It works great!
I had my parents visiting over the weekend. FML, not because they were visiting but because I had to disable a bunch of stuff.
When my in laws visit, I give them a list of commands that don’t did what you’d think they would…
The mind boggles. Now you have given me ideas 
.
I tell relatives if they can’t figure it out, tuff t*tty. They usually end up flipping switches a moment before the light activates, and it just confuses them as it flips on and off more than intended. After maybe 20 times they stop futzing with anything and tentatively hope stuff happens as they move from room to room. It’s very entertaining to watch.
In my case my mother was sleeping on the couch in the family room. I have all my lights on the first floor automated at night via motion sensor. Each room is configured differently via CoRE. Not that big of an issue while not moving, but with 2 cats and a dog, lights on / off all night until I disabled the pistons.
I have a “Guest” mode for these situations. You can usually set things up to operate/not operate in guest mode.
It also works great as an ST is out of control mode (if you can change modes), as I striped everything down to the basic, local-only, idiot-proofed automatons (i.e. turn lights off in the hallway if there’s no motion, turn off the siren if a light switch is turned off, etc)
I have a similar guest mode. A VS called motion off. I tell Alexa to turn motion off on (yeah yeah) and none of my living room or dining room lights will turn on if someone is over sleeping on the couch.
Same for my projector room. I can partition off most parts of the house granularly with those VS’s.
I have virus switches as each rooms kill switch in my CoRE automations. There is a kill switch section in EchoSistant where I can choose those devices.
I just say, Alexa, cut off the automations in the master bedroom.
I am preparing to rebuild everything using webCoRE. I have already started created a bunch of virtual switches and momentary buttons to replace states / routines. I have also created a bunch of virtual switches to help turn on / off automations. For example…
All Automations
Presence Automations
1st Floor Automations
Family Room Automations
Master Bedroom Automations
Kitchen Automations
…
Then just using them as restrictions in webCoRE.
I am still waiting on a few webCoRE features before I build out everything. Starting slow, putting some thought into it.
This is such a fun thread… so let me jump in. I started ST in early 2015 back in the v1 Hub days and now I am up to >100 things plus 5 cameras. I use SmartRules which proved to be the best $6 bucks I ever spent. I added to this Stringify which is wickedly cool once you figure out the funky user interface. I also use of course Alexa and 2 Dots. And finally I have ActionTiles installed on two Android tablets that are mounted with wireless charging in the wall for optimal WAF. I diddle with it just about an hour a week but it is mostly pretty stable. I use lots of virtual switches to stage time based actions such as driving home and then sending text messages and opening my garage door. I have read a lot about CoRE but haven’t tried it yet so I think I might be missing out on something important there. The only functionality that I feel I am missing is an automated hot tub heater which I can’t figure out how to do. The most complicated thing I have done is hack my built-in alarm system to read voltages that send a signal to an Arduino ThingShield to simulate contact sensors for open/closed doors using the built in sensors in my home. I probably should put a link to that project here but I am feeling lazy right now.
EDIT: Okay … here’s the link:
@whoismoses I set up a ST routine with nothing in it. when guest come over I push a button or tell them how to activate guest mode. when in guest mode it basically disables all automations and makes switches manual. untill you change back. I have a core piston that later will check the state and change back if needed.
This is exactly how I do it. Modes are cool and all but sometimes you just want to turn off the automation in a particular room so each room has an automation virtual switch. Most rules that will annoy visitors or the Mrs. (don’t care about the kids as they are the reason for this whole mess!) I have the condition AND if XXX Automation is ON. If that switch is off, then the rule(s) doesn’t work.
Simple
Finally, I have one Piston that says, if automation switch(s) stays off for 8 hours then turn on.