RFID tags in hotel towels cut down on theft levels

Travelers can be a peculiar lot – just ask any hotel manager and they will tell you that in their long years of service, they would have come across many different kinds of personalities as well as customers who will have the strangest requests – never mind that they aren’t divas in the first place. Of course, you can’t tell who is a kleptomaniac from the outside, but there is a percentage of frequent travelers who do not see any wrong when it comes to stashing away free toiletries, towels and other random items from hotel rooms (of course, we do not mean irons and bathrobes as well as items that need to be paid) – at least as much as their suitcases are able to cram in.

Some hotels see this as an affront, and their losses could run up quite fast, which is why they have decided to “fight back” in a sense by making sure that towels as well as linens should be off bounds to those with a penchant for stashing away stuff without any permission. In fact, hotels in Honolulu, Miami and Manhattan have started to sew specially designed RFID tags into towels, so whenever one attempts to remove one of these off the premises, the chip will automatically call in the embarrassing squad – that is, setting off an alarm so that the staff on reception will be alerted and are able to take the appropriate action.

It is said that one particular hotel who implemented such a system managed to save around $15,000 to date, so expect future hotels, spas and resorts to follow up on similar methodology.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Gadgets
Tags: rfid