Smart locks

Airbnb smart lock automation

The failure every host fears is the same one: a guest at the door, in the dark, with a code that doesn’t work. Most tools can create a code that expires at checkout. Homatic makes sure the lock actually accepted it before the guest is told, and that the door is actually locked after they leave.

Your PMS or messaging tool can send the guest a code. It can’t see the lock. That gap between “code sent” and “code works” is where the late-night phone calls come from, so it’s where Homatic puts most of its effort.

Start free — no credit card Which locks work

How each stay gets its code

1. A booking arrives from your calendar or PMS.
2. A code is created for that stay and sent to the lock.
3. It starts working shortly before check-in (five minutes by default, adjustable per property).
4. It’s removed after checkout, on a delay you choose.

By default a stay gets one code for every lock, so a guest with a front door and a side door has one number to remember. You can switch that off and give each lock its own code.

The cleaner gets their own code

Sharing a permanent code with your cleaning crew means anyone who ever had it can still get in. Homatic gives the cleaner a new code for each turnover, active from checkout until shortly before the next guest arrives, never overlapping a stay and capped in length so a long vacancy doesn’t leave a code live for days. It’s texted to them near the start of the clean, along with a note of any doors or windows left open. It’s available on locks that end the code themselves (the table below shows which). We don’t issue cleaner codes on locks where the end time depends on us deleting the code in time.

Locked after checkout, and confirmed

“Ten minutes after checkout, if the front door is unlocked, lock it. If it still won’t lock, text me.”

• Checked, not assumed. After the lock command, Homatic reads the lock’s state back.
• Retried, with a limit. Set how many attempts (three means try, retry, retry) so it doesn’t hammer a lock forever.
• One text, not twenty. When the attempts run out, you’re told once. The rule then stays quiet until the door is locked again.
• Once per stay. The cleaner opening the door that afternoon doesn’t start a second round of retries and texts.

A jammed deadbolt isn’t “unlocked”

A deadbolt that stalls against the strike plate isn’t secure, and someone needs to go and look at it. Most apps show that as “unlocked”, which looks like an ordinary open door and gets ignored. Homatic shows locked, unlocked, jammed or unknown, and never shows a reassuring “Locked” for a door it can’t confirm.

A record of who came and went

Every lock and unlock Homatic makes is logged, whether a person pressed it in the app or an automation did it, and so is every code created or revealed. The stay log records the door opening and closing during each booking, kept for 60 days, so you have the door’s history if a guest disputes a charge.

Which locks work

Lock	Guest codes	Code end time enforced by
Schlage (Encode, Sense)	Yes	The lock
August	Yes	The lock
Yale	Yes	The lock
Locks connected through Seam	Yes	The lock
Kwikset	Yes	Homatic removing it on time
RemoteLock	Yes	Homatic removing it on time
Igloohome	Yes	Homatic removing it on time
A lock on a SmartThings hub	If it reports lock-code support	Homatic removing it on time

For a guest either is fine. For a cleaner’s code, which must be dead before the next guest arrives, Homatic only uses locks that end the code themselves. Schlage in detail →

Beyond the door code: the guest guidebook puts Wi-Fi, check-in steps and house rules in one link, and team access lets a property manager handle guest codes with their own login. Cleaners get their own code for every turnover with crew access.

Which lock should you buy?

Start with what you want it to do. If you want a separate code for each guest, make sure that works for the exact model and the way it’s connected, not just the brand. Some locks paired through a hub can lock and unlock but can’t accept codes. Search your lock’s brand in Homatic and it shows each way to connect it, which ones support per-guest codes, and which you already have set up.

Guest code automation →  ·  Check-in automation →  ·  For property managers →

Common questions

Which smart locks work with Homatic?

Schlage, August, Yale, RemoteLock, Kwikset and Igloohome accept programmable codes directly. Locks reached through a SmartThings hub work when the lock itself reports a lock-codes capability — many Z-Wave and Matter locks do, some do not, and Homatic checks rather than assumes.

Does the guest get the code automatically?

Yes, but only after the lock confirms the code is live. Treating "the vendor accepted the request" as "the code works" is what produces a guest at a door with a number that was never provisioned.

What happens if a booking is cancelled or moved?

Codes are recomputed against the calendar continuously rather than issued once, so a cancelled stay has its code revoked and a shifted stay has its window moved.

Can one guest have a single code for several doors?

Yes, and that is the default: one PIN across every enabled lock, so a front door and a side entrance are one number to remember. Turn it off and each lock gets its own.

What if a code cannot be removed after checkout?

That is treated as the urgent case, because it is the only one where someone who has left still has access. It is recorded against the code with the reason the vendor gave and surfaced on the access-code screen.