De Vere is a collection of historic mansion houses and contemporary hotels, predominantly set in country estates across London, the South East and the Cotswolds. De Vere has a proud heritage and with 1,866 stylish bedrooms, elegant wedding spaces and over 250 meeting and event spaces, their hotels are designed for everything from mid-week business to weekend getaways.

De Vere had traditionally used PVC branded RFID keycards for each of their hotels specific to the hotel locking system.  

With a commitment to sustainability and reducing carbon emissions that runs right through the fabric of their organisation, De Vere wanted to explore more sustainable options for their keycards.

We introduced them to our wood range of RFID Keycards, Wristbands and Door Hangers, and discussed how these could support them in achieving their ESG goals.

We produced physical samples of Keycards and Door Hangers for the various hotels in all available wood types including bamboo. We tested different options for branding, in both print and engraving.

This ensured that the samples passed the ‘touch and handling’ test as well as the branding test, so each team in the process could be confident that they accurately reflected the values of the De Vere brand.

After a careful evaluation of all of the wood types and printing options, Cherry was selected as the wood of choice for their Keycards and Door Hangers. Cherry is one of the harder wood types and is so much more durable. It also gives a more consistent finish across engraving and printing when compared to other softer woods or plants like bamboo.

The next step was to create artwork for each individual hotel, and ensure the cards were produced with the correct RFID chip for the different door lock systems.

We worked with De Vere to implement a consolidated ordering strategy across all hotels in the group which provided several operational and logistical improvements.

Each Keycard and Door Hanger is designed specific to each hotel and the relevant RFID spec, but by combining them all together we were able to pass on cost and supply chain efficiencies.

This bulk stock of several variants is managed and held securely ready for each hotel to ‘call off’ for quick turnaround when required.

We have also supplied Wokefield Park and Beaumont Estate with Wood Business Cards for all their staff with a QR code, allowing customers to scan and save their contact details.

Debbie Dilasser, Group Marketing Manager at De Vere said:

“The transition to wooden key cards has been a real step forward for us, combining quality with a clear commitment to sustainability.”

Read more about De Vere’s commitment to sustainability here