[RELEASE] Rental Lock Automater - Airbnb, VRBO, HomeAway, TripAdvisor, Booking, Expedia

yup that was it

@RBoy just saw the new release note:

  • 2019-10-02 - (v03.02.12) Disable SMS due to ST stopping international SMS and AirBnB upcoming calendar changes

Was SMS disabled for Vrbo to US phone numbers too?

I just bought this lock (910) 2 days ago, hooked everything up and bought the rental app today. How often the issue arise ? Should I send it back to Amazon and buy a different lock ? Can I just enter in the code manually and still use the rest of the rental app lock managment

Hi there. If you’re referring the post about shared digit locks, the 5 button lock like the 910 can accept only 625 unique 4 digit codes where as a 10 button lock can accept 10,000 4 digit codes. So it’s 16 times more likely to run into a duplicate code issue when using automated numbers.
In practice how often you run into the issue depends on how many active codes there are at a time (based on how many properties are configured, the number of days ahead the code is activated etc)

@mattandjennahost @JasonWW
Realize i’m replying to a post from this summer…
FWIW I’m in the same boat… my property mgmt company aggregates all the platform calendars in their own software and gives me an aggregated ical feed. It’d be great if RLA could consume any ical feed from any source… I don’t know how different they are though.
My prior property mgmt company also had an ical feed but I could never get it to work with RLA, i presume because it was in a slightly different format than airbnb/etc.

Is it possible for RLA to parse an .ics feed from my own google calendar (vs from airbnb or vrbo)? How does RLA parse .ics feeds? and is it possible to make my own google calendar feed ‘look like’ an airbnb, vrbo, or bookings.com ics feed so that RLA can parse it?

Here is my GCal ics feed:

Screenshot_2019-10-29%20Google%20Calendar%20-%20Calendar%20settings%20for%20HeatherCircle

and I’d like to feed it into one of these slots:

Is this possible? Has anyone done this? Hoping someone on here is an ics expert and knows what fields and formatting i’d have to match for RLA to parse and accept my calendar feed. Goal is to feed RLA the guest phone number from my property management company to generate lock codes. My prop mgr doesn’t have an ics feed but i can create one. Thanks!

It is recommended to add a buffering device between your lock and the hub for the best performance.

Rental Lock Automater (RLA) - Version 03.04.00

  • Updated Sure Programming Engine© to v07.10.00, restart failed programming (caused by offline hubs, dead batteries etc) by opening and saving the app.

More details about RLA can be found in the first post of this topic and on the RLA FAQ page.

IMPORTANT UPDATE for Airbnb changes effective 1st Dec 2019

Rental Lock Automater (RLA) - Version 03.05.02

  • Updated app to support the new Airbnb iCalendar format effective 1st Dec 2019
  • Send critical notifications in addition to update notifications

The new calendar format Airbnb will no longer provide the renters name and only the last 4 digits of the phone number. Please note that automatic SMS will no longer be available because of these changes. Feel free to send in your feedback to Airbnb support if you would like to continue seeing the renters name and use the automatic sms feature.

This update to RLA is required to continue using Airbnb, the renters name will be replaced with Airbnb (<Reservation ID>) in Manage Users page. The phone number will be the last 4 digits of the renters reservation number preceded by additional 1's depending on the number of digits configured on your lock.
For example, if RLA is configured to generate 6 digit codes, then the Airbnb renters code will be 11XXXX, where XXXX is the last 4 digits of the reservation phone number. (e.g. 115555)

These code generation changes will automatically take effect when Airbnb switches to the new calendar format on Dec 1st. This update supports both the new and the old calendar formats so updating RLA it will not impact any current renters or reservations. The changes will only go into effect once the new iCalendar format is pushed into production by Airbnb on Dec 1st.

I’m using RLA, but also have just installed another Yale Smartlock on my main residential property. I want to get Smarthings Notifications and Actions to be live on my Residential, but of course do not want the AirBnB guests to get access to my Residential house, only to the Guest Airbnb.

I thought that I need to use the Rboy - Lock User Management app, but then read that you can’t use both Rboy apps at the same time ?

What is the best way to manage Private Rental Locks and enable User Notifications etc. separately from Rental Locks ?
I’m looking for Individual Notifications per User of the main Residential Smartlock.

If we already have these locks with the duplicative keys, what would you suggest?

Has anyone noticed any issues? I set up my lock yesterday and after importing Airbnb’s calendar I saw the users automatically populate with names. So I believe this happened before they made the switch. But today they were all erased. I have not been able to get the guests’ IDs to populate again.

Could this be the issue? …

3 Likes

Hi there. To clarify the FAQ, two apps should not control the same lock simultaneously to avoid a conflict. However RLA is flexible enough to manage multiple locks for personal and rental use. Select all your locks on the main page. Then you can select the appropriate rental lock in the Manage Property page for each unit and for personal users, under the Manage Users → Manual Users you can assign the personal locks for individual users and also configure custom notification settings on the user page.

Thanks @lflorack. Yes that’s related to change made my Airbnb to their iCalendar which was addressed in the updated release last week. Everyone using Airbnb should update RLA to the latest version and can subscribe to our Facebook page for update notifications. The app also sends out critical update notifications to hosts.

@maddie @RBoy I’m getting changes to Airbnb guest’s codes as their stay moves through the dates. What is happening is my Airbnb guest is staying from 12/10-12/14. So their code is 1014. Then as their stay progresses, the codes begin to change:

  • yesterday the code switched to 1114
  • today the code is 1214

What’s going on? I’m on v03.05.02


It looks like your AirBnB calendar server is changing the reservation dates in the iCalendar. PM me your iCal url and I can check it out.

Sent you a DM. FYI, this happened a few days ago to my other properties as well.

Think this might be related? I noticed the app being down yesterday when I was troubleshooting this.

I checked out your iCalendar and it looks like Airbnb is changing the start dates in iCal reservation every day. If it started after recently it may be a bug related to the update Airbnb deployed to their iCal systems on Dec 1st or it may be related to the outage they had yesterday.

If it continues I would recommend logging a ticket with Airbnb support regarding your iCal reservation start dates changing and not in sync with the reservation. Another host had a similar issue last week for one of her properties and it was resolved after she reported it to Airbnb.

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I am having problems with frequent (spurious) changes to dates which is also changing the entry codes I have already distributed? If I select telephone number for code generation what effect will that have on already existing codes? thanks

See the post above yours, Airbnb has a bug after their recent deployment which is causing their server to change the iCal start dates for some properties on a daily basis (you can verify this by opening your iCal file using notepad and see the start dates for your affected reservation). Please create a support ticket with Airbnb for your affected property and they will fix your property iCal.

If you switch RLA to use phone numbers for generating codes, the changing start date shouldn’t have any impact if you’ve set the code activation to one day in advance, but it’s better to have Airbnb fix your iCal issue to ensure a smooth operation.