Homatic.ai
Check-in
Airbnb check-in automation
Check-in is three or four small jobs that each have to be done at the right moment, for every stay, whether or not you remembered. Done by hand they are fine at one property and unmanageable at fifteen — and the one that goes wrong is always the door code.
Automating check-in means the reservation itself triggers the sequence: the property comes up to temperature, the entry lights come on, and the guest’s code goes live — after the lock has confirmed it works.
Start free — no credit card See the sequence
The sequence
Times are relative to the reservation’s check-in, not to the clock, so a late arrival moves the whole chain and a cancellation stops it.
- Booking arrivesCheck-in time becomes the anchorFrom your calendar or PMS. Every step below is an offset from it.
- 1–3 hours beforeThermostat to arrival temperatureThe longest lead, because it is the only step that takes real time. A property sitting at a vacant setback needs more than a property that has just been cleaned.
- 30 minutes beforeEntry lights onPorch, hallway, stairs. Worth gating on sunset if you would rather not light an empty house in June.
- 5 minutes beforeGuest code activatesThe default lead, adjustable per property.
- On confirmationThe guest is told the codeOnly after the lock reports it is live — not when the request was accepted.
- ArrivalGuest lets themselves inNo key handover, no lockbox, no message at 11pm asking where the key is.
Why the code step is the one that matters
Access codes on most connected locks are created in a pending state and become usable a moment later. Treating “the vendor accepted the request” as “the code works” is exactly what produces a guest standing at a door, in the dark, with a number that was never provisioned.
Homatic waits for the confirmed state before notifying anyone. That is a small design decision with an outsized effect on how check-in feels, because it converts the worst failure — a guest locked out with no explanation — into a problem you find out about before they do.
How guest codes work in detail →
Automate your guest codes → Connect a lock and a calendar; the first stay gets a confirmed code.
Lead times, and getting them wrong
| Step | Sensible lead | What goes wrong if it is too short |
|---|---|---|
| Heating | 2–3 hours in winter | Guest arrives to a house that is on its way to comfortable, which reads as a broken heating system |
| Cooling | 1–2 hours | Same, and worse in a property that has been closed up all day |
| Lights | 30 minutes | Little — this is the cheap step, so err long |
| Door code | 5–60 minutes | An early guest cannot get in and messages you, which is the thing you were automating away |
The door code is the one worth being generous with. A code that goes live an hour early costs nothing; a code that goes live five minutes after an early guest arrives costs you a phone call and them a bad first impression.
When a step fails
A pre-arrival step that cannot complete is recorded as unsuccessful rather than silently skipped, and you can attach a bounded retry with an escalation — try three times, then text me. That pairing is the difference between an automation that tells you something is wrong and one that quietly does nothing.
- Thermostat unreachable. Retry, then escalate. A device that has gone silent also raises its own alert, independently of any rule.
- Code push rejected. Recorded against the code with the reason the vendor gave, and shown on the access-code screen rather than in a log nobody reads.
- Lock not reporting. The guest is not told a code is ready. Silence here is deliberate: an unconfirmed code should not be sent.
Edge cases that come up in practice
Same-day bookings
Rules run off the reservation, so a booking that lands two hours before arrival starts its sequence immediately rather than waiting for an overnight batch. The heating lead is the constraint, not the software.
A guest who arrives early
The code activates on the schedule you set. If early arrivals are common for your property, widen the activation lead — that is a cheaper fix than being reachable at all hours.
A booking that moves or cancels
Codes are recomputed against the calendar continuously rather than issued once, so a shifted stay has its window moved and a cancelled one has its code revoked.
Back-to-back stays
A same-day turnover compresses everything: the previous code must be gone, the property reset and the new code live, inside a few hours. Cleaner access is a separate concern with a tighter constraint — a crew code has to be dead before the next guest arrives, which is why Homatic restricts crew codes to locks that enforce the end of the window themselves.
What you need connected
A calendar: Airbnb, Vrbo or Booking.com via iCal, or a direct connection to Hostaway, Guesty, Lodgify or OwnerRez.
A lock that takes codes: Schlage, August, Yale, RemoteLock, Kwikset and Igloohome do so directly. A lock behind a SmartThings hub works if it reports a lock-codes capability — many Z-Wave and Matter locks do, some do not, and Homatic checks rather than assuming.
A thermostat, for the climate step: Google Nest, ecobee, Honeywell, or a thermostat reached through a hub.
Switches or bulbs, for lights: Philips Hue, or switches on any connected platform.
None of these is required to start. A lock and a calendar alone give you the code half, which is the half that goes wrong.
Common questions
How far before check-in do things start?
You choose, per step. Thermostats need the longest lead — an hour or more if the property has been sitting at a vacant setback. Door codes default to activating five minutes before check-in and are adjustable per property.
What if the guest arrives early?
The code activates on the schedule you set, so an early guest gets in when the window opens rather than when they knock. If you want a margin, widen the activation lead rather than relying on being reachable to let someone in.
Can it handle a same-day booking?
Yes. Rules run off the reservation, so a booking that lands two hours before arrival starts its sequence immediately instead of waiting for an overnight batch.
What if the thermostat is offline when the pre-arrival step runs?
The step is recorded as unsuccessful rather than silently skipped, and you can attach a bounded retry with an escalation — try three times, then text me — so an unreachable thermostat becomes a message instead of a cold house.
See Homatic on your own properties
Connect a property and the dashboard fills in from your real devices — your locks, your thermostat, your calendar. Free for 30 days on Starter, no card required.