Home › Blog › How Many Hotel Key Cards Should You Order?
Ordering
How Many Hotel Key Cards Should You Order?
Ordering too few key cards means a front desk scramble mid-renovation or during a soft opening; ordering too many ties up a supply closet with cards that may need reprinting before they are used. The good news is that key card quantity math is straightforward once you know your room count and turnover pattern.
Start with your room count, add a buffer for lost and damaged cards, and round up to your style’s minimum order quantity.
The basic formula
A simple starting point is 3 to 5 cards issued per room per year, accounting for lost cards, cards kept as souvenirs, and cards that fail to encode correctly and need replacing at the front desk. Multiply your room count by that factor to estimate annual card consumption, then add 15–20% for a grand opening or renovation cutover, when card issuance spikes as every returning guest needs a freshly encoded card.
| Property size | Typical annual cards needed | Suggested first order |
|---|---|---|
| Boutique (50–100 rooms) | 1,500–3,500 | 500 (minimum) to 2,000 |
| Mid-size hotel (100–300 rooms) | 3,500–12,000 | 3,000–6,000 |
| Large resort (300–800 rooms) | 12,000–30,000 | 10,000–15,000 |
| Hotel group / franchise (multi-property) | 50,000+ | 25,000–50,000+, split-shipped |
Account for renovations and rebrands
A full property rebrand or a lock system upgrade (say, moving from magstripe to RFID) creates a one-time spike, since every existing card becomes obsolete at once. Rather than over-ordering for the whole year around that event, place a standing order sized for your normal months and a larger cutover order timed two to three weeks ahead of the rebrand date — comfortably within our standard lead time.
Ready to size your first order? Get a custom quote — free mockups in 24–48 hours. Learn more about how we work, or browse more guides.