Key Notes
Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 01.17.06 | 1:14 AM ET

I just returned from a long weekend in San Francisco, where I stayed at the travel-themed Hotel Carlton. It’s got many great touches—globes throughout the lobby, travel photos hung on the walls, maps and postcards decorating the interior of the elevators—but I liked the hotel’s room key cards most.
I’ve been collecting key cards from hotels around the
world for the past few years, and the Carlton’s are some of the most beautiful I’ve seen. It’s a shame more hotels don’t get more creative with their key cards. After all, do you prefer the Carlton’s cards (one is pictured above)? Or, when you reach for your key card at the end of a day out, would you instead like to see something like the card on the right?
Ahhh. Nothing brings to mind the joy of travel like fine-print legalese.