What type of lock is best for my Airbnb?
Find out how to securely and easily provide access to your rental property, with options ranging from keysafes to smart digital locks that will streamline your guest check-in experience.
What's the best way to secure my rental property?
Hosting a short-term rental on Airbnb, booking.com or other online platform has revolutionised holiday rentals. But one of the first questions new hosts ask is “how do I let my guests check-in easily, while still making sure my property is secure?”.
If you’ve been an Airbnb or booking.com short term rental host for any length of time, you’ll know how frustrating it can be organising keys for your next guest. This is especially true if you are hosting an Airbnb holiday rental a long way from where you live.
Can I use a key-safe?
For many new hosts, the most common product they use to store the keys to their valuable rental property is a humble key safe, or key lockbox. These range in price and security features but some start from less than $20.
How safe is a key-safe?
The most glaring problem with using a key safe, is that unless you want your guess rummaging through the garden looking for it, you’re going to have to place it in an obvious, and accessible location. That’s great for your guests, but also really great for any burglar. Key safes, and especially cheap ones, can easily be broken into, meaning that a burglar can quickly gain access to your lovely bunch of keys.
How easy is it to change the pin on a key safe?
The most basic key safe available on the market support only one access code at a time. That means that your guests, cleaner, handyman and property manager all know the code.
Changing the code after each rental is the only way to ensure that previous guests don’t return after checking out to swipe your TV. Changing the code is usually a fairly easy process, but what about the time it takes you to phone everyone who needs to know the updated code?
Are there ‘smart’ key safes?
Just like digital locks, key safes do come in a smart variant. These more expensive models of the humble key safe offer time-restricted access can have their pin codes changes via an app, or the internet, and can integrate with hosting platforms such as Airbnb.
Are there any problems with using a smart key safe?
The main problem with any key safe, smart or otherwise, is that you are still giving your set of keys to another person, and it’s all too easy for them to get a duplicate key cut for later use (there goes your TV again).
Are digital locks better than key safes?
If you host a short-term rental property and have guests checking in and out frequently, a digital, smart lock is a much better solution than the humble key safe. Not only will you have online access to your locks, but you will be able to automate a lot of the process by linking your digital locks to your booking system. For example, you can automatically set the pin code to the last 4-digits of the next guest’s phone number.
The ease and convenience of this it multiplied if you’re hosting more than one property. Just think how much time you can save by automating your check-in and check-out procedure.