Short term rental amenities

[Asury Johnson]

Hey guys! My husband and I are prepping our 8th STR. We have been hosting for almost 2 yrs and love it. When we started we had a small budget and couldn't go all out with the fancy amenities. We have made lots of updates since we started. This once we wanted to try the Nest thermostat and August smart lock. We have a WiFi thermostat on our other ones, but it is locked because we learned the hard way that guests will leave heat/air on blast. Our Honeywell thermostat doesn't allow us to set a parameter of temp that it can be adjusted to manually. Guests have to text me to adjust it. I keep the homes at comfortable so I RARELY texts. Nests thermometers do allow temp parameter settings and guests can adjust it themselves. We, also, currently use a keypad lock and every guests gets the same code. It has manually be changed if we ever need to. The August smart lock will allow us to assign codes to guests that you set time limits to. This is perfect for those guests show up super early with no consent or check out late. Also offers a little bit more security to guests. Both of these were pretty expensive and sound fantastic, but, I want to hear if anyone's has experiences with either product. How do you like them? Thanks and sorry for lengthy post!

[Benjamin Vail]

We run 32 STR units in the midwest. My partner was set on August locks, and I hate them. They are flashy, but we spend WAY to much time and money sending crew to fix their issues. I have Remotelock on one, and love it. I also have non-wifi keypad locks ($60) on about 20 houses, and that system is my favorite. We have the cleaners change the codes every guests. If you get that system down, then you shouldn't have issues with guests checking in early (as long as the cleaners change the codes as the last thing they do). Always, Always, Always, have a back up lockbox in case the locks have issues! Have 2 back up lockboxes, and you will sleep better at night!