apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

That's really nice. I also like that the keycard slot keeps the card handy so you'll always know where it is when you're about to leave. A little landing strip away from home, I suppose.

I've noticed many hotels in Europe, from the UK to Spain do the same thing with their keys and the light switch. It's a great idea and I'd love to see it in the US...

I consider myself pretty green and all, but it seems like this'd be annoying. What if you need to get up in the middle of the night to use the restroom? do you have to fumble around in the dark, half out of it, trying to find your key card?

But I guess if it works in forcing people to conserve, that's something...

I first saw this in the upmarket hotel I was staying in in Melbourne, AU. It was common all over AU and New Zealand, and have since seen it all over Asia and Europe. Really a smart idea, and you always know where your room key is.

Another simple yet effective idea (along with dual flush toilets) that are common in the rest of the world, but rarely seen in North America. Hopefully N.American hotels will jump on the bandwagon, if not directly for the environment's sake, then for the cost savings.

And Mat, when you are in the room, the key card stays in the slot, so the lights will work in the middle of the night...

An annoying side of these is when there's two of you and one of you leaves the room and other doesn't. I found this out the hard way in Rome when my boyfriend went out to grab a snack and I stayed behind to relax. After 10 minutes I had no light, no tv and I sat in the dark for 30 minutes listening to my iPod. Forced relaxation, I guess...

France uses the lights/keycard thing too.

they're common in hotels in asia too.
mat - no fumbling around. you put the key in the slot and leave it there when you enter and everything works normally while you're inside. my only problem is that sometimes the AC goes down quite a bit and so i've returned to an unpleasantly hot room (e.g., temp in delhi 110F)

I just stayed at a Westin in Pittsburgh that had this same feature so I'm sure this is more common in the States than you think.

I've seen this in a couple of hotel rooms here in the States, and I don't travel very often, so I'm sure it's becoming more popular, especially with newer hotels. You do want to have at least 2 key cards if you're sharing the room with someone (as Kelly experienced, though didn't seem like hers was too much of an issue). Jens is an unfortunate experience, though....

I find it...well, humorous, I guess...that this and other measures hotels are taking that make them "greener" (like not washing sheets and towels everyday) and actually just save them money. Not a bad thing at all, it's an obvious way to "save the earth," and money is a huge motivator, so I'm glad they can see that.