New hotel woe: `The door locks ate my key card'

KANSAS CITY, Mo. Because they don't credit their guests with enoughintelligence to look after a room key, an increasing number of hotels(particularly in the United States) are issuing cards to guests withwhich to open their room doors - if they're lucky.

Each new guest gets a new card perforated with a differentseries of holes to activate an electronic door lock. The numberprinted on the key-card does not correspond with the number of yourroom. That number is written on the envelope containing the card.The guest is expected to memorize the room number, and then destroythe envelope. Or write the room number down somewhere else, and thenmisplace whatever the number was …