In Punta Cana, 1,600 rooms open with a single gesture.
The guest holds the card up to the lock, and the door opens. Later, at the spa, the same gesture opens a locker with a waterproof wristband. In one of the largest hotels in the Caribbean, every door answers to the same system.
The place and the project
Punta Cana, in the Dominican Republic, a few hours’ flight from our islands. On the seafront, on a beach ranked among the best in the world, the Barceló Bávaro Palace Deluxe has more than 1,600 rooms and suites. Four pools, a spa, a golf course, a theater, eleven specialty restaurants: it is one of the largest hotels in the country.
To secure all its rooms and control access to its back-of-house doors around the clock, the hotel chose SALTO, the Spanish specialist in electronic locks. It wanted the latest technology, with as little wiring as possible.
The concept: one key for the whole hotel
Every guest room door has a SALTO XS4 electronic lock. Guests no longer swipe a magnetic card through a slot: they hold up an encrypted contactless card, and the door opens.
The locks run on batteries, with no cabling to the rooms. A few wall readers, placed in the right spots, update the cards each time they are used. This is the SALTO Virtual Network: the cards themselves carry the access rights and bring the record of every opening back to the hotel’s management software.
What it changes
For guests, a key that does not let them down. A magnetic card can demagnetize, sometimes just from sitting next to a phone, and sends the guest back to reception. A contactless card keeps opening the door, from the first day of the stay to the last.
For the team, everything from one screen. From a single computer, staff can cancel a card, change access rights and see who went through which door. Without walking around 1,600 doors.
At the spa, the same technology on the wrist. The hotel later equipped the spa lockers: guests wear a waterproof plastic wristband that works with the same technology as their room key.
A project delivered on time. Installation, through final commissioning, was completed on schedule.
What the hotel says
“The XS4 lock is strong, well-protected and it opens and closes perfectly,” says Vicente Soler, project manager. For him, the system provides “absolute control over access rights throughout the property.”
Carmen Caminero, accommodation manager, goes further: what she values most about SALTO is “a combination of factors, including quality, service, and operation.”
The line that sums it up
1,600 doors, one logic: the guest holds up a card, and the hotel knows exactly who goes where.
AND HERE AT HOME?
From Antigua to St. Lucia, from Sint Maarten to the British Virgin Islands:
- Tourist residences. Eighteen rooms or two hundred: the same wire-free locks adapt to properties of every size.
- Salt air and the beach. No card slots to clean, and waterproof wristbands for the pool or the spa: access designed for life by the water.
- Small teams. A lost card is cancelled in one click at reception, without changing the lock.
- Villas and boutique hotels. Knowing who came in, when and through which door is real peace of mind for managers and owners alike.
A hotel or residence project? Tell us about your property: [mail@nice-carib.com](mailto:mail@nice-carib.com).
Late afternoon in Punta Cana. The guest comes up from the beach, wristband still damp. He holds up his card, the door opens, the room is cool. He has not thought about a key once during his whole stay.
Source: saltosystems.com, “Barceló Bávaro Palace Deluxe Hotel”.
