There is no common QC standard for hotel key card, different factory has their own QC standard, and every card vendor claims their hotel key cards are high quality. Then what kind of card can be called “high quality” hotel card?
1. A-Class Material
A high quality key card must be made with high quality material. There are different levels of raw materials for card making. Choosing a high-class and light-blocking material is the basis of a high class hotel key card.
2. Exact Dimension
Dimension (length, width and thickness of a key card) is the basic standard of a qualified key card. If a key card was printed perfectly but with wrong dimension, then it’s useless.
3. Smooth Surface and Edges
Never make the key card with sharp corners or edges because it migt hurt the guests. Sometimes when there were something wrong went with the die-cutting machine or if the machine was not well maintained, the card edges will be rough and it will feel uncomfortable when rubbing with fingers, in this case, the key card is not qualified.
And no wonder, a smooth-surface key card is also the basis of a qualified hotel card.
4. No Defects
Defects of hotel key card contain scratches, fur, or dirty spots on the card surface.
For a magnetic stripe key card, a magnetic stripe in wrong position or an inclined magnetic stripe are defects because both conditions will cause the card from not working properly.
For an RFID smart key card, chip blemish is also a kind of defect, which means the guests shall not see any marks of the chip on the card surface. Normally, the chip blemish will be more easily caused when the card is dark background, it’s normally caused by the pressure and operation time during the lamination. Therefore, this problem will also tell how the workers experienced in card production.
5. Perfect Printing
Perfect printing contains 2 parts, 100% accurate layout and right colors.
Layout:
100% accurate layout means the card should be 100% the same with the artwork without any tiny content being missed. Printing cards usually need to make a layout first, to make this, it usually requires the artwork files to be transformed to another format, some content in the original artwork will therefore be missing or changing if the designer didn’t pay enough attention when transforming the design.
Colors:
One thing should be known that it’s almost impossible to print the colors 100% the same as in the artwork, even if a PMS color code is given. The same artwork will present in different colors itself on different screens, so if you have a high requirement on the colors, remember to give a sample card to your vendor to follow the colors.
If your key card is using pure color in background, remember to give a PMS color code to your vendor to follow the colors. However, giving a PMS color code doesn’t mean the factory can follow the color 100% accurately, because the same ink will give a different color reaction on different materials, especially when the material already is colored on itself. The PMS color book is printed on paper, if you are ordering plastic card, plus different finishing like glossy, matte, frosted will also give a different color.
6. Die-Cutting
To make a perfect key card, you should know what bleed, cut line and margin means. Check this article and then you will know why these 3 outlines are important. Don’t worry if you don’t have a designer to do this for you, you can leave it to us and we will fix it.
7. Positioning
If you are adding some crafts for your key card, like spot UV, hot stamp, there might be problems about positioning. Check carefully whether the crafts are in the right position, and if possible, check with your vendor to see whether they can make all the crafts in the right position, so that when you receive the cards and found they didn’t keep their promise, ask them to take the responsibility.
8. Well Functional
No matter how nice a key card looks like, if it’s not well functioned, then it’s useless. So the most important is to make sure every card your vendor produced is 100% well functioned.
Nexqo will check every card and make sure every single key card is well functioned before dispatched.
9. Data
There are a few different printing method for printing data on the card, if you have a preferred one, specify it and ask your vendor to follow your way exactly. Check what printing methods are available for numbers here.
But it’s not frequent for hotels to print data on the card, data encoding is more often. Make sure the vendor encoded your key card correctly, if not, your key card might have problems to open the door.
10. Packaging
Shipping the key cards aboard could damage the carton, then to damage the key card. Use a tough enough carton therefore is very important because if the cartons are not strong enough, the key card could be all ruined.
As you can tell now, making some pre-production samples are the most secure way to make sure you receive a perfect card which is perfectly working with your locking system.
Nexqo is a professional manufacturer with 10 years experience in card manufacturing, we provide key cards which are compatible with most mainstreaming locking systems. Learn more details here. Your inquiry is always welcomed, contact us to customize your hotel card now.