Welcome back to the Short Term Rental Riches Podcast.

If you’re managing multiple STR properties or even just one, you know that guest access can be one of your biggest headaches. After hosting more than 50,000 guests, I can say that Smart locks are now essential for my business for so many reasons. But the problem is not all smart locks are created equally, and if you choose the wrong one, well, you will continue to run into problems.

So today we’re diving deep into the Ultimate Guide to Smart Locks and Airbnb integration. I’m gonna walk you through exactly what to look for in a smart lock, which brands I personally recommend amongst the hundreds of different options available,

how to integrate them seamlessly with your platforms. There’s a lot to cover. Let’s get into it.

Well, welcome back to the show. I’m glad you’re here again. If we go way back to episode six, this was in December of 2019. I did an episode called the Most [00:01:00] Important Automation Essential or something like that. I was talking about digital locks, and so here we are years later and there are literally hundreds of other digital lock options.

If you go into your local Home Depot or Lowe’s, or you jump on Amazon, you’re gonna be overwhelmed.

So let’s go ahead and jump into what you need to look for in a smart lock. I’ve got eight main features for you.

The first essential feature you need with your digital lock is wifi access. You need the ability to change codes online.

Having a digital lock where you can program codes in it isn’t good enough because you’re gonna want to integrate this lock with Airbnb and your listing platform, so it automatically creates codes for you. We’ll get to that in a second. The second feature that you need is in case the internet goes out, your lock needs a memory.

So if you created a code for a guest that you sent out two weeks ago and your internet goes out. [00:02:00] Well, you need that code to be remembered in the lock, and so you want to make sure your digital lock has a memory.

The third essential for your smart lock is just making sure that it’s easy to use. There’s a ton of digital locks out there that actually require you to download an app. We don’t want to do that. We don’t want to put any steps between our guests. And checking into our property, and preferably your digital locks can allow you to create the shortest code possible.

Of course, it’ll be a unique code, but a four digit code is the best way to go.

The fourth essential is just making sure your lock is durable. There are literally hundreds of them out there, and especially if you’re near the ocean, you’ve got those salty breezes coming across. Or if you’re in snow country where it goes below zero degrees, 

You’ve gotta make sure your lock is durable and we have our top two recommendations for you in just a moment.

The fifth thing is when it comes to integration. So there’s a lot of [00:03:00] great digital locks out there that have the features we’ve talked about, but they don’t actually integrate directly with Airbnb. And actually you wanna make sure that it doesn’t just integrate with Airbnb, but it also integrates with vbo and booking.com.

We’re gonna get to that in a second, but having that integration is the first step.

Number six. You wanna make sure that you have an online dashboard where you can see your locks, you can see if the battery is going low. You can see who’s used those codes to access your doors when the door locks are locked, when they’re not locked. Having that online dashboard really helps in a lot of different ways, and especially the more properties you have.

A seventh essential is for any of you that have more than one lock on your property if you have two entry doors, while you wanna make sure you create a very short, simple code for your guests. But then it also sinks to the different locks. And so most lock companies will call this a [00:04:00] common door, and you’re basically just linking two locks together online.

Again, this is through your dashboard. So if you create a code oh oh seven oh, that goes right to both locks and your guests don’t get stuck outside or have to remember two different codes.

This also works really well for any of you that have maybe a smaller apartment building or a building that has a common shared door, because you don’t want to give out a static code for this common area door so anyone can get into the building. But you also don’t want to give your guests multiple codes, so they gotta remember two codes.

So you want to make sure that your lock has the ability. To sync codes. So when you have a new guest that makes a reservation, maybe that code is oh oh seven oh. It creates that automatically for that common area door, but then also creates it for their individual apartment.

Number eight. This one’s really important. Your lock’s not gonna do that well if it doesn’t have charged batteries. So having a battery reminder both [00:05:00] on the door itself and on your online dashboard is gonna be key to making sure that your guests don’t show up and they can’t get in. This makes it easier for your housekeepers to relay the information from you.

The more obvious the battery indicator is, the better.

So there are eight essentials. One of the ones I mentioned has to do with integrating with Airbnb. Now, most locks actually are not going to integrate with Airbnb, and even if they do, they’re very likely not going to integrate with VRBO or the other listing platforms where you definitely need to have your property listed.

So what are our options here? We have a couple options. Well, if you’re only on Airbnb and your lock integrates with Airbnb, you’re okay in the sense of the locks, but you need to get on the other listing platforms, and as soon as you do. You can use a property management software platform to integrate with those locks.

Now, not all property management software platforms or PMS programs will allow you to integrate with [00:06:00] locks, but the most popular ones these days have that functionality. Of course, it depends on the lock that you choose, right? They’re not gonna integrate with all the different locks.

But assuming you choose one of the two models that we’re going to reference here in just a short minute, you should be in good shape.

Now, there is another option. Let’s say you’re not using a property management software platform. And you are on multiple listing sites like booking.com and Airbnb, making sure that you have a code that can go out to any of those platforms that is unique for your guests. And that is set up just for the reservation so it expires after they leave.

Well, there’s some other software that’s popped up to help you do this.

We use a program called Remote Lock. We’ve been using it for years. They have all of the dashboards and things that I’ve been talking about. They do charge you a per lock fee, but they make it really seamless.

And if you’re not using a property software platform that allows you [00:07:00] to integrate the locks, or maybe you are using one, but it doesn’t allow you to integrate to all the places. Well, you can integrate this with your property management software and then it will do all that code disbursement for you.

So I know that sounds a little complicated, but it really isn’t. Most of these PMS programs have what they call a marketplace can simply go there, search for remote lock. You do a little connection, you set up all your locks on remote. But then they’re programmed to go through your property management software.

So no matter where you get a reservation, those codes are gonna go out to all of your guests. Now there’s a whole bunch of these companies that have popped up as well. Another one that I see at all the conferences is called Au Pair two O-P-E-R-T-O. So check out either of those if you’re still manually setting up all your codes, especially to go across the different platforms.

I’ve got one last tip before I jump into my favorite lock recommendations, and that is that you can’t rely just on your lock [00:08:00] as reliable as some of these locks are these days. Sometimes it just doesn’t work, or sometimes your guests just can’t figure it out. They keep plugging the code in wrong. They’re not hitting the hash sign or whatever it happens to be.

Maybe it’s dark, maybe they can’t see that. Well, you name it. There is a lot of issues with guest checking in and digital locks. So you’ve gotta make sure that you have another way for them to get in. And that is a simple little lockbox that you can put somewhere near your entry doors. You don’t need to give them a code to the lockbox, right?

This is just for emergencies. But make sure you have a key in there. Make sure the key works, and, uh, have that backup plan because a guess that can’t get in your property. Well, that is the ultimate fail.

Okay, here we go. Our top recommendations after managing tens of thousands of guests, the number one lock that we recommend is the sage on code, the wifi version, of course, that can connect online. It has a dashboard. [00:09:00] It can connect to a lot of the property management programs out there. We found that it’s very durable.

It’s easy to use. You don’t have to download apps or anything like that. Now they have a couple versions. They have the deadbolt version only, or if you’re doing a renovation or something like that and you have a door that only has one hole, well, you can get one with the handle on it.

They look sleek, they look modern, they come in multiple colors. They’re available on Amazon, they’re in available in Home Depot or Lowe’s or any of your local home improvement places. We’ve used a lot of these. I’ve personally purchased thousands of dollars of these. And this is our number one recommendation.

The runner up. Number two would be the August Locks. Now, these locks do work well. They do integrate with a lot of platforms. Again, our favorite is the sage lock. The August lock is quite expensive. It’s very comparable with the sage lock. In fact, both of those are. A bit on the higher end of the price [00:10:00] scale, but again, you’re gonna be using this lock for years and years, and so you want to make sure you have a good one.

And just think about it if, you have an issue with your lock or it doesn’t connect, and a guest comes in and they have a problem with it and they can’t get in, well, you better believe they’re gonna be asking for a refund or they’re gonna be asking for some sort of discount if they’ve gone through all this hassle just to get in.

So it’s worth investing just a little bit more upfront. But if you are more budget conscious, there’s another lock. The last lock that we’d recommend, and this is by TT Lock, so it is. Cheaper. Again, it’s not our favorite recommendation, but it does have pretty good integration and it is easy for guests to use.

So there we go. There are the essentials. That is our recommendation after using lots and lots of different locks. But I’ve still got a few other additional tips for you. Just a few other things to keep in mind.

Even though a lot of these locks have the wifi dashboard, you can control them online. You do want to make sure that you’re creating a unique code for each guest, but you don’t necessarily want [00:11:00] it to expire the minute their checkout happens. So if it’s 3:00 PM and they’re hauling a, a suitcase out to the car and they return back to the house at 3:02 PM to grab the next suitcase.

And the door’s locked because you’ve got it set up for an auto lock function. Well, you don’t want that to happen, so leave a little bit of grace period when you’re scheduling these locks. And most of the time that’s just a quick setting where you can say, we’re gonna schedule this unique code for whatever guest reservation comes in, but instead of it ending at 3:00 PM we’re gonna end it at 3:30 PM.

Remember that you can use your digital locks to assign codes for maintenance people, right? This is one of the really nice benefits of having the wifi and the online dashboard. If you’ve gotta have an HVAC person come in there, or your handyman needs to get in, well, you can create a real quick code for them, and you can also see when they actually entered and how long they’re there.

Right? If you have a unique code set up for a door, well then all the history would be tied to that one code. You can see every time someone [00:12:00] opens a door, every time someone unlocks it, and every time someone locks it. It

Another nice thing of having this history is that it also tells us when our guests check in for the first time. So make sure that your welcome message or your friendly follow up that says, Hey John, just wanna make sure you got in the property. Okay? Make sure that it doesn’t go out before they actually check into the property.

Right? And this is one of the ways that you can verify that they’ve made it into the property. You can have your lock, depending on the version, send you a notification when that guest checks in for the first time.

My last tip, and this is probably the most important one, just make sure that your door codes are as simple as possible. The fewer digits they are, the less digits a guest has to remember and the less chance that they’re gonna screw up when they plug it in. Because even though some of these locks are really, really easy to use, you would be surprised how many people still have trouble with them.

So I hope those essentials give you some more insight into what you need to look [00:13:00] for when you purchase your new lock.

Consider all these tips and remember that even though you might have the best lock out there, you’re still gonna have some guests that are gonna have trouble with entering the code or whatever it happens to be. There is quite often user error, so make sure you’ve got that backup in place and just make sure that you’re there to help them get in if they need some help.

Till next time, I hope you have a wonderful week.