A room key that happens to be paper
A hotel key card has one job: open the doors a guest is entitled to open. Inside a paper RFID card sits the same kind of RFID inlay used in conventional cards — a chip and antenna that answer the reader at each access point. What changes is the body around it: a wood-fibre board rather than PVC. To a reader it behaves like a card; to a guest it feels like paper.
What it is actually made of
"Paper" describes the feel, not a flimsy sheet. PPH BioBoard is made from wood fibre pressed into a dense, durable board, which is why it looks and feels like premium hotel stationery while standing up to daily handling far better than an ordinary paper card. FSC certification covers the fibre source.
How the RFID part actually works
The visible card is only half the story. Every hotel card — paper or plastic — has to be matched to the property’s readers, the way credentials are encoded, and the workflow at reception. A paper RFID card is specified the same way: confirm the operating setup and encoding the property already uses, then build the card to suit it. That is why a paper card can share the exact dimensions of an existing key and still need a different internal configuration.
What changes when the card is paper
Two cards can look and behave identically at the reader while feeling completely different in the hand. Wood fibre gives a warmer, more tactile, stationery-like surface and a print result closer to fine hotel collateral than to a plastic access token — plus a clear, traceable material story in FSC-certified fibre, without changing how the card is used day to day.
Built tougher than a standard paper card
Because it is a pressed wood-fibre board, not a printed sheet, it is engineered to be far more durable than a conventional paper card — made for the taps, pockets and wallets of a real stay. Unusual conditions, such as very long stays, pool and spa humidity, or card-in-slot energy savers, are still worth flagging at sampling so the test reflects them.
How to specify one
- A current working credential or verified system information
- The access points the card must operate (rooms, lifts, shared areas, energy-saving slots)
- The encoding workflow (at reception or supplied preconfigured)
- Artwork, colour and finish
- A physical sample tested at every relevant access point