Start a Collection of Old Hotel Keys

In the advent of technology advances like electronic key cards, old-fashioned keys no longer had a use for opening doors to hotel rooms. Of course, electronic key cards are much more convenient and easy. They fit conveniently in your wallet and one swipe is all it takes for you to get into your room. But what happened to all the old keys that hotels used to use? Like any good collectible that is on the verge of extinction, they've become a hot collectible.

In the 19^th century, hotels keys were quite ubiquitous. With the Industrial Revolution came increased traveling by trains. With people leaving home and traveling all over the country lead to the popularity of overnight stays in hotels. To discourage guests from mistakenly taking the keys with them when their stays were over, hotels would attach heavy metal tags to the keys. Some hotels would even have a message imprinted on the tags that there would offer a reward for missing keys if they were returned.

Many of these keys were brass and or bronze with heavy metal tags attached to them. Ironically, with the unwieldy tags attached, these small keys started walking away. Newlyweds would take them home as souvenirs or travelling businessmen would keep them as a reminder of their many journeys. Or people would take them in order to have access to the room later on. Many of these keys, especially in the early usage of keys, were skeleton keys, meaning that they could fit into most locks. If you had access to the room, then you could have access to any valuables or belongings that were in the room when other guests stayed in them.

This was one reason that hotels switched to electronic key cards. In order to prevent burglaries, hotels eventually began doling out these e-cards to guests. This reduced the amount of illegal break-ins and made keeping track of keys much easier. Only one key card would open one room, not many.

As the years went on, skeleton keys were replaced by ones that were a little more complex in their makings. Warded keys, as they were called, were specifically cut keys that would open only one lock. Even later, levered keys were created to fit the heavier locks of hotel rooms.