Often when I write about hotels, I’ll mention how many “keys” a particular property has. I can’t count the number of times that OMAAT readers comment on my use of that term. For example, Glenn just asked why I use this term, and said that it’s “one thing that truly bothers [him],” and “it’s beyond irritating.”
I of course respect that take, but let me at least try to explain. And if y’all really decide you hate the term that much, let me know, and I’ll stop using it…
In this post:
The simple reason hotel rooms are referred to as “keys”
In the hotel industry, you’ll often often hear properties referred to by their number of “keys.” Yes, “keys” is a different term for rooms, but there’s an important distinction. I use the term out of a desire to be accurate, rather than because I think it sounds fancy, or anything like that.
The idea is that the term “key” refers to accommodations at a hotel or resort, whether it’s a room, a suite, or a villa. In other words, how many different accommodations does a hotel have. The inspiration behind the term “key” is that it’s an accommodation that can be opened with a key, and therefore counts as one, whether it’s a small guest room, or a six-bedroom villa.
For example, which sounds better?
- It’s a 200-key property, with 150 rooms, 25 suites, and 25 villas
- It’s a 200-room property, with 150 rooms, 25 suites, and 25 villas
The whole point of the term “key” is to avoid the confusing double-take people may make when reading the second description. Does the hotel have 200 rooms or have 150 rooms?
Is that an unreasonable distinction to make?
The people who comment that this term is more widely used in recent times are probably correct. I can understand how some people might think the term is intended to sound pretentious, or something, but that’s at least not my intention with using it. I’m just trying to be accurate, and when I see a new term that can improve my accuracy with trying to describe something, I try to use it.
Some might ask “well why does it matter how many accommodations are rooms vs. suites?” Well, if you’re staying at a points hotel where you have elite status, you might be eligible for complimentary suite upgrades.
If you’re anything like me, you might specifically seek out properties that have a high proportion of suites, since you have better odds of an upgrade. If I’m a World of Hyatt Globalist member, I’d rather stay at a 200-key property with 120 rooms and 80 suites, rather than at a 200-key property with 190 rooms and 10 suites.
And again, to get back to the original point, it would be a little weird if I described this as a 200-room hotel with 120 rooms and 80 suites, right? 😉
I’m open to feedback, and if others disagree, I respect that. However, I figure an explanation is at least useful. “Keys” is a term that is widely used among people in the hotel industry, though admittedly it’s not necessarily a term the average traveler might otherwise know about or come up with. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a useful descriptor that serves a purpose.
Bottom line
In the hotel industry, it’s common to hear people refer to a property’s room count based on the number of “keys.” The idea is that each individual accommodation is a “key,” whether it’s a room, a suite, or a villa.
At least to me, it seems more logical to talk about a 200-key property with 180 rooms and 20 suites, rather than a 200-room property with 180 rooms and 20 suites. If OMAAT readers really hate my use of the term, I’ll stop using it. Though at least I figured an explanation was in order, since maybe some people just don’t know the backstory.
I suppose one could also use the term “accommodations,” But talking about an 80-accommodation property also sounds sort of awkward.
Where do you stand on use of the word “keys?”
Please continue using the word “keys.” It’s an accurate description.
To me, it’s similar to the airline distinction between “direct” and “nonstop” flights.
800 pound social media influencer speak to my ears. Keys is appropriate if your target audience is hoteliers. In which case most of us would not be reading you. I am concerned about the company you might be keeping. Let keys jargon go please.
Another reason calling a 200-room property with 180 rooms and 20 suites is confusing is because suites can have multiple bedrooms. What if the 20 suites all have 2 bedrooms? Then it's really a 220 room property. If you just call it 200 key property, that's simpler.
"If OMAAT readers really hate my use of the term, I’ll stop using it."
Thank you~ that would be great!
Didn't really want to say it, but the expression sounds super-wankerish. Not sure if as an American you understand that term, but I can assure you you would be aghast that anyone may think of you in those terms.
I worked in two hotels in CT in the 80s, and "Keys" was a thing then, too. Restaurants have "Covers". Normal industry jargon. Keep using the term; others can just get over it.
Thank You ! I never knew. My husband had an executive level position with Waldorf Astoria Hotels and I had a background in corporate travel management and amazingly enough had not heard of the term "keys" until recently.
And I confess I did not know the difference until now.
For properties that have suites composed of two rooms, would that be considered 2 separate keys. In other words,
200-key property with 150 rooms and 25 suites (each of which has two entries and two "keys")
Just curious as to how far the distinction goes.
I had to look up Douchey !
But I don't object to learning the meaning.
I also noticed it but never would have bothered to write a comment.
What "bothers" me is that Ben would claim that WiFi is free in some hotels.. Is it really free if you pay 1000$ per night? Or is it really free in J if you pay 5x the price of an economy ticket? I guess it is "included" in the price..
Keep up the good work Ben!!!
It's "included", but marketing types think "free" sounds better.
I dunno, is the little bag of pretzels you get on a $500 flight in economy "free"?
lol now do “frames”
Thx for the explanation Lucky. I had been chuckling to myself every time I read this thinking "there are probably a few more keys at the hotel for maintenance & stuff, so that number isn't completely accurate", but now it makes some sense.
This seems fine. It reminds me of a low-stakes version of the ATC usage "souls" aboard a plane. The point there is: crew, passengers, lap infants, every human being.
I guess 'service animals' do not have 'souls'...
They're still 'good' boys/girls, though, right? RIGHT??
I guess the industry has to use "keys" because "accommodations" has too many syllables?
As a physician, the word “beds” to describe how many inpatients can be accommodated in a hospital or nursing home has forever annoyed me. Mainly because it feels so dehumanizing.
But “keys” I don’t mind - probably because we use other travel jargon here and at FlyerTalk (pax, FO, nonrev, etc).
Why is bed dehumanizing?
Keys rooms suites. What distinction i find valuable as the maximum number of guests the hotel can accommodate. Disney for instance has units that accommodate 8 people. So a 20 unit could actually be 160 guests at the breakfast every morning!
Well for some, King beds can sleep 3 people while for others King bed only sleeps 2. If you really want to go down this path, why not just say the hotel has 30 king beds, 20 queen beds and 10 sofa beds?
Makes sense now I've had an explanation. Now if I can just understand why you use the term "lucked out" to mean "lucked in" I'll be all set :)
What about writing "It’s a 200-room property, with 150 STANDARD rooms, 25 suites, and 25 villas"?
Ben did a bad job there.
The real question is how many 3 bedroom suites or 2 bedroom villas are there.
There lies the real answer.
For the average person who's reading for the first couple times, standard rooms vs rooms makes no sense.
Because of those 150 rooms, there are only 2 STANDARD rooms (with view of the garbage truck) that are eligible for redemptions, the other 148 are rooms with parking lot view, pavement view, the office building across the street view,...
Hotels use the terms room, suite, villa etc. pretty arbitrarily anyway, so I guess it is fine to just say rooms for all of that.
Sorry but I have never heard of anybody say keys before when describing how many rooms a hotel has.
Sorry that you never heard of anybody called you slow before.
But you are slow.
And you are primitive, yet Ben still lets you post here
Is it “homeless” or “unhoused”? That’s the real question.
Depends on whether you prefer English or Orwellian Newspeak. Same for "illegal" and "undocumented".
My comprehension was/is just fine with the word “rooms”. If I need to pivot to “keys” to feel like an industry insider then my thoughts are..pretentious..annoying…sure..fine…done.
I think everyone but pointless sticklers know that when anyone says "room" you mean the number of rentable units. No one is counting up individual rooms within suites, etc. Except to make any pointless point about it (or else for some extremely technical discussion issue). So use whatever term, it doesn't really matter.
If it's a term of art in the industry, fine. Just like I don't get why restaurant people call a table...
I think everyone but pointless sticklers know that when anyone says "room" you mean the number of rentable units. No one is counting up individual rooms within suites, etc. Except to make any pointless point about it (or else for some extremely technical discussion issue). So use whatever term, it doesn't really matter.
If it's a term of art in the industry, fine. Just like I don't get why restaurant people call a table a "4-top" rather than a 4-seater. It's just what they do and it doesn't make objective sense why, but it makes no difference. So who cares.
You're an anti-stickler stickler just because you don't know the reason behind it.
How many room count do you think a 3 bedroom suite is? How many unit? How many keys?
It seems to me that 4-top rather than 4-seater makes sense if you've ever watched them call out orders in the kitchen. "Top" is easier to say and hear than "seater" when you're talking in a rush. A good example is listening to Gordan Ramsey call out orders on "Hell's Kitchen."
What if you're given two keys at check-in? Wouldn't the accurate term be "locker" then?
I'm not even in the industry and it was always abundantly clear why a hotel would refer to the number of marketable units as keys rather than rooms.
Why are people just offended at everything these days?
People dumb. Includes some readers here. Use of keys is perfect, please don't dumb down for the lowest readers, Ben.
I work in commercial Real Estate and I can confirm we all refer to the amount of total rooms as ‘keys’ when marketing a hotel for sale to buyers.
Every one slightly related to the industry knows that.
But then you have the general public who thinks they know better than the experts and professionals.
But you can't blame them.
They voted, and the world got 47.
Holy F***
The next revolt will be suitcase?
Cause most you dumb down people sure don't pack suits in a case anymore.
Maybe next time you fly at check in you call it laundry package or gift container?
Thank you, fake-Eskimo, for impersonating him, not me, this time. Phew!
Yeah, this version of Eskimo is just plain NASTEE....
Makes zero sense whatsoever as most of the time I get two keys for my room mate.
You're really in the wrong here
Makes zero sense whatsoever as most of the time if you make millions of copy of the same Dollar bill in your wallet. You'd be an instant millionaire?
You're really in the wrong here
Just because you use some weird terminology in weirdUSA doesn't make this a legit worldwide term. I work in hospitality too. No one ever talked about 'keys'. There aren't even keys for hotels for like 20 years already
Naw dog, it's super douchey. It's "rooms"
Let me see if I got this right: this travel and hospitality blogger uses the correct and widely used term that some readers are not familiar with. Instead of saying “great, I’ve learned something new today”, they complain because things are not clear enough to them. Oy….
Exactly this. Don’t really understand how people even complain about this, it feels like such a non-issue in the grand scheme of things. It’s an accurate term and does it really matter in the end as long as people know what Ben means?
Ben repeatedly apologizing for saying the correct term is peak insanity to me (as in: he shouldn’t have to). If anything I’m here to be educated on the travel industry, so please don’t dumb it down.
And these dumb people don't realize the time money and lives lost because of converting imperial into metric.
They still want a new unit?
Sure because spoons cups foot stick and stone is much better less confusing and more accurate because that's the container it's in, rooms.
@VitaliU
Completely agree.
Unforunately all too many people do not seem interested in learning anything (and I am thinking of at work as well as online)
BTW, for those less than 60, keys used to be pieces of metal, which were on rings with tassels or leather /metal tags, and hung on the wall behind the reception desk. One asked for one's key going into the building, and left it at reception when...
@VitaliU
Completely agree.
Unforunately all too many people do not seem interested in learning anything (and I am thinking of at work as well as online)
BTW, for those less than 60, keys used to be pieces of metal, which were on rings with tassels or leather /metal tags, and hung on the wall behind the reception desk. One asked for one's key going into the building, and left it at reception when going out. There was typically only one key for each accommodation unit, but staff had master/skeleton keys. For possible abuses of the setup, see the novel Hotel by Arthur Hailey.
I also get the concept of key, but I would prefer to say it’s “a 200-room hotel with 120-standard rooms, 60 suites, and 20 villas.” It makes your articles sound more like regurgitated hotel pitch pieces when you say keys. And if I wanted that, I’d go to TPG.
For the people (including Lucky) saying it’s confusing to say room, how are you not baffled when you book a superior room and get upgraded to a deluxe room? Or do you manage to wrap your heads around that?
Good that you get the concept.
Next time when you go house hunting, how are you not baffled when you see a "half" bathroom? How can a bathroom be half. Isn't it a bathroom or it isn't?
Or do you manage to wrap your heads around that?
Go away
Half bathroom is a ridiculous term that doesn't really exist outside the US though. Pretty much everyone else is happy to not be overly prudish and just call it a toilet...
I say keep Keys as its purpose is to talk about how many units of accomodation, if the there are ten rooms of which 3 are two bedroom suites and 1 a 3 bedroom suite, is that 10 rooms or 15 rooms? If you're calling it rooms is it 10 bedrooms or if you call it rooms are you also counting the bathrooms?
Maybe I'm too detail oriented
It's the clearing confusion, industry standard because of that reason.
On the 0-10 OMAAT Official Douchiness scale, with 0 (least) being Winston and 10 being (of course) Tiny Timmy D…I give it a 1.5, no big deal.
I know what the term means, but I still find "key" to refer to a room (or other type of accommodation) confusing. If I share a room with someone and each of us gets a key, that's two keys. Are both of those keys included in the "key" count? Well, no, they're not, so why are we pretending to count keys when we're really counting rooms?
I would just refer to the number of...
I know what the term means, but I still find "key" to refer to a room (or other type of accommodation) confusing. If I share a room with someone and each of us gets a key, that's two keys. Are both of those keys included in the "key" count? Well, no, they're not, so why are we pretending to count keys when we're really counting rooms?
I would just refer to the number of rooms. If it's necessary to distinguish between "rooms," "suites," and "villas," that can be done as needed.
Pretty sure it refers to unique keys (and philosophically, the number of different groups of travellers it can accommodate at max). Rooms are just incorrect, and having to specifically list out all categories in all instances is just not efficient.
I vote for "units," even if the concept of "keys" has ben clarified, and it's quite logical.
The word I'd like to banish forever, or at least for a long time, is "elevate." It's being thrown around on this blog and elsewhere with careless abandon
Calling units isn't democracy.
And look at what democracy got us, twice.
Ditch the keys. Call them rooms.
Ditch the Eskimo. Call them fakes.
The term is accurate, dont dumb down the blog for the Glenns.
So, @Megan do you thing this blog is dumb by not adopting a industry term indicating hotal capacity?
Readers here are hotel guests or customers, not industry insiders.
Let them have their own jargon, and keep it in-house.
Finally, on behalf of all the Glenns (3 on last count) we resent your silly little one-liners such as this that seem to pop out of your head at random moments.
@Ben knows best.
In an apartment building, it would be “units”. That’s pretty non-descriptive, too, but it is a term that’s perhaps more familiar to the general public. “Keys” is a hotel industry term that serves them by obfuscating the fact that these are just tiny apartments rented at exorbitant rates by the night. I say ditch “keys” in your reporting.
I concur
Apartments don't come with hotel service, nor are they usually rented out by night (until Airbnb came along, but those prices are hardly reasonable these days either). Don't know why everyone's so hard on such a non-issue.
any professional/institution buying or investing in any hotel uses "keys" as the lingo, for sure.
Agree on your take here, Ben. A commonly used synonym (for lack of a better term) for “keys” is “total rooms” which is more verbose than it needs to be.
I figured out why you were doing it but sometimes a new phrase just grates on the ears. I remember when TPG tried to make "pod" a thing for business class lie flat seats/suites and it was similarly annoying
It’s not a new phrase to anyone in hospitality. What is it grating other than because it appears to be new to you?
Well the thing is, Tom, that most of us aren't in hospitality. Terms take a while to trickle from industry jargon into the mainstream. I've been reading this blog (and others like it) every day for 10+ years and I never heard anyone say 'keys' to describe a room count until <a year ago.
Just because you are ignorant, doesn't make you center of the world.
Oh cripes I was SO sure I was the center of the world. Time to re-evaluate my life!