Recently spent the night in a half-decent hotel in Lombok, Indonesia and felt rather foolish before I had even got into my room. Quite simply, my stupidity prevented me from getting into my room. I guess me being too mean to have the bell boy pull my not-heavy-at-all bag the 40 meters from reception didn't help, as he would have opened the door for me. Anyway, the reason I couldn't get in was because, like in so many hotels nowadays, there is no key, but a card. I had had a long day and was answering question after question from my six-year-old daughter, but to be honest, I screwed up. The keycard thing went in the door, the right way at least twice and other ways, and the green light came on, but I couldn't get the door to open. My daughter had a go, and even though I didn't want to be shown up by a child, I still hoped she would be more successful than me. Alas, no. Of course, it was so obvious once the staff had come and shown me that the card must go in, and then be removed. Thinking back, it makes so much sense that that card not only needs to be inside the room to activate the electricity, but also doesn't want to be hanging around on the corridor-side of the door waiting to be stolen.

I hadn't given a thought to these hotel access control solutions for I don't know how many years, probably because I so infrequently get to stay in a hotel with more than two stars. And when I do, I have always got so much else to think about. Anyway, it got me thinking. Wouldn't it be great to have such a lock in our own homes? Ok, so when you get back from the shops, the pub, or from work you have to get your wallet out and find the keycard thing, but we wouldn't need to have an extra thing (bulky, noisy heavy keys) in our pockets all day long. And it would be one less thing to forget. Count the times you forget your keys, compared to how often you forget your wallet! But, would it ever really work in domestic situations? You see, people are scared of change. If there's a malfunction or power cut, maybe you can't get into your own home. The good-old metal key in a lock has been a proven and reliable device for so many years. Yes, they can be picked, but these electronic gadgets can also be hacked. I dare to argue that there is a growing number of dishonest people who have good computer and technical abilities, compared to a shrinking number of traditional lock pickers.

Saying all that, I would be unpleasantly surprised to make the same mistake again the next time I try to get into my hotel room. And at home, so long as we have decent strong door locks and don't forget our keys, we should all have a relatively good amount of security at home.