Rentals, property management and short stay
Change the code, not the locks
If you manage more than one property, the job a smart lock actually does for you is not convenience. It is that a tenancy change stops being a locksmith callout.
The four things that change
- Turnover needs no locksmith. Delete the old code, issue a new one. As long as the mechanical keys stay with you, there is no rekeying, no cutting and no waiting for a locksmith between tenancies.
- Trades get a code with an end date. A plumber gets a code that works Thursday and stops working Friday. You do not have to be there and you do not hand over a key you then have to chase.
- You can see who came and went. The app keeps an access record, which settles a surprising number of arguments.
- A lost card or fob stops being an emergency. Delete it in the app and it stops working, while everyone else's codes and cards carry on. A lost mechanical key still needs the lock rekeyed.
Three things to know before you buy
It is the app account that owns the lock, not the keys. If a lock is added to your property manager's personal account and they leave, or to a tenant's, the next person cannot add it and the only way out is a factory reset that wipes every code and every card. Add every lock to an account the business controls, not an individual.
A door onto a shared corridor or stair may be on a means of escape, and the Building Code requires those to open from the inside without a key. A mechanical key override does not satisfy that. What the Building Code requires.
Issuing a code from your office rather than at the door needs the Wi-Fi gateway, one per property, inside the house and in range of the lock. Codes, cards and keys work without it.
Doing several at once
If you are fitting more than a couple, the sensible order is: check the doors first, because the width of the flat face beside the handle decides which models can go on, then standardise on as few models as you can so your maintenance people only learn one thing.
Send us the addresses and a photo of each door and we will tell you what fits before anyone orders anything.
Tell us how many doors and what they are made of. We will come back with what fits, what it involves, and how to set the accounts up so this does not bite you in two years.