Three Steps to Automate Your Home for Airbnb Hosting

Deciding to Airbnb your home brings a variety of unexpected challenges and busy work for you as a host to keep up with. From putting up listings and communicating with guests, to managing your home during the stay and cleaning up once guests are gone, there’s a large list of things that need to be done in order to properly run an Airbnb, let alone impress your guests throughout their stay. This is why taking advantage of automated services and appliances can help cut out some extra tasks and make your Airbnb a smooth and seamless experience, for both you as a host and for your guests staying at your home.  

Make a Guest Guidebook

Creating a guest guidebook is one of the simplest ways you can cut out a large amount of busy work necessary to get a guest properly accommodated in your home. On top of this, it provides guests who are new to a city or neighbourhood a welcoming set of possible restaurants or sightseeing spots to visit. Airbnb have introduced Guidebooks, allowing hosts to suggest local spots and attractions that a guest can visit, and this might be something that you want to set up. Top hosts’ guidebook recommendations are also collected within Airbnb’s city-specific guidebooks, allowing for new visitors to a city to easily find a variety of recommended restaurants and shops while also giving additional exposure to the contributing hosts and their listings.

Many hosts have found Airbnb’s Guidebooks to be lacking in features and functionality, and a few alternatives like Hostfully, Touch Stay, and Houseguide offer more comprehensive platforms to create the perfect guidebook for your guests. Read our article on the best Airbnb guidebook creation services to find the one that suits your needs best.

Upgrade to Motion Sensor Lights and Temperature Automation Units

If you’re really keen on fully automating various aspects of your household, start looking into getting motion sensors for lights and temperature automation units. The smart home sector has been rapidly growing and improving, and it offers hosts the ability to manage all aspects of their living space even when they’re out of the house. For aspiring super hosts these features not only impress guests and make daily life smoother, but also help cut down on unnecessary energy expenses. What’s great is that many smart home systems are integrated with voice-controlled assistants like Amazon’s Alexa or Google Assistant, giving you and your guests the power to change your home’s temperature or play some music by simply asking your home assistant.

For smart thermostat systems, Nest and Ecobee are the two main competitors in the space. Both offer similar functionality with a few differing features. In terms of voice control using smart assistants, the Nest is compatible with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. On the other hand, the Ecobee has built-in Amazon Alexa functionality, meaning that if you don’t have a smart assistant in your home you won’t have to purchase one separately to use voice control.

As for smart lighting, the Philips Hue White and Color Starter Kit is one of the best entry points for someone looking to outfit their home with a few smart lights. The starter kit comes with the necessary hub to operate the lights, and with either two or four Philips Hue bulbs that work with the Philips app, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple’s HomeKit.

Simplify your Key Exchange

Managing access to your home can be surprisingly tricky and difficult to do if you’re looking to actively host guests through Airbnb. Automating key exchange lets your guests check in and check out independently, giving you the freedom to be elsewhere when guests are arriving.

It’s easy to start sharing your keys using Keycafe:

1. Sign up for a Keycafe account.
2. Register and drop off your keys at a Keycafe SmartBox.
3. Give anyone access through their email address or mobile phone number.

Keycafe enables secure and seamless key exchange through its various SmartBox locations and the Keycafe mobile app, letting hosts and guests pick up and drop off keys easily without having to meet up at specific times or worry about keys potentially being misplaced. If you know your guests will be checking in during the later hours of the evening or in the early morning, you can leave your keys in a SmartBox location that’s open 24 hours for guests to access your property’s keys whenever they arrive. It’s not easy to automate Airbnb hosting, but hopefully these initial steps can help you get started.

About Keycafe

Keycafe is a technology company modernizing business key management with a cloud-connected SmartBox and accompanying key management software.

In addition to a global Public Network of over 1000 locations for Airbnb users, Keycafe’s Enterprise Solution enables businesses in any industry to manage key access for staff and customers.