The Birth of the lockmate

My name is Richard.
I worked 18 years in hotel door locks field. All the clients I know are hotel supply dealers or the hotels themselves.

In the past so many years of work, since 2006, all the things that have happened have pointed out to me the mind of the hoteliers, the psychology of them.

Many years ago, i think it is 2011-2013, when I was working for a company that sold hotel door locks, something happened.  

There is a customer who wants to buy a switch type DND, we called it dnd switch.  Like any ordinary transaction, I quote, he accepts and pays, I ship, he receives.  This should have been over.  

And then one day, to my surprise, he sent me pictures of the hotel’s installation – the DND switch is on the door.  I asked him why he put it on the door, and this wall switch is designed to mounted on the wall. 
He told me the wall installation project is too large, the customer does not accept.  So it had to be mounted on the door.

I can’t figure out how he powers the switch.  Probably wiring inside the door. 

So many years have passed, the company I work for has changed, the computer has changed, and almost all the information is gone.  There’s only one picture, on the right. 
It’s a small thing but I’m impressed.

18 years

I was lucky enough to stay in the industry since 2006.  How long is 18 years? If I had a baby in 2006 when I first touched a hotel door lock, he would be an adult by now.

There is one thing obvious-the longer I stretch out the timeline, the wider my vision will be.

There simply aren’t that many new things in the world, and there aren’t that many people innovating.
Most people do simple things over and over again.No one really cares the user.Or does the user not know what they want about the user.

Over such a long period of time, I have been to different hotels in many countries, no matter for business reasons or for personal reasons.
USA, India, Thailand, Philippines, China, Malaysia, many hotels i have been.What I’ve seen and heard over the years underscores a fact.  That is the hotel’s DND, or called doorbell system,is an inessential stuff.

The incident at the beginning of the story probably happened between 2011 and 2013,Now more than a decade has passed.As i said, no body did the new thing and the conventional solution is not accepted by the majority of hotels because it is inessential. 

Everything is the same as before. Yes, this world is a terrible place.

What does Inessential mean?

Inessential means it’s better own something, but it’s okay without it.

I make an example. The adidas YEEZY 350 is a popular limited shoes, if I have it, that would be wonderful. But even if i don’t have it , it doesn’t matter because i have other shoes. Adidas YEEZY 350 is not an essential stuff for me.

This is the biggest difference between the DND system/doorbell system and the hotel door lock system.  Hotel door lock is essential, if there is no hotel door lock, the hotel can not open. 

I once visited a hotel in 2015 that opened in 1998, in Guam.  After all these years, it has not installed the so-called doorbell or DND system, and the hotel has operated normally. 

They key is you don’t have to buy the YEEZY 350 when you have no money, but when you rich you can buy and wear it immediately. However the conventional solutions are not like that.

 

You have to buy it at the beginning. If you didn’t buy it and installed before hotel opening, you want add it in future. Sorry, you can not.
Because you didn’t leave the wire and postion for them!
There are many other similar absurdities, which I will elaborate on in my blog.

Always do the correct thing

There is no proper solution for the inessential needs.Why? Because there is no one to take the new road.

The new road is fraught with unkown and dangerous.

That’s why we see the results now-either choose the most complex and expensive solution(wall mounted switch), or choose the most primitive and rudimentary solution(door hanger).Users suffer the most.
As someone who has been in the industry for 18 years, I think it is my responsibility and the responsibility of my team to try new ways. Otherwise I’m wasting my life.
We want to make a flexible, economical solution, to satisfy inessential needs.

It does not need to be wired inside the wall, nor does it need to be wired on the door.Not subject to local standards and can be installed in almost any hotel worldwide.

 

We have the experience to do it well

Before the Lockmate. My team and me created the Hotel Lock Pro. Which combine the contactless key card and DND/MUR and doorbell function.

It is popular with hotels all over the world.The challenge this time is that it’s a completely new species.No one has ever done it, and no one knows what category it belongs to.

The only thing we are sure of is that we aim to meet the needs of our customers to the greatest extent possible.

Good design

Dieter Rams & Good Design

10 principles of good design

Evolve correctly

Dieter Rams, German Braun company main designer,was called the greatest living industrial designer

Lockmate was conceived, designed, and built entirely in accordance with the 10 Principles of Dieter RAMS Design. 

Future

Start from 2024, new generation

Lockmate is the right evolutionary direction for door hangers.Most importantly – operate on the door, just like before

History

20 years old , like an old man

Hotels that are still using it, don’t really like it, they just don’t want to dig the wall.

Enjoy the new technology

Our team created this new species, Just to make it convenient for people.It’s not about making money. We just want to create.

Because my team and I believe in doing something meaningful, for the world, but also for their own life values. 

Any new thing is born in response to a need, and dies when the need changes.We live in this era, we love our life, we have the responsibility to make it better, finally to quote a famous saying of my idol

For the better experience

The World First Battery based Hotel DND device