The concept behind RFID is to “carry your wallet on your wrist.” Guests have the ability to do everything with a simple wristband. They do not need to carry a wallet, credit card or room key with them to the waterpark or throughout the resort. This eliminates the common waterpark problems of lost, stolen or soaked cash, wallets and other personal belongings.

This convenience has made the technology popular with guests at our properties. We first introduced RFID at Great Wolf Lodge in the Pocono Mountains, Pa., in 2005. The following year, we installed the technology in Niagara Falls, Canada, and Mason, Ohio. In 2007, our resort in Grapevine, Texas, went online with RFID — and our Grand Mound, Wash., location is scheduled to follow in March 2008.

From a patron standpoint, the main benefits of using RFID technology are security and identification, and the technology itself works fairly simply. At check-in, people are given RFID wristbands, which can be used for guest room access as well as cashless payments throughout the resort. Each wristband is embedded with a 13.56 MHz RFID microchip and ISO 15693 compliant tag, which enables bracelets to “communicate.”

In terms of security, a unique identifier associated with individual guest reservations is generated for patrons. The guest-room door locking system uses a proprietary encryption method to save the identifier to a specified section of the chip’s memory. Then it uses date and time stamps to enable guest entry based on the profile.

To allow the same wristband to be linked to a guest room and used as a personal charge card, the unique identifier is encrypted and encoded to another part of the chip’s memory, permitting the RFID readers attached to every sales terminal to process transactions when the band is presented.

At Great Wolf Resorts, the RFID wristband permits true cashless spending at any and all retail outlets, including spas, gift shops, arcades and eateries. Funds can be added to the bands at kiosks located throughout the resort, including the front desk and all point-of-sale locations. From the resort’s standpoint, it is worth noting that, by virtue of the convenience they offer, RFID bracelets have boosted incremental spending. In addition, parents with older children can add fixed amounts of money to their kids’ bands, enabling them to be used as “debit” cards. This can help prevent unexpected charges from showing up on guests’ final bill.

RFID technology may be especially valuable for one of the waterpark resort industry’s most important customer bases: families. With active RFID (not the kind currently used at Great Wolf Lodge properties), parents can pinpoint the location of missing children, which adds to their peace of mind.

Given all the benefits, implementing RFID might seem like a no-brainer idea. But, like anything, it’s not without drawbacks.

The first is cost. Like any new program or equipment, RFID requires a significant initial capital investment. The final cost is determined by many factors, such as the mix of customer services it provides (keyless entry, cashless purchases, locator and the like). But in our experience, the approximate cost to implement RFID at a property is $250,000. However, the good news is that increased use and production of RFID technology are likely to bring costs down.

The second constraint is that it takes a great deal of work to design, develop, interface, test and integrate the different vendors’ solutions to ensure a smooth implementation. Fortunately for Great Wolf Lodge, our vendors have been extremely cooperative and willing to work with us to make this program a success.

Rajiv Castellino is chief information officer at Great Wolf Resorts Inc. He is responsible for providing strategic technology direction, information technology management and to help define technology brand standards for the company’s nine existing resorts and three more in construction and/or pre-development.