Elevating Your Vacation Rentals with Robust Access Control

Today’s travelers are a sophisticated crowd. They work, shop, and interact daily with major tech players like Amazon, Apple, Expedia, and Airbnb with one-click efficiency, right from their smartphones and laptops. So, when it comes to booking and staying at vacation rentals, your guests expect a similar experience.

Let’s take a look at how the right digital tools, like an integration between RemoteLock and ButterflyMX, can help your vacation rental brand stand up and stand out in today’s high-tech marketplace. And once you’re on the digital highway, you’ll find that your operations become more efficient in addition to meeting your guests’ 2.0 expectations.

Keys to elevating your vacation rentals with access control:

• Make it automatic
• Lower energy costs
• Manage turns efficiently and confidently
• Enhance safety and efficiency
• Make excellent service a priority

Make it automatic

If you’re using an online travel agency (OTA) for your vacation rentals, you can also leverage helpful automation. For example, one of ButterflyMX’s partners, RemoteLock, integrates with Airbnb and other popular booking platforms, so unique self-expiring access codes are automatically generated once a booking is approved.

Each guest can receive an email with a code 24 hours before the reservation. There’s no waiting in line at a front desk; your guests start their vacations immediately upon arrival.

For your part, you can see when a guest has checked in via the auto notifications you set up in RemoteLock—there is no need to be there. Plus, thanks to automated codes and smart locks, you have complete confidence that this check-in, and all the others in the coming weeks, will run smoothly.

What’s more, RemoteLock is preferred by property managers worldwide for easy management of keyless access with its cloud-based access control software and a wide selection of smart locks. When you go keyless, you eliminate the hassles of handing off and tracking keys. That’s a timesaver, not to mention one less worry about guests getting locked out.

Even better, do you have short-term rentals in a multi-unit building? ButterflyMX also integrates with RemoteLock so that guests can enjoy seamless, secure access control from the main entrance to every interior door.

Discover ButterflyMX’s property management system integrations: 

Lower energy costs

Many property managers and homeowners alike have taken the wise route of implementing smart home solutions. For example, smart thermostats regulate your property’s air conditioning and heat and allow for convenient remote control of your thermostat, usually through an app on your phone and with voice commands via Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri. Plus, guests appreciate that their accommodations are just the right temperature when they arrive.

This technology is especially helpful for taking a bite out of energy bills for vacation rental owners and managers. An Energy Star smart thermostat (the government-backed certification for energy efficiency) yields savings of approximately 8% of heating and cooling bills — or $50 per year.

Combine this with smart light fixtures and LED bulbs (which use 90% less energy than traditional incandescent light bulbs), and you’ve got a real NOI booster. Your smart thermostat allows you to adjust the temperature when the property is vacant.

And if the vacation rental cleaners lower the AC while cleaning and then forget to raise it, or a guest accidentally leaves a light on, you can set up a mobile app to alert you and then make the adjustment from your smartphone.

Best of all, you can even save on insurance when you install smart home technology. In fact, Nerd Wallet reached out to dozens of insurance companies and reported that many offer discounts of up to 20%, depending on the device and where you live. With insurance costs continually rising, smart home technology is a viable way to offset these increases.

Manage turns efficiently & confidently

Turning over vacation rentals is integral to running a successful rental operation. With RemoteLock’s smart locks and ButterflyMX’s access control system, you can easily create a special schedule for your cleaner.

For example, the RemoteLock cleaner’s code works in the three-hour window after a guest checks out. Through the integration of RemoteLock and ButterflyMX, you can monitor the cleaner’s access so you know the work is completed on time and well before new guests arrive.

Pro tip: Try Turno, another of RemoteLock’s partners. With this software, your cleaner can report issues like a leaky faucet. The cleaner sends you a photo and description via Turno. Then, you must share this information with your plumber, who receives an automated access code to the property. The faucet was fixed before the next guest arrived, and you barely lifted a finger.

Enhance safety & efficiency

Keyless door lock entry not only ushers in modern technology, but it increases safety, too. When you implement keyless entry at your vacation rentals, guests never have to worry about forgetting or losing keys. Further, keyless entry is ideal for larger parties who don’t want the hassle of trying to share one or two keys.

Homeowners who share buildings or neighborhoods with rentals also prefer this solution. They like that guests can only access their properties during approved reservation windows. Plus, they never worry about copied keys or somebody reusing an access code.

As for vacation rental operators and managers, you’ll save time running from property to property to hand off keys or to lockboxes to manually change codes because each guest’s code expires at check-out. Plus, you can easily create or revoke codes right from your smartphone or laptop and see when anyone enters with a quick glance at a dashboard.

Make excellent service a priority

Once you’ve nailed these faster digital solutions and automations, you’ll gain back time that you can spend providing an outstanding hospitality experience. For example, you can find out what your guests would like to experience during their stay and offer local suggestions for restaurants, entertainment, recreation, transportation, and more.

You can even be available when the time is right to upsell on room service, spa treatments, excursions, and more. Additionally, remember to ask for reviews and market directly to past guests with offers and special packages.

Author’s Bio:

RemoteLock’s universal access control platform simplifies remote access management for multifamily, vacation rentals, and commercial properties. RemoteLock delivers unmatched flexibility with ever-expanding integrations to leading smart lock brands, wired access hardware, and software such as property management systems and booking platforms. Trusted by property managers in over 75 countries, RemoteLock lets users conveniently manage property access, automate time-consuming tasks and eliminate the hassle of keys for good.