A Quick Gripe About Keys

The lodging facility I work at has two separate wings; a modern style motel and a historic hotel. The motel recently upgraded to RFID key cards, which is pretty nifty. The hotel wing still has the old school hard keys, like the little metal ones on your key ring.

RFID keys can be a little tricky, especially when you've never used one. Most of the guest clientele are accustomed to the usual magnetic strip type keys that you swipe through a slot in the door to unlock. All you need to do with RFID keys is hold them in front of the lock-- simple. So simple, in fact, that it's complicated, because people assume you insert the key in the door to open it. That means people come back to the front desk to ask where the slot is for the key, or to tell me they broke the door lock by trying to jam the key into a place it sort of might fit. I can't fault people too much for not knowing how those newfangled locks work I guess.

I can, however, fault people who don't know how normal keys work.

Oftentimes in the historic hotel, guests come back to the front desk after checking in to tell me their key doesn't work. When I follow them to their door and try their key, it works-- every time. After a moment of bewilderment at my apparent door-opening magic they look at me and say, "Oh! You use the lock on the DOORKNOB! I was trying the DEADBOLT lock!"

Okay... I act understanding and cordial after the fact to save face, but it does raise an honest question; If you try a doorknob, and you find said doorknob to be locked, why would you try the deadbolt lock instead of the doorknob lock? Maybe I'm expecting too much, or maybe I'm just being too critical, but it really seems like there is a fundamental level of problem solving that is being missed by these folks. Like, they can't figure out that they should unlock the doorknob that isn't turning. These are people that have survived into adulthood. Some of these people are educated, like doctors and teachers. I know it shouldn't, but it really gets to me. I don't know.

Maybe my gripe isn't so much about keys as it is about the lack of troubleshooting capabilities people possess. Maybe the unwillingness of people to figure relatively simple things out is the issue. The RFID cards have use instructions on them. There's another lock on the door besides the deadbolt. One thing is for sure, though; I really only think this hard about keys toward the end of my work week.

TGIF