Seam: Temporary Solution for Managing Lock Guest Codes (Jan 2023)

@sybohy , I’m getting an error when I’m first connecting to my smarthub.

After selecting the permissions to read and write to my hub, when I submit to authorize, I get this error:

{“error”:{“type”:“invalid_input”,“message”:“code is required”,“validation_errors”:{“_errors”:,“code”:{“_errors”:[“Required”]}},“request_id”:“58f70caa-0603-4942-b974-242a8e9b82c9”},“ok”:false}

@sybohy I had to delete my door lock and repair as it wasn’t using the Edge Driver, now that I’ve added and re-authorized the web view, I dont see the newly added Door Lock or any devices for that matter in Seam. Getting the following error

  • Errors

Account Disconnected, you may need to reconnect the account with a new webview. This may happen if the third-party provider triggered an access token to be revoked (e.g. after a password change)

I have resolved but had to delete all workspaces and recreate everything from scratch.

@sybohy is the Seam dashboard still an option?
I created an account but see now it’s asking me to create organizations, buildings, etc.
I thought I set up an access pass, but don’t see anywhere to actually enter a code.

yep you can go to console.seam.co but that’s going to be very API specific.
dashboard.seam.co is a new product/dashboard we’re shipping for operators.

thanks everyone…Had been using rBoy’s LUM but was unable to use SLGA as it is not available in Australia. Used the info here and was able to connect by ST account to Seam quite “seamlessly”. I did notice, however that the two consoles, console.seam.co and dashboard.seam.co do not synchronise, so whatever is created in one does not show up in the other. I followed the links to the dashboard and it had a very different view that what was specified early in this thread but was able to figure it out fine… I am very happy that I can now create codes and remove them easily from this dashboard, but I do notice that under the Activity section for each lock, it shows no activity, even if I use one of the test codes I set up. I guess it’s not a huge deal for me as it is my house not a STR or AirBNB, but if I don’t get notified that a code is being used to open the door like I did with LUM, it would be good to log into the dashboard and see the code being used there… right now, it seems that any of the access codes could be used and there is no record of the activity.
That being said, I am grateful for @sybohy for making this available for us… at least I can manually create or remove codes without going to the physical lock.

Since you have a Schlage lock, you could switch to the Z-Wave Lock Edge driver from @philh30 which exposes the lock code name for unlock events. That would allow you to create a Routine(s) to notify you when an unlock occurs and who initiated it. That method might depend on whether Seam provides the lock code name to the driver or not, however, there are workarounds to that using the ST CLI to map names to lock codes.

Alternately, you could use the 3rd party rules engine from Sharptools to create notifications using variables based on the lock code from the event data of the unlock event. Using variables does require their upgraded service which is around $30 USD per year. Also, the rules execute in their cloud, not locally on your hub.

Yep that is unfortunately correct. We are in the process of fixing it because having to link your devices in two different places (console and dashboard) kind of sucks.

For deeper context, this fragmentation has to do with how we isolate devices within a workspace. Right now when you create a new org in the dashboard, it creates its own workspace behind the scenes. It’s a private workspace and it’s not visible from your API console account where you can see all your other workspaces.

Last Monday, our team discussed this inconsistency and how it’s frustrating for customers that console and dashboard don’t quite communicate with each other. We want to fix it. There’s a bit of technical debt in the way of merging these, and we have to address it first. I am hoping to have this done in July.

I’ll add that we’re also going to add Seam as a provider for the connect webviews. So if you use the dashboard to connect all your devices, you will then be able to import them into various applications (e.g. Hospitable, Guesty…etc) using your Seam credentials. Stated another way, you can link up all your device accounts (August, Schlage, Yale…etc) within the Seam Dashboard, and then connect all these accounts at once with your third-party apps that already use Seam to connect directly to devices. This should make life a lot easier for larger operators who have dozens/hundreds of different device accounts that they must otherwise pair by one by one.

the dashboard and it had a very different view that what was specified early in this thread

Also correct. At the time of this original posting, we had not yet released dashboard.seam.co. The screenshots/walk-through I shared was for the API console (now at console.seam.co). The Device Dashboard is a newer product we released in March to address the need of some customers that need a visual way to manage large, heterogenous fleets of devices across many locations. Our API console was not sufficient to cover their needs. This product is still very much a work in progress.

I do notice that under the Activity section for each lock, it shows no activity, even if I use one of the test codes I set up.

This is almost certainly a bug. My apologies for this. I am going to chase it down this coming week with the team to make sure this gets addressed. In the API console, you should be able to see real-time events for many device brands. The goal is absolutely for those events to also be visible in the Dashboard. Again, it’s a bit of a work in progress…Feel free to email me as well if you want an update when the fix is live.

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Hi @ sybohy, Seam was just integrated into a property managing app I’m using called Host Tools. I use the Yale Access App to generate codes for my guests to stay at our short term renal. I’m having issues with Seam deactivating codes that I have previously generated inside the Yale Access App. Can you help me with this? My guests keep getting locked out! Thank you in advance! Excited to see what this integration can do for our business!

Hi @Lindsey_Rummel sounds like your existing Yale Access App and Seam are contending over the code management. Best practice is only managing codes with only one lock management solution at a time, which could be either YAP or Seam, but ideally not both at the same time since there’s a race condition where one manager could be overwriting another’s codes.

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@Lindsey_Rummel Cliff above is correct. If a code gets created by Host Tools for a booking, Seam will manage the entire lifecycle of that code. Unfortunately, there is no way for Seam to know that a code was deleted from within the Yale app. So if Seam ever detects that a code it programmed (on behalf of Host Tools) was removed, Seam will attempt to recreate the code immediately. The way to remove/edit a code is to do it from Host Tools.

Do you know if Host Tools provides UI to add/edit/remove an access code? If not, I might need to ping Tom/Jenny and let them know that this is really needed. Seam provides prebuilt components for quickly adding this functionality inside a PMS. For example, below is the AccessCodeDetails component. Host Tool should be able to quickly add this to their app to quickly give you this functionality.

Hi @sybohy, do you have any updates on the activity bug?
I also have noticed something with all my access passes lately where they say 1 (or 2) issues, and are stuck in the “setting in progress” status. The passes that have 2 issues are passes for both locks, and the ones that only have one issue are only set for one lock. When I create a new access pass, it seems to be stuck in this mode… I am using the dashboard, not the console.
Any advice would be appreciated… at this point, it looks like I cannot create any new codes using seam.
thanks.

Could you email support@getseam.com and provide the device(s) uuid? We’ll take a look this weekend.

I’m really excited to give this a try. I ran across Seam as an option from Host Tools property management app. I have previously use rboy apps and recently I have been entering and deleting codes manually with Smart Lock Guest Access.

I also have MyQ garage door openers at my properties. What is the timeline to support that service with Seam?

Anyway, thanks for making this available.

OK, I’m having some issues. I have 4 or 5 locations in my Smartthings profile. I added all of them and most of the locks were added, but not all (but the ones I needed for my nightly rentals were added so I left good enough alone). Then after a power failure a Smartthings hub/WiFi access point got reset (locks lost connection and devices like Smart TVs lost internet). So I reconfigured the hub, reconnected my smart devices, and I had to remove and re-add my locks for Smartthings to control them. Seam didn’t automatically reconnect to the locks, so I deleted my smartthings account in Seam with the idea to re-add the link and reconnect to my locks.

This is where I’m now. When I try to add the account connection in Google Chrome, Seam opens up a new window to log into Smartthings and I can add all the locations. When I click the final button labeled “Finish and Close” the button text changes to “Closing window…” and hang there without ever closing. Same result in my normal browser window (with extensions installed), a incognito window, and a guest window. I verified that Java Script is enabled.

In Firefox I get 1 step further. The window closes and goes back to the Seam dashboard window on the Linked Accounts tab with a pop up window that says “Loading devices…” and a spinning star animation. It never goes past this point. I have left that page open for hours with no luck. I also tried this in my normal Firefox window and a Private browsing window.

Any ideas? Thank you.

Update: I decided to try creating a new Seam account (using a different email address) and did so. This allowed me to link my Smartthings account and add all the locks. So I am good to go and can now link my Seam account with HostTools to enable automatic door code generation. Maybe my old account didn’t completely erase the old connection with Smartthings so it had issues re-connecting? Either way, it is working now.

@juttonn Jonathan, if you use Smartthings and you are using it for Short term rentals… just sign-up for Jervis (www.jervis.systems)
I did the Seam thing (their back-end was pretty good) but trying to automate with zappier and other tools never really worked. Jervis was a no brainer… supports other devices on ST, automates thermostats to ST schedules, and they are in Beta with MyQ… a few bugs… but should be 100% soon… I have a house that only has MyQ (doors don’t support smartlocks) and I use MyQ as primary guest access… no more pins! Definitely worth checking out… I can’t believe that I was spendins so much time to save a few bucks per month.

We looked at Seam and tried to build out our own solution using them as the back-end. While it’s a nice platform and their documentation is really good, the pricing was something that became a blocker for us. Their individual device charges (and even fees per lock code kept on the lock per month) put it out of reach for us honestly.

There are a few solutions to managing lock codes (among other things) on the market but we couldn’t find anything that met our needs. So we built Rental Home Automator to be simple & affordable for SmartThings users. We integrated it directly to SmartThings so we could provide all the integrations but keep our costs low. It can automate everything based on your rental calendar, is really easy to set up, and most importantly it is affordable.

nice, i gave it a test drive and it looks promising, however, a couple things prevent me from being able to use it:

  1. it doesn’t support ownerrez calendar files. it says it’s not a valid ICS file even though it is.
  2. it doesn’t support creating lock codes based on the phone number.

but i’ll definitely be keeping an eye and hope those things can be added in the future!

Thanks for the feedback @alextran -

  1. We actually have expanded our ICS support with the upcoming release that is currently in staging. If you can send us an ICS link we can make sure it will work for you.
  2. If the ICS file has a phone number included, we will program the lock with that information. It currently works with Airbnb and others, and we’re working on adding more as quickly as we can (e.g. we work with Streamline but only with a private API).

If you send a copy of your ICS link to support@rentalhomeautomator.com we’ll make sure it works and will extend your trial to give you plenty of time to try it out!