware: the brand, the model or series, and whether it reads contactless RFID or a magnetic stripe. Most of this is printed or embossed somewhere you can reach without tools.

Look first at the lock escutcheon (the metal plate on the door) for a brand mark. Then open your property-management or lock-management software — the encoder application that issues keys at the front desk almost always names the platform (for example "System 6000", "Visionline", or "ProAccess SPACE"). A spare lock, an installation manual, or your last invoice from the integrator will confirm the model. If a card is swiped into a slot, you are on magnetic stripe; if it is tapped flat against a target on the lock, you are on RFID.

• Brand mark on the door escutcheon or the lock body
• Platform name in your front-desk encoder / PMS software
• Model or series on the lock manual, spare unit or integrator invoice
• Read method: swipe-in-slot (magstripe) vs tap-on-target (RFID/contactless)
• Any text on the back of an existing card ("MIFARE", "DESFire", "1K")

Match the brand to its technology

Once you know the brand and model, this table maps the major lock systems used in American hotels to the card technology they read. Treat it as a starting point: within a single brand, older locks often read MIFARE Classic while the current generation reads encrypted MIFARE DESFire (AES), so the model year matters as much as the badge on the door.

A crucial accuracy note: modern encrypted platforms (current VingCard/dormakaba, SALTO, Häfele Dialock) cannot be cloned from a guest card. They write a secured, system-specific credential that only your own encoder can produce. That is a security feature, not a limitation — and it is exactly why you order compatible blank cards and encode them yourself.

Blank vs pre-encoded: which to order

A "blank" card is a finished, printed card with the correct chip but no access data written to it yet. Your front desk encodes each one at check-in on your own lock and PMS system. This is the most secure path and the one we recommend for almost every property: the guest credential is created by your software, never copied from another card, and it inherits your system's encryption automatically.

A "pre-encoded" card arrives already programmed to a profile you provide — useful for staged openings, test batches, or multi-property rollouts where a central team writes credentials before distribution. The chip is the same; only the timing of when the data is written changes. With encrypted platforms, even a pre-encoded card is written using your own secure keys, so it remains uncloneable.

• Blank: encode at the desk on your system — most secure, our default recommendation
• Pre-encoded: programmed to your profile before shipping — for staged openings and rollouts
• Either way the chip is identical; only the timing of encoding differs
• Encrypted systems write secure, system-specific data that cannot be duplicated

How American Hotel Cards matches your card

You do not need to become an RFID engineer to order correctly. Send us your lock brand and model — or just a photo of the lock and the name in your front-desk software — and we confirm the exact inlay your readers expect. If you are unsure whether your VingCard or Saflok fleet is the older MIFARE Classic generation or the newer DESFire generation, a single test card resolves it before you commit to a full run.

From there, you choose the material (standard PVC or a sustainable wood, bamboo or recycled core), the print, and whether to receive cards blank or pre-encoded. Every credential ships in CR80 format on 13.56 MHz, so it drops into the readers and card printers you already own.