What’s the Best Lock for a Vacation Rental or Airbnb?

When you are renting out a property to other people, a critical part of the process is the key and lock for getting access to the home. How bad an experience would it be if a guest shows up and they can’t get into the home? Or if they lose their key while out and about and then they call you in the middle of the night.

There are whole range of options from “smart” wifi enabled locks to “dumb” key locks. In all our properties, we use something in the middle: a “dumb” lock that has a keypad and a long lasting battery.

In every house we have we’ve installed the Schlage Camelot Deadbolt Keypad, which is usually about $85 on Amazon.

The biggest pro of this lock is there is no key involved. Just set the code and let the guest know. The guest types in the code and manually turns the knob to open the deadbolt. Because the human is supply the power to turn the lock, it uses very little battery power and lasts a long time. We change the battery every couple of years. The lock “just work” and there is no complications using apps or needing internet access. There are also backup physical keys that we put in a lockbox elsewhere on the property.

The con of this lock is that you can’t remotely change combination or automate the process of giving out custom guest codes or get analytics on when people check in our check out. If you were managing thousands to units, that might be important. But whatever you do, don’t choose an option that involves a key!