August Home has partnered with the online marketplace for the vacation rental industry, HomeAway, with the aim of making it easier for hosts to give guests secure, keyless access to their listing using an August Smart Lock and August Smart Keypad.
After making a reservation for a vacation rental with August Home products, HomeAway guests automatically receive a secure PIN code for their stay through the HomeAway app they used to make their reservation—there’s nothing else for them to do or download.
The vacation rental market continues to grow, fueled by tech innovation including smart home technology, which delivers a better, more secure and convenient experience for both hosts and guests, according to the August Home study, Short-term Rentals: Smarter Hosting with Smart Home Technology.
Guests indicate not worrying about being locked out (53 percent), not having to coordinate with hosts when arriving or departing a property (48 percent), providing an easier system for checking in and checking out (46 percent), and a carefree, key-free stay would make the rental experience less stressful for them. For hosts, stress-relievers include not having to worry about guests forgetting to lock the door (66 percent) and no more hiding keys where someone besides the guest might find them (34 percent).
“Our partnership with HomeAway puts an end to leaving keys under the doormat, lost keys, and coordinating key exchanges with guests,” said Jason Johnson, CEO of August Home Inc. “We’ve focused on the Smart Lock and Smart Keypad to offer the most convenient and simple way for guests to access any property. All guests need is the PIN code that is automatically sent to them in the HomeAway app to enter the property. This simplifies managing the rental process for both hosts and guests.”
Vacation guests (80 percent) report they are more likely to complete a rental reservation if the property has smart home technology. And, 60 percent of guests are also willing to pay more for a vacation rental with a smart home feature. All of this is leading hosts and guests to believe smart home technology, such as smart locks (hosts 85 percent; guests 77 percent), will be a part of all rentals in the future.
Setting up and providing access to a smart HomeAway property is designed to be easy. Hosts create an August account and connect the August account from the HomeAway.com host page,a one-time process. HomeAway then automatically generates PIN codes that appear in the host’s HomeAway Owner Dashboard for each guest reservation. Guests automatically receive a notification to let them know that they have access to the property they reserved via a Smart Keypad PIN code in the HomeAway Guest app.
Any reservation changes or cancellations automatically change the access times and days for the property. These changes are also reflected inside the HomeAway Traveler app and HomeAway Owner Dashboard. Once the reservation ends, access to the property automatically ends.
Providing secure PIN code access to a property with an August Smart Keypad requires an August Smart Lock. Remotely provisioning a Smart Keypad PIN code requires the August Connect Wi-Fi Bridge.
