The Six Best Airbnb Smart Locks for 2024. A side by side comparison.
Picking up and handing over the keys to your guests, for instance using lockboxes, can be an operational nightmare.
You’ve either got to pay someone to hang around to hand them over in person—which is time-consuming and expensive and an annoying issue if the guests arrive early or are delayed—or you’ve got to have the keys hidden in some rickety, insecure lockbox; or stashed somewhere equally unsafe (flower pot, anyone?).
And even if the guests do manage to get the keys, none of these are good long-term solutions.
Lockboxes don’t change access codes with each new guest or user (presenting a security risk) and physical keys can be easily lost, copied, stolen, or locked inside the space. Exhausting, right?
That’s where smart locks come in, solving all of these problems in one move. Offering digital keyless entry for rental properties, the best smart locks for rental property use keycodes, without relying on smartphones.
They enable check-in and check-out at any time of the day or night (so there’s no problem if your guest is delayed or wants to leave early) and can be remotely changed so that only people with the most up-to-date keycode can gain access.
Smart locks offer connectivity to other elements of your guest’s stay, such as the heat or lighting in their room; the automated emails you might send about check-in, check-out, digital guidebooks, or customer service; and they connect to your existing PMS so you, the host, can manage your entire short-term property portfolio at a glance.
And in our post-pandemic world, as the hospitality industry starts to reopen, guests are also looking to pay more for Covid-safe solutions, and smart locks enable contactless check-in with no needless in-person interactions.
Smart locks are just that: smart, and they’re the future of hosting.
What to look for in a smart lock for Airbnb.
Before you decide what kind of key your hotel’s new doors will have, it’s important to set goals and understand expectations. What are you hoping to achieve? If you’re looking to stay ‘business as usual’, you might be looking into hotel electronic door lock systems that use key cards. While plastic magstripe keycards might be the cheapest form of room access, it doesn’t provide added value or ROI to hotels. It means you’ll need staff on-site, so operating expenses stay high.
Mobile keys might be a popular form of keyless entry and hotel automation, but they’re often not an adequate alternative, especially if your goal is to reduce operating expenses. For one, phone batteries can die. Second, older generations are still not comfortable depending on their phones for entering their rooms. Both options mean you’ll still need staff at the front desk “just in case”.
Finally, smart locks with keypads provide a keyless experience that can work without a phone or a key. It provides the most secure form of access for hotels while allowing them to start their digital transformation into a modern-day form of operations.
The reason we advocate for keypad locks is that they are the only form of guest entry that is foolproof, thus not requiring any fallback check-in option. When using a keycard or a mobile key solution, you rely on an app. Unfortunately, most guests don’t want to use an app, whether due to lack of smartphone literacy, app fatigue, unintuitive user experience, their batteries dies or they run out of data. Most of the time, 85% of people will steer clear of any app download.
Typical fallback options we hear about before switching to Operto include:
- 24/7 front desk (which really only viable in large properties)
- Lockboxes for every single room containing a keycard. Guests call you to request the lockbox code when they arrive.
- On-call staff that lives nearby and are available to drive out and meet clients 24/7 (not a great guest or staff experience)
Before you decide what kind of key your hotel’s new doors will have, it’s important to set goals and understand expectations. What are you hoping to achieve? If you’re looking to stay ‘business as usual’, you might be looking into hotel electronic door lock systems that use key cards. While plastic magstripe keycards might be the cheapest form of room access, it doesn’t provide added value or ROI to hotels. It means you’ll need staff on-site, so operating expenses stay high.
Mobile keys might be a popular form of keyless entry and hotel automation, but they’re often not an adequate alternative, especially if your goal is to reduce operating expenses. For one, phone batteries can die. Second, older generations are still not comfortable depending on their phones for entering their rooms. Both options mean you’ll still need staff at the front desk “just in case”.
Finally, smart locks with keypads provide a keyless experience that can work without a phone or a key. It provides the most secure form of access for hotels while allowing them to start their digital transformation into a modern-day form of operations.
The reason we advocate for keypad locks is that they are the only form of guest entry that is foolproof, thus not requiring any fallback check-in option. When using a keycard or a mobile key solution, you rely on an app. Unfortunately, most guests don’t want to use an app, whether due to lack of smartphone literacy, app fatigue, unintuitive user experience, their batteries dies or they run out of data. Most of the time, 85% of people will steer clear of any app download.
Typical fallback options we hear about before switching to Operto include:
- 24/7 front desk (which really only viable in large properties)
- Lockboxes for every single room containing a keycard. Guests call you to request the lockbox code when they arrive.
- On-call staff that lives nearby and are available to drive out and meet clients 24/7 (not a great guest or staff experience)
6 Best Airbnb Smart Locks in 2024
While there is a huge range of smart locks on the market right now, these are our top choices for the best smart locks for rental property that work especially well for Airbnb hosts, and which are robust enough to scale with your business as it grows.
Yale Assure Lock Series Smart lock for Airbnb Hosts
Yale nexTouch Series
Yale Linus® Smart Lock
Yale Keyless Connected
August lock Airbnb integration
Nuki Smart Lock
Igloohome Smart Locks
Operto Connect
What to look for in a smart lock for Airbnb.
Looking for a smart lock designed for Airbnb hosts sounds simple, but a quick search will reveal an overwhelming number of smart locks out there, not all of which are ideal for short-term rental hosts. Many are designed either for casual, domestic use or, conversely, for massive, repeated commercial use, and there are a huge array of different designs and features. If you haven’t used a smart lock system before, it can be confusing and daunting to know what each option does, and which will be best for your business and guests.
That’s why we recommend focusing mainly on the following criteria when choosing an Airbnb digital lock.
So which Airbnb smart door lock is right for you?
It depends on you and your business, but while the Yale Assure Series offers a simple, classic option for North America; Yale Linus offers award-winning design, tailored to Europe and Igloohome offers unmatched security even without Wi-Fi.
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