KIO is going live very soon.
What will KIO do? I’ve looked the world over, trying to see if I can find a SETI signal now, but nothing uses an .ics calendar to trigger home/away functions since RLA.
Not Zapier, not Sharptools, not Lockmanager.io, not Aurmur, nothing automates the home/away.
Would this be comparable to RLA in terms of features when launched? i have added my email thanks for the link.
I’m reading, just looks like another lock manager but no automations.
What’s a SETI signal? Like aliens? 
Signs of intelligent life? 
Where is the ics being sourced from? If it’s for rental automations, I’ve heard of some people using webhooks from their rental platform over to SharpTools rules.
I’m not intimately familiar what what each rental platform provides, but if you want to share more details on your use-case, maybe there’s another approach that could work for you.
I tried everything on Earth, so now looking for alien tech.
Any calendar export. Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com, Hopper, and my PMS all use .ics calendar exports.
Yeah, Sharptools has no way to do a trigger via calendar event. No matter how much Sharptools fans say it works for everything. it has a calendar tile, but no calendar trigger. I also tried with my PMS via API using Zapier and Sharp tools but no luck.
I can do the automation via Smartthings, all I need is the home/away to be triggered. I’ve made a feature request with my current lock manager, but they just seem to be happy providing minimal service of activating and deactivating lock codes with the calendar. I think it should be so easy when they activate a lock code, they set the location to home, and when they deactivate the lock code, set it to away, but no attempt to do that.
RLA did it so well, sad how no one can develop a platform like RLA on the new smartthings, even @RBoy seems to be having a problem.
I’m in a perpetual search for a solution.
Can you tell me more about that approach? If your PMS has an API or the ability to send webhooks, you can use that to build the automation with SharpTools.
If any of the systems you manage things through have APIs or webhooks, I’ll bet we can get something working. I’m the founder of SharpTools, so I guess that makes me a superfan. 
Can you help me better understand how most people who rent out their properties manage things?
Do you typically use a central PMS that helps you list on the individual sites (AirBnB, VRBO, etc)? Historically, were you managing all the automations through a connection to the PMS? It seems like automating through each site’s connection would be more complex and risk double bookings and things of that nature.
And while ics is a great old-school format for calendars, using a modern event driven (webhook) approach would be better if your PMS supports that. Otherwise ics would rely on polling and downloads the whole calendar each time just to check a handful of entries.
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Connecting directly to Sharp tools from Guesty via API webhooks was not effective, I couldn’t get it to work correctly, I couldn’t get it to execute and trigger action. Connecting via Guesty to Zapier to Sharptools was better, but it was not doing what I needed the most, automation, I would see some triggers but the actions on Smartthings didn’t complete.
I’m 222 miles, a 3-hour drive from my own properties, and 2 others I helped manage were even further away. I needed automation. I did a lot of research before starting, and 2 months before I start it was determined RLA offered everything I needed, so I got RLA, everything Zwave, and Smartthings. Lock code creation, lock code deactivation (most important now in Florida with a new law passed that you have to limit access to your rental property when a renter is inside, AC automation, and lights automation.
To me all this is important. People set the AC to 65 and leave it running when they leave, sometimes there are several days or weeks before the next renter, so it is important when the guest checks out that the AC returns to normal, or to off, then back to normal when the next guest arrives. On the 3 units I own, my electric bill is up $180 more than last July, with less occupancy. I just kept forgetting to reset the AC and lights.
For some reason, guests and the cleaners leave all the lights on, all the time.
With RLA, when a guest code was active, the location was set to home. When the location was set to home the cleaner codes, handyman codes, etc were all disabled. Before the law was passed, I had a cleaner enter a unit, by mistake, while the guest was sleeping and it terrified them.
When the guest code was deactivated, the location was set to away, all other lock codes became active, A/C would return to the normal setting for 4 hours, giving the cleaners time to clean, then the A/C was off after 4 hours with no new guest arrival. All lights would turn off if the cleaners used their code to unlock the door and it would allow the lights to be on for 4 hours and then off until the next guest arrived.
All with a flip of the location, based on calendar events, so far there’s no solution.
One simple or not-so-simple change of location with automation allowed me to be in compliance with Florida Miya’s Law, save on energy cost, and convenience.
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Sorry folks, it’s taking longer than expected but we’re working a full replacement for RLA / LMAPI.
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Is it possible with the new driver for there to be an option for automation when a code is created? I can do some automation if I can get a trigger when a guest code is created or deactivated.
Hi @Redcentauri - I’m with you on this major challenge. When we had RboyApps RLA it wasn’t easy to setup, but once it was - it was 99% golden! The Home/Away & routine benefits were how it’s supposed to be. We have 6 homes that we had it setup on, so we’ve been in a world of hurt for a while. Step 1 was trying to see how long we could hold on to the old code (January it died). Step 2 was examining other solutions (lots of costly options that still didn’t do it the way we wanted it to be done). Step 3 we signed up for Hospitable since they had an RLA type solution in place (backed by Seam @sybohy ) which has been ~85% reliable in basics, but no the home/away automations/routines we desire like you.
Seems like @RBoy will be back, but it’s been 8+ months and many previous users have moved on.
We checked into @joshua_lyon 's SharpTools a little, but didn’t seem to cover us either.
Here’s how we used the iCal connection via RLA.
- Loaded ical that would allow for guests info to transfer over from our PMS or the direct OTA - <Airbnb, VRBO> (previously IGMS, currently a cross of Hostaway & Hospitable).
- We could set a home/away trigger based on checkin times that would start/stop HVAC, turn on smart switches for fireplaces, lighting.
- The main use was the basics of guests last 4 of their mobile active for checkin & deactive for checkout.
We continue to dream and thankful we started playing with Hospitable (originally only for their RLA “substitute”) and now enjoying some of their other benefits too.
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I haven’t tried this solution as yet, as it looks like it is also a PMS and I already have one.
Yes, the latest driver you can create a lot of custom automations including with users. Check this out for more details:
We have more features coming to the drivers which should give more local control for users and codes (without the internet).
While SharpTools isn’t primarily tailored for rental integrations like AirBnB, the platform has versatile dashboards and an adaptable rule engine, giving users the freedom to shape their automations.
To help you make the most of it, I would need specifics.
Guesty’s availability of webhooks and API suggests potential integration. Given access to their reservations API, you might directly query daily reservations. Based on this, actions such as adjusting lock codes or activating specific modes might be set up. However, without a Guesty account on my end, this is a hypothesis.
Both Hostaway and Hospitable offer webhooks and APIs, indicating potential integration capabilities with these platforms as well.
Alternatively, if you already have automations managing lock codes with RBoy’s lock driver, you might be able to trigger your automations based on those events.
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And back to the original .ics approach, if you want to send some sample ICS files to support@sharptools.io, I’d be happy to take a closer look at what options we might have.
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The API Webhook provides
GET – Get Properties
GET – Get Property Info
GET – Get Rates
POST – Update Rates
GET – Get Reservation Details
GET – Get Reservation List
Why not use Guesty’s Lock Manager? Smart Lock Manager - All your smart locks in one place | Guesty
Fwiw we have a thermostat API in beta. It can automatically turn heating/cooling based on start time and end time of a reservation (and/or cleaning window). I need to talk to Hospitable about adding support for it but it would effectively work in parallel with access codes. So effectively, a booking comes in, and the PMS triggers an API call to Seam to program both an access code and the thermostat activation for said reservation.
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ZERO Automation. A lock manager is not needed. There seem to be thousands now, at least 5 good solutions. As started before, automation is the key.
Is this available now. I tried seam when it was first offered and it was not effective.
The RBoy posting is very unclear for someone not heavily into the the dev side. Can someone please help me understand what this release means.
I currently own multiple RLA licenses and understand that RLA license now give me basic driver and I can pay $6.yr for the adv driver.
It is not clear if either driver enables RLA function again.
It looks like the ADV driver is great for home automators, but the reality is most of the RLA customer base was using to the app to automate STR. Having a lot more control of z wave locks manually does not add any value to the customer base that bought the RLA and LUM licenses.
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