Smart Locks For Vacation Rentals

Key handovers can be stressful, especially if you have several listings. They take an inordinate amount of time, necessitate advance planning, involve in-person communication, and frequently result in keys being misplaced and guests being trapped out.

Short-term rental managers must go on to bigger and better things. Smart locks and keyless entry are the simplest ways to manage check-in.

Smart locks will make your life a lot easier if you're tired of meet-and-greets and chasing your guests' time schedules and would rather handle check-ins hands-off. They're safe, convenient, and simple to set up, and they provide an excellent self-check-in experience.

Perhaps you aspire to be location-independent and are looking for ways to manage Airbnb remotely and travel while working online.

In this blog post, we will discuss why you should think about including keyless entry into your home automation solutions. In addition, we'll discuss the top smart locks on the market, emphasizing their most popular features.

Let's get started!

Why Smart Locks are the Future for Vacation Rentals

Check-ins are simple to arrange if you only have one rental. However, you'll run out of time once you start expanding your short-term rental business and adding a few more properties to your portfolio. It's difficult to handle all check-ins on your own, and you might not have the resources to hire someone.

This is where smart locks come into play. They are handy small gadgets that either attach to or replace your existing lock. Guests can unlock the door with a passcode you generate and send to them. It's a simple idea, but it may save you a lot of time while also making your rental a million times more secure than if you were handing out keys.

Smart locks are becoming more common for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to host convenience and home security.

Hygiene and safety will continue to be crucial in a post-COVID-19 world. Guests will expect Airbnb hosts to do everything possible to ensure that their rental experience does not promote the spread of germs. With social distancing mechanisms in place indefinitely, the less personal touch involved in renting a house, the better.

That is one of the primary reasons why self-check-in and keyless entry are increasingly replacing traditional key handovers. Hosts must ensure that their guests are safe and comfortable at all times, and reducing personal contact to a minimum is an excellent method to accomplish this. Plus, let's face it: physical keys aren't the cleanest things in the world. Who knows how many times their hands have been exchanged?

Consider investing in smart lock solutions to future-proof your vacation rental business.

Features to Look For in a Smart Lock

When purchasing a smart lock for your vacation rental, consider which features will be most useful to you.

The following are the primary reasons for going keyless and installing a digital lock:

• improved security
• comfort and convenience for you and your guests
• interconnectivity with other smart home devices
• reliability

Here are some of the most useful smart lock features to look for:

Temporary access codes that are unique. This is critical for security: each guest receives a key code that expires at the end of their stay. This way, you won't have to worry about people unlocking your door outside of their reservation time.

Wifi connectivity. If your smart lock is linked to your rental wifi network, you can monitor its activity from anywhere in the globe using your smartphone. This is really handy since it allows you to keep track of who is coming and exiting your property at all times, whether it is visitors, the cleaning team, or the maintenance crew.

Platform integration with home automation systems. While this capability isn't required, it's a nice-to-have, especially if you use other smart home equipment like smart thermostats or noise-canceling gadgets. You can manage and monitor activity across all your devices using a home automation platform. Furthermore, if your smart lock is compatible with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, you can operate it with your voice, which is quite cool.

Connection to a messaging automation tool. This is a frequently ignored feature that can tremendously benefit property managers. If your smart lock is linked to your messaging system, you can utilize smart lock activity as a trigger to send automated messages to your guests or cleaning crew whenever the door is locked or unlocked.

Best Airbnb Smart Locks for Vacation Rentals

Let's look at some of the most popular keyless entry providers and their solutions now that you know what features to look for in a smart lock.

August Smart Lock:

Price: $149.99 - $249.99. Available in the United States and Canada.

August Smart Locks are multi-award-winning smart door improvements that integrate with the most common home automation platforms.

The basic August Smart Lock converts your phone into a key through Bluetooth. The new August Wifi Smart Lock with built-in wifi allows you to lock and unlock your door remotely, grant guests virtual keys, and check if the door is open or closed at any time. It's the ideal door security option for your vacation rental when combined with the August Single Cylinder Deadbolt.

Property managers will be able to automate messages generated by August smart locks. For instance, hosts can be warned if the cleaner fails to use their pin code to unlock the door and the rental requires an emergency cleaning. When the cleaners shut the door, an automated message can be sent to guests informing them that the rental is ready for them.

Furthermore, property managers can be notified when a guest checks in and enters their unique entrance code, and they can give them an automated welcome message.

Honeywell:

Price: $83.95 -$170.05. Available in the United States.

Honeywell offers a variety of keypad smart locks that are simple to install and have added security features such as alarms that sound after numerous wrongly entered user codes.

The Honeywell Electronic Entry Knob Door Lock With Keypad features a simple one-touch locking mechanism. The Honeywell Bluetooth Enabled Digital Door Knob Lock With Keypad is controlled by a free smartphone app and has auto-locking capabilities.

Kwikset:

Price: $79.99 - $249.00. Worldwide availability.

Kwikset smart locks and deadbolts provide you control over your door security and make providing guests entry simple and convenient.

The Kevo Smart Lock lets you use your phone as a key: simply touch the lock with your Bluetooth-enabled phone to unlock it. You can also send your guests eKeys. Touchscreens on the Premis, SmartCode, and Obsidian versions allow you to enter access codes. The Halo also has the advantage of being wifi-enabled, allowing you to operate your locks from anywhere.

Lockly:

Price: $199.99 - $749.99. Available in the United States.

Lockly smart locks use 3D fingerprint scanners to enable and secure Airbnb keyless entry. You can use the mobile app to generate single-use online access codes, distribute eKeys with guests, and lock and open your door. Lockly is also Alexa and Google Assistant compatible, allowing for voice control and easy integration with your home automation setup.

Choose the Lockly Secure, Secure Pro, or Secure Plus for secure smart locks with digital keypads, or the Lockly Vision, which includes an HD video doorbell and feeds live video to your smartphone. Check out the Lockly Secure Lux if you're searching for a unique, high-end model with several access points.