Vingcard Deploys Wallet Keys at Three Orascom Hotels in El Gouna in a First for Middle Eastern and North African Hospitality Markets

STOCKHOLM – Vingcard, an ASSA ABLOY company and provider of advanced technologies for the hospitality industry, has announced the first rollout of Wallet Key technology within the Middle East and North Africa by Casa Cook El Gouna, an adults-only high luxury hotel in Egypt operated by Orascom Hotels Management. The deployment, enabled via an integration with smart hospitality solutions provider Hudini, has since expanded to include Ancient Sands Golf Resort and Club Paradisio El Gouna, extending its availability across three properties within the group’s El Gouna portfolio.

The adoption of Wallet Keys forms part of Orascom Hotels Management’s broader strategy to create a more connected and guest-centric hospitality experience across its portfolio, starting with the Michelin Key awarded Casa Cook El Gouna, a 129-room retreat offering a selection of guestrooms, suites and private villas situated between Egypt’s desert landscape and the Red Sea. Joining the rollout, Ancient Sands Golf Resort is a five-star, all-inclusive property featuring 56 rooms and 80 apartments, surrounded by an 18-hole golf course. Club Paradisio El Gouna, the first hotel built in the destination, is a four-star, beachfront all-inclusive property offering 239 rooms.

The deployment allows guests to directly store a mobile room key in a digital wallet for access to rooms with a simple tap of their smartphone or watch. Guests no longer need to carry a physical keycard or open a mobile app each time they arrive at their guestroom or attempt to access other onsite areas.

Wallet Key services are made available via Hudini’a guest-facing Progressive Web App (PWA), and is also accessible through Staff Connect, a platform that Orascom began rolling out with Hudini in 2024. Guests can add their key to their digital wallet when completing online check-in ahead of arrival, or by scanning a QR code from Staff Connect after a hotel team member completes their check-in.

With consumers embracing the use of smartphones to securely unlock their vehicles and homes, we aim to ensure that the same heightened convenience also extends to their hotel stay. Our goal was not simply to adopt a new technology, but to elevate the guest experience by removing the friction of waiting for, carrying and keeping track of a physical key. By adopting Vingcard’s Wallet Key solution, we can provide the effortless and intuitive experience we set out to create by eliminating the extra step of guests having to download a mobile app before they can receive and use their digital key. Sanjay Sharma, Chief Technology Officer at Orascom Hotels Management

Although opening a hotel room may appear to be a straightforward task, ensuring that the correct digital key consistently provides the appropriate access requires multiple systems to work together. Vingcard’s implementation at the El Gouna hotels allows for seamless integration and data communication between guest digital wallets and the property’s door locks, property management system, and digital check-in and check-out processes.

This integrated ecosystem ensures the property can address the many variables that can arise during a guest stay, including room changes, early arrivals, late departures and access to elevators or other authorized hotel areas. Orascom Hotels Management conducted extensive end-to-end testing to ensure the experience could reliably accommodate both standard guest journeys and the less predictable circumstances that hotel teams encounter each day.

The implementation at the three El Gouna hotels demonstrates how Wallet Keys can transform a complex series of hotel workflows into a simple and intuitive room access experience that aligns with modern guest expectations. The expertise and dedication of our local Vingcard team, together with their close collaboration and strong support of the Orascom Hotels Management team and the property, were instrumental in the project’s successful delivery. We are honored to support this milestone for the MENA region hospitality market and look forward to playing a central role in the property’s goal of delivering a modern digitalized guest journey. Chandrakanth Gollapalli, VP Middle East, Africa and India at Vingcard

Feedback from guests and hotel colleagues has already been highly positive. One early example occurred when a guest who had previously checked in learned that newly arriving guests were receiving digital room keys and immediately approached the front office to request the same experience.

“That moment was one of the strongest validations that guests see Wallet Keys as a genuine improvement to their stay,” Sharma added. “The guest did not want to simply understand a new service feature; they actively wanted access to it. Their request also represented an exception to the standard journey, but it was one that our solution deployment was prepared to manage.”

By aligning Wallet Keys with digital check-in and check-out workflows, Casa Cook El Gouna, Ancient Sands Golf Resort and Club Paradisio El Gouna can provide a more connected journey from arrival through to departure. The experience also supports Orascom Hotels Management’s guest-centric service philosophy by allowing technology to operate unobtrusively in the background, reducing unnecessary interactions and giving guests more time to enjoy their stay.

Following the initial success at the three hotels in El Gouna, Orascom Hotels Management is assessing opportunities to introduce Wallet Keys at additional properties across its portfolio.

Wallet Keys form part of the Access Control category of The Vingcard Solution, a comprehensive suite of technologies which also includes solution categories for Networks & Digital Access, Energy & Automation, Property Operations, Digital Experience, and Equipment & Accessories. Its modular structure allows properties to implement technologies according to their immediate priorities while retaining the flexibility to add and align further capabilities as security requirements, operational needs and guest expectations evolve.

For more information about Vingcard and its products and solutions, please visit vingcard.com.

About Vingcard

Vingcard is part of ASSA ABLOY Global Solutions, which provides safe and sustainable cutting-edge technology solutions for physical and digital access management control. As a full solutions provider, ASSA ABLOY Global Solutions is part of the wider ASSA ABLOY Group. Being a global leader in access solutions, the Group operates worldwide with 64,000 employees and holds leading positions in areas such as efficient door opening, trusted identities, and entrance automation.

Vingcard is a leading provider of security access solutions and other advanced technologies designed for the evolving needs of hospitality, off-site student accommodations and build to rent industries. With a commitment to serving as the industry’s trusted partner for enhanced security, Vingcard’s comprehensive range of integrated solutions are designed to ensure safer, more adaptive business operations able to deliver enhanced efficiency and end-user satisfaction. Vingcard, Your trusted partner for enhanced security.

About Orascom Hotels Management

Orascom Hotels Management is the hotel management arm of Orascom Development Group, incorporated to drive profits by leveraging the Group’s growing guest-room inventory, town infrastructure, and tourism expertise. The portfolio consists of 34 operating hotels, comprising a total of more than 7,000 guest rooms across four countries: Egypt, Montenegro, Oman, and Switzerland.

About Hudini

Hudini is the leading digital transformation platform for the hospitality industry, leveraging proprietary middleware and an AI-powered omnichannel guest interface driven by data. Designed to boost guest engagement and hotel revenue, Hudini enhances the guest experience through personalised, immersive interactions. With over 100 pre-built integrations across various functionalities, Hudini allows guests to communicate, control, and connect with hotels like never before. Serving over 800 hotels across 38 countries, Hudini is rapidly setting the standard for digital transformation in hospitality. To learn more about Hudini, visit www.hudini.io  

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Mark Howbrook

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