Locks open up unlimited potential

ENTEC Systems had a special exhibition at its stand in the Technology Centre - examples of locks it has made for bedroom doors at the world's most expensive hotel.

The Meridien, Bahrain, cost a reported US$1m (£670,000) a room to build. Of that, £650 per bedroom has been spent on the locking system.

The features which make the Meridien locks special are cosmetic as well as technical: fibre-optic lighting is used to back-light the room number above the lock. And a privacy button inside the door activates a "Do not disturb" display outside. A chiming doorbell completes the unit.

Each lock contains a microprocessor which can produce an audit trail of the last 200 transactions (openings and lockings) - identifying the time of each transaction and the level of keycard (guest, maid, manager or emergency) which was used.

Magnetic stripe keycards are programed from a unit on the hotel front desk, which is interfaced to the property management system.

Entec operates this with Fidelio and Lodgistix PMS, and has done the work to interface with other systems.