SALTO Systems access control security management installed at Ramada hotel
(20/07/2007)

Built and owned by Pritchard Construction and leased to the Ramada Group of hotels, the brand new Ramada Birmingham North Cannock hotel is located just 18 miles away from the vibrant city of Birmingham, close to the M6 Motorway and just a short drive away from the NEC and Birmingham International Airport.

The hotel has chosen SALTO Systems to provide its access control security management. The hotel awarded the installation contract to approved SALTO business partner, Allgood plc.

“As a brand new hotel guest room security was an important part of this project from the outset,” comments Kevin Cox, Product Manager for Allgood Secure Limited. “Working in consultation with the hotel we designed a highly secure and flexible electronic access control system using Mifare proximity cards that was sleek and contemporary to match its new build surroundings.

SALTO comfort range locks in a polished stainless steel finish with privacy thumb-turn option (which provides electronic blocking of entry by room service personnel if desired when the guest is in the room) have been fitted to most guestrooms. For disabled guestrooms, the lock has been integrated with a powered door opener so that when the card key is presented to the lock the door will open automatically.

Every guestroom also has SALTO Energy Saving Devices (ESD's) which can help to save up to 65% of the room’s electricity consumption. When the guest or a housekeeper enters the room they insert their key card into the ESD, which is located close to the entrance door. The ESD recognises
the card as the valid guest or housekeeper and switches on a selection of electrical equipment in the room.

When the guest or housekeeper leaves the room and the card is removed from the ESD, any electrical equipment for example lights, air conditioning etc connected to the ESD will be switched off. The equipment can be set to turn off immediately or be set to remain on for a pre-determined time up to 999 seconds after the card has been removed.

Other SALTO installations within the hotel include main entrance readers in operating in conjunction with automatic sliding doors, rear staff entrance doors, the gym entrance and all the meeting and conference rooms.

Dean Pendlebury, SALTO Systems UK Sales Manager, said: “Hotel installations are normally based on flexible time limited access. In practice this means that hotel guests usually stay for short periods of time after which their access authorisation is automatically withdrawn from the room lock and any further changes of the system require intervention at the lock with a “management card”. With the SALTO system this is controlled via our front desk Hotel Access Management Software (HAMS) and our SALTO Virtual Network (SVN) or SALTO Wireless Network (SWN) which uses distributed intelligence in both the lock and the key card. This provides the hotel with all the benefits of a fully on line access control system at just a fraction of the cost.”