Outrigger Hotel Lets Guests Leave Cash and Credit Cards Behind

Tag : Magnetic Cards
Initially, the company is trialing the system at Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach , by offering the RFID-enabled card to select guests. The hotel'srestaurant is employing a handheld RFID interrogator to capture a card's unique ID number, enabling guests to pay for ameal. In early July, White says, he intends to have the firstoutside retail establishment using the system, while another 13retailers have agreed to participate as the system is graduallydeployed this year.

According to White, the Outrigger has, in the past, made paymentarrangements with some participating retailers allowing guests tomake purchases at those locations, then pay for them at the hotelupon checking out. However, he notes, that scenario required aunique arrangement and point-of-sale (POS) connection between thehotel and each retailer. About two years ago, White says, he beganenvisioning a plan to tie all local retailers into the hotel, andto make purchasing easier for guests who might not carry largeamounts of cash or credit cards with them as they walk, forinstance, from their room to the beach.

White says he approached Microsoft , which connected him to local RFID technology vendor EnrichSystems. "I wasn't looking for RFID specifically," he says. "I waslooking for a solution to a business problem"namely, how toprovide guests with greater convenience while shopping and diningin and around the hotel. The resulting system incorporates an NXP Semiconductors passive HF Mifare Ultralite RFID chip complying with the ISO 14443A standard, embedded in a mag-stripe guest room-key card, aswell as software and a server provided by Enrich Systems on theMicrosoft BizTalk Server 2006 RF platform, using Microsoft SQLServer 2005.

Enrich Systems was formed in 2006, says Elizabeth Redding, thestartup company's chief technology officer, and developed thisproduct as a result of Outrigger's request. Enrich Systems, shesays, designed the system to allow a retailer to utilize a wirelessdevice in its store to transmit a customer's ID number to an EnrichSystems server, which then sends the data to the hotel forapproval.

Upon arrival at the hotel, a guest is given the option of using theRFID cashless card in participating merchant locations, as well aswithin the hotel. If he agrees, the guest provides his credit cardto the hotel, and the card's number is linked, in the hotel'sback-end system, to the card's unique tag ID number. The guest can set up specific perimeters, such asallowing only a specific amount to be charged on the cardif, forexample, the card were given to a child.