On our last two trips to Italy, we stayed mostly at older hotels or agriturismi. On our last night before flying out of Fiumicino, we stayed at a very nice, very modern hotel in Lido di Ostia. After checking in, they gave us a room key card, which looked similar to the room card you'd get at any American hotel. When we entered the room, we couldn't get the lights to turn on. I went back to the lobby and after giving me the sympathetic, but "don't you know anything?" look, the front desk person told me to put the card in the slot next to the door and the lights will then work. Is this common throughout newer hotels in Europe? Something I've never seen before.

Mark, I know we had the same situation at the Del Senato in 2002 and 2003. I think the Teatro Pace had it also - maybe recently renovated hotels? Personally, I think it's a fabulous idea. It prevents people (like my husband) from leaving the lights on when they leave the room.

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Is this common throughout newer hotels in Europe?

It is common throughout relatively modern hotels in the world for nearly 20 years, maybe longer.

Thanks. This is indication of either the type of places we've been staying in while traveling, or that I have been living under a rock. Thanks for the insight.

Well, I doubt you've been living under a rock. What types of places have you stayed? Maybe it's indicative of larger establishments (i.e., hotels with a certain amount of rooms) or maybe hotels that have been recently built or renovated.

One place we recently stayed at in Puglia, an agriturismo, didn't even have keys to the rooms; said they've never had a problem. Another hotel in Matera, Basilicata had conventional keys-the rooms were built into renovated "sassi". Another agriturismo we stayed in had very old-fashioned type keys, but, again, they said they weren't used much. Previous trip, a few years ago in the Chianti countryside, we stayed at a lovely small inn, which, if I recall, had conventional room keys. Haven't spent much time in the larger cities, or more modern places until just recently. The electronic key did seem like a good conservation measure.

I've seen it in Europe and Asia, but not that I remember in North America.

Some hotels in Australia too, Andrew.

Elly

I'm pretty sure that we first encountered the key/light/card in Sydney a few years back, and we felt pretty dumb when it was explained to us. But I think that if you're staying in B&B's, smaller hotels, etc, in Italy you're not going to see it.

We first encountered this in our hotel in Foligno (Umbria) in 2006.

In our 12 days there we never seemed to get the hang of it. Invariably 10 minutes after entering the room the lights would go out - usually when one of us was in the windowless bathroom.

I think it was complicated by the fact that we had a traveling companion and my wife would often pop out of our room to say something to him in the room next door.

I suspect that opening the door resulted in the lights going off a few minutes later.

I also remember a similar principle in Hawaii on our honeymoon. If we opened the door to our lanai, the a/c automatically went off. Bad for wanting to hear the ocean but stay cool while in the room.

My first experience with this was in Madrid in 1999, in an older mid-sized hotel. I've aslo seen it in one or two mid-sized, mid-priced Italian hotels (out of a dozen or so over three trips).

I first saw that kind of system in early/mid 90's in southeast Asia.
Mark, having more experience with doors that don't even have a lock means you are the one who have been going to the right places !