It’s almost summer and with that season comes the annual summer vacation. After a few years of “staycations” many families this year are on the road to explore national parks, visit a theme park/resort, spend a week at the beach or even go see the grandparents.

Along the way and at their destination, families will be checking into hotels they have previously researched on the Internet and, based on reviews, pre-booked. Hotel amenities, prices and location all figure into the choice but for many families, safety and security are also key considerations.

Hospitality professionals can help minimize security risks by implementing basic safety measures such adequate lighting and landscaping designs, and by deploying enhanced security technology such as video surveillance cameras. Specialized key control policy in hotels is an additional resource that can further improve property protection and help ensure the safety of the vacationing families.

Automated key control and management systems store facility keys in tamper-proof cabinets accessible only by authorized users. All transactions are recorded so that management has an audit trail of who accessed which key and when. Many of today’s key control systems are engineered for complete interactivity with other business systems such as access control to enable hotel management to create a layered security strategy.

The key control system cannot be manipulated or easily tampered with and provides the hotel with a safe a secure method of storing and tracking keys. A robust feature set increases security; for example, personnel cannot exchange keys during or at the end of a shift because the key management system will automatically send an email to management that a key was not returned or that it was returned by another user.

Reports generated by a key control system are very useful to hotel management for tracking key usage and in improving overall operational and security procedures. They can be utilized to trace missing keys, keep better control of assets and help ensure timely follow-up action if there is an incident.

Now more than ever safety and security is on the checklist for families when selecting a vacation hotel. Key control and management systems can help maintain a hotel’s excellent reputation for guest satisfaction.