In which year did the company Elsafe invent the world's first electronic in-room safe?

VingCard Elsafe, whose origin was in Moss, Norway, is an international producer of hotel locking systems, electronic in-room safes and energy management systems. After inventing the first mechanical hole card operated lock in 1976, VingCard was acquired in 1994 by ASSA ABLOY, and merged with the electronic safe producer Elsafe to form VingCard Elsafe in 2006. Since 2015 VingCard Elsafe is not an operating company, but a product brand within ASSA ABLOY Global Solutions.

In 1979 Elsafe (then a separate company) invented the world's first electronic in-room safe, introducing it to the hotel market. The new product was named Elsafe, and the company's first factory was placed in Mosvik, Norway. In 1980, Elsafe installed its first safe installation at a property in the Canary Islands, and it later began selling to hotels on all seven continents.

Bjørn Lyng, Elsafe's founder, wanted to create a security vault that opened and closed electronically, and new electronic safes soon led to an industry-wide shift, where safes requiring metal keys increasingly became obsolete.