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

Thank. Today, my SMS message was not sent to the Renter. My hub is online with internet access. Check in time was 3pm. My current time is 5pm. App is configured to send custom message on the day of check-in. Is there a log to know why the message wasn’t sent? Im using the Classic app.

Also, is it possible to force a SMS message or send a message on demand?

Are you saying that the renter didn’t receive the SMS or how did you determine that it wasn’t sent?
The SMS is sent by the ST server from the cloud at the specified check in time (hub timezone), even if the hub is offline. It’s checked every hour.

I never got a SmartThings app notification showing a SMS was sent to the renter. I did not ask the renter if they received it. As a precaution, I just emailed them the code via AIrBNB app. How can I determine if the SMS was sent, besides asking the renter if they received a SMS?

Most likely the ST platform timed out before pushing the notification to your phone. The app has safe guards built in to ensure that the platform sends the SMS. There is no way to confirm if it the SMS was received (it’s outside of the ST environment, e.g. users’ plan doesn’t support it, number doesn’t support SMS etc), but it tracks if it was sent.

The app keeps tracks of which SMS were sent by the platform (e.g. the platform times out while sending then it won’t register as it was sent successfully) and it will keep retrying the SMS every hour until it’s sent out and then send your a push notification confirming the same.
If the app cannot send the SMS (e.g. the phone number is missing or the SMS template entered is incomplete) it will send you a push notification notifying you that the SMS could not be sent because of XXX.

I was one of the beta testers on this app and have been using it on my own airbnb for a couple months now and I’ve had no issues. It fully automates the code creation/deletion process and even allows you to customize the code creation/deletion time for each guest (my idea!).

This really is a must-have app for anyone with an airbnb rental property and a keypad lock.

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Beta tester here too, I’ve had around 20 guests using this since beta. No issues. Pretty awesome considering every single guest gets a unique code that only lasts for the duration of their stay, and I sit back and literally do nothing around door code programming. Thank God!

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I’ve read this post and the FAQ’s and I still have a couple questions. I use the current rboy lock/user manager app and love it. I want to move to this app and already purchased the license but I have current renters which consist of two rooms each with its own listing. So what is the process when I have the existing with about 20 codes programmed ready to go at the moment?

Questions:
If I create the new smartapp - will it be able to read the existing codes and “import” them?
Do I need to delete the existing smartapp and just start over? If yes, do you have to do the “clear codes”

Maybe a better single question - Is there a migration path from the lock/user management app to this one? What are the steps if yes?

Thanks Rboy, your apps save me a ton of time and are rock solid!

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Reading back existing codes is limited for security reasons. It’s always best to start afresh when using a new app since apps aren’t designed to communicate with each other in ST.

If you’re using AiRBnB, VRBO or HomeAway, RLA will automatically create new codes for your booked renters. For the manual users, yes you’ll need to recreate them manually and it’s best to run the Clear Codes procedure before uninstalling the existing app so that the new app starts with a clean slate.

Thank you so much for this. It looks amazing. How can I have it look at 2 iCal urls? I have one house but with 2 AirBnB listing in it. When either or both get rented I want to have the app create a code for the renter. Thanks!

I am getting a little frustrated by the support of the @RBoy apps. I purchased the commercial Rental Lock Automater and can’t seem to get an answer to my question. I have messaged here and also sent a private message to @maddie and so far nothing. I have no idea how to proceed.

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Their primary support is:
support @ rboyapps.com

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Matt I responded to your email. Glad to hear that you are enjoying the RLA app.

The app is currently supports one iCalendar URL per installed instance.
So if you have 2 units you will need to install the app twice, each with it’s own lock(s) and iCalendar URL. We are looking to support multi unit URL’s in future.

EDIT: To get the Multi Rental Unit feature (you can share common locks between properties), upgrade to version 02.00.00 or newer.

I have the same need, 2 listings (Rooms) but 1 master lock. Just to clarify the last statement, I could install the rental lock smart-app twice (I take it I could modify the code name to be like “Rental Lock Automater RM1”) But each would have to have it’s own lock? Both could NOT be pointed at the same “master” lock?

Any workarounds until multi iCals are supported?

Thanks!

EDIT: To get the Multi Rental Unit feature (you can share common locks between properties), upgrade to version 02.00.00 or newer. You can configure up to 8 properties (more in future) each with their own AirBnB, Homeaway/VRBO calendars.

Original:
A single lock should never have more than one app controlling it since they could conflict each other’s programming.
A single app can control multiple locks.

You can use a couple of ways to synchronize locks or have keypads setup to synchronize with the master lock. Here are a few examples for using multi unit rentals with a master lock for now:

Rental Lock Automater - Version 01.01.00

  • Optional update related to VRBO/Homewaway website security changes, fixes ST issues with downloading schedule updates for VRBO/Homeaway

EDIT: This update is now optional, ST has patched the issue internally so existing versions of the app should continue to work.

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Works great! Thanks!

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Thank you all for your feedback and requests, we pleased to finally release our enhanced RLA:

Rental Lock Automater (RLA) - Version 02.00.06

  • Introducing Multi Rental Units, now you can configure up to 8 properties per installation
  • Share common locks between properties (e.g. building entrance), select the locks for each property
  • Customize the check in and out dates/times for individual users
  • Automatically detect reservation/booking changes and notify you
  • Use colored icons to show user programming state (grey -> inactive, blue -> active, yellow -> pending, red -> error)
  • Include the property name in your custom SMS message using the tag <property>
  • Download updates from AirBnB/VRBO/HomeAway every 30 minutes using https (secure)
  • Improved performance and notifications

@rherman @Matthew_Green @Robert_Allen1

Will this allow me to set my door lock with the airbnb guests last 4 digits of their number based on the reservation?

Yes, you can set the number of digits to use for the codes (4 to 8) and it will use that many digits from the guests reservation phone number as their code. See the FAQ’s page for more details.

Furthermore, if you’re using the Universal Enhanced Z-Wave Lock device handler for your locks, it’s intelligent enough to even check your current lock settings and prompt you to select the code length based on what your lock is configured to use.
e.g.

  • If your lock reports 4, it’ll use 4 (e.g. Schlage FE599)
  • If your lock allows 4 to 8 digits (e.g. Yale), then you can set it to any number between 4 to 8

If you’re using multiple locks of different brands/models, it’ll choose/prompt for a code length that’s common to all the locks (in the above example it’ll allow you to pick only 4). If it finds that your locks don’t have a common code length (e.g. one is set to 4 and other to 6) it’ll prompt you to ensure that your locks are configured to use same code length.