Hotel card hack sends the internet into meltdown

It turns out that you can actually use any card to turn on the lights and power in your hotel room. Photo / 123RF

The dark days of having to use your key card to turn on the lights and power in your hotel room are over – because it turns out that you can use any card, MailOnline Travel reports.

Twitter user Katyagar Moonagon uploaded a picture of a Waitrose card inserted into the power slot of her Dublin hotel room with the caption "Wanted to charge my battery pack whilst I was eating dinner, but needed my key card" – and Twitter went into a state of frenzied excitement.

Wanted to charge my battery pack whilst I was I eating dinner, but needed my keycard pic.twitter.com/TsHqihGxTu

— katy moon (@Oog) March 14, 2018

No doubt because, as can be deduced from Moonagon's post, many people have spent years thinking they couldn't charge devices in their room if they weren't in it.

Air conditioning often requires the switch by the door to be activated, too.

Moonagon's post has received more than 130 comments and 1300 likes, plus more than 250 retweets.

"This changes everything," said user HDexterN, and Elliemwilson described it as a "game changer".

However, many users were bemused and genuinely thought that the fact you could use any card to activate the power was common knowledge.

JonRees2 tweeted: "I've been using a nectar card for about a decade,"

And tiddymoke said: "I use old rail tickets - so doesn't matter if you leave them accidentally."

Jaswilliams81, meanwhile, added: "My organ donor card works in Travelodge rooms."

However, perhaps the most surprising aspect of all this is that the news came as a shock to hotel workers.

Ronan Alex Dunne said: "I'm dumbfounded. I worked in five-star hotels and never came across that."

The reason any card will work in many hotels is that the switch is pressure-activated. However, in some hotels, a room key card is needed as power is activated by its magnetic strip.