Ask me anything about using home automation in your Airbnb

Hi everyone! I’m pretty new here, but I wanted to help you understand more about how to use home automation products (smart locks, thermostats, window/door sensors, noiseaware, etc.) in your Airbnb.

I run a company that focuses on installing these in Airbnbs in Toronto but I know people here are all around the world so I figured I can help you out. So if you have any questions, ask away!

Ken

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Have Schlage zwave lock and wink hub. I see where it can alert me to remove codes at speficided date/time, but can this be done automatically?

Good questions, cabinhost!

  1. Windows are definitely a problem that can rack up your energy bill. Your question has a few parts and there are different solutions so I’ll try to lay them out well.

To start, you can definitely have your window sensors activate your thermostat after 5 minutes. There’s no out-of-box solution for this so you would need something like a Homeseer ZWave Pi (ask me specific questions about the system if you’d like). Then you can set up a trigger along the lines of "if a window goes from closed to open, start a countdown. if it’s open for 5 minutes, turn off the thermostat.

Another simple solution would again use the window sensors and an interface such as Vera, SmartThings, or Homeseer (and lots of others) then just check on your phone to see if any windows are open when a guest leaves.

  1. Your second question is pretty simple. You are probably thinking of the Ecobee thermostat with room sensors. Those can detect if someone is sleeping vs. not in the room but must be pointed at them. This then adjusts the set temperature to the room they’re in (example if they set it to 21 degrees, it’ll make sure the room they’re in is 21 instead of the room the thermostat is in).

If you want the system to shut off or go into eco mode when no one is home, again you need a Zwave hub (homeseer, smartthings, etc) and your own motion sensors. Those would need to be in pretty much all rooms people might hang out in, and then you can set them so if none of them detect motion, the thermostat goes into eco mode.

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Unfortunately Wink does not allow very much automation with locks due to security concerns. So no, you cannot have it automatically delete the code.

Sorry I’m just heading out right now but I’ll be back in about an hour and I’ll have lots of time to answer your question and any follow-ups

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Okay sorry about the delayed response, but here are your answers:

These are different sensors than before so they are looking for motion. With a timer set for 30 minutes, then it would only turn off the thermostat after 30 minutes of no motion.

So if Grandpa falls asleep in the chair, it should be okay if he just moves a bit in his sleep.

Answer regarding wifi:

There are smart devices that are wifi-dependant and ones that don’t need wifi. In all my installations I try to stick to devices that don’t need wifi in case it breaks. I use a technology called Z Wave, and a controller called Homeseer which will do your automations offline. This means if your internet goes out, then you will not be able to manually adjust things via your home, but automations such as “If no motion is detected, turn off the thermostat” will still run.

I’m enjoying these questions, let me know if you have more!

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what automation products are used in condos to facilitate self check-in? keyfobs, unit access, buzzer system

Hi everyone! It’s a bit of a quiet Monday so I’d like to bump this post and see if anyone else has questions!

Hi Ken, my wife and I are just getting our Airbnb set up. We learned today about syncing our Airbnb calendar with Rboy and Samsung Smart Things to automatically generate a code for guests to open the front door. My question is, similar to the way Rboy analyzes our calendar and automatically generates PIN codes, is there a way to get my thermostat to automatically go to Eco mode between scheduled guests?

Thanks!

Ken,
Thanks for offering to help! We are just getting started and do not currently have internet or cable in our home. We have an unlimited att cell service and I have another phone on the family plan that is not in use. Is there a way to use that to give the tv firestick or hulu capability? Is there something I can add to my already existing att plan to provide basic service to the house? What is the least expensive way to get internet going quickly for our customers that are due in two days.

THANKS