The best smart home devices for your Airbnb

Technology has completely transformed how you manage your vacation rentals, from marketing to rate setting, channel management to guest service.

While your guests aren’t generally aware of the technology you’re using behind the scenes, they’ll certainly notice (and remember) the technology inside your vacation property—especially if the devices are similar to what they have at their own homes. Installing smart home technology can deliver a ton of benefits to both you and your guests. They can:

1. Help automate your management tasks
2. Help you care for your guests and your home remotely
3. Make your guests’ stays more streamlined and enjoyable
4. Help you save time and money

Here’s a rundown of the top smart home devices for your vacation home and how Vacasa can help you get started.

Smart locks

Keyless vacation rental locks are not only more appealing to travelers (goodbye in-person check-ins), they’re also one of the smartest ways to secure access to your home. With smart locks, you can assign a unique code to each guest that is valid only during their booking. No more lost keys or making key copies.

Bonus: You can also assign key codes for vendors, such as housekeepers and repair technicians.

In some markets, Vacasa will outfit your vacation home with keyless locks as part of our full-service management. We’ll generate unique door codes for each stay (or home care visit), ensuring no one else can enter your property outside the specified time.

Smart smoke and carbon monoxide detectors

Smart home devices aren’t just for making travel easier—they can help keep your guests and home safe. Unlike regular smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, the smart versions will notify you immediately (via a mobile app) when the at-home alarm goes off.

Some smoke detectors will even tell you the severity of the smoke. Plus, they allow you to disengage the alarm once you’ve determined it’s just a guest who burnt their lasagna and not a smoldering fire that triggered it.

Smart TV

Invite guests to watch their favorite shows and movies using their own streaming accounts. This can save you from paying for cable, as guests pay for their own subscriptions. Also consider leaving behind an HDMI cable so guests can connect their laptop to your TV. Don’t have a smart TV? Buy a streaming device, such as a Roku or Amazon Fire TV Stick, that gives guests access to several streaming services. Remember to jot down instructions in your house manual.

Smart thermostat

Heating and cooling can get expensive. The bills tend to skyrocket when guests leave the air conditioner or heater on full-blast throughout the day, whether they’re at the vacation home or not. While you can’t prohibit guests from wanting to be comfortable, smart thermostats can help keep your costs and energy usage down by:

• Allowing you to set a specific range of temperatures that guests have to stay within
• Stopping guests from fiddling with temperature settings
• Sensing when your property is unoccupied and adjusting heating and cooling accordingly
• Giving you remote control of the thermostat in case you need to turn the system on or off or adjust the temperature between guest stays

Seamless WiFi connection

Guests travel with all of their devices in tow. This means the WiFi connection has to be strong enough for kids to stream games in one room, while their parents are logging in on their laptops in another. Oftentimes, a router isn’t enough for multiple users and rooms. Consider investing in a WiFi booster to make sure no one ends up in a dreaded dead spot.

At Vacasa homes, we provide a powerful WiFi hotspot connection that guests can access with just one click. In addition to easy, instant internet access, these WiFi devices continuously monitor connectivity, alerting us of any service interruptions—often before your guests are inconvenienced.

Smart lighting

Like everyone else, guests are prone to leave lights on throughout the property, even after they’ve left for the day. Smart lighting and bulbs benefit both you and your guests.

Guests can easily turn lights on and off with voice command (assuming you also have smart speakers like Amazon’s Alexa or Google’s Home). And, you’ll be able to save on electricity by controlling lights after guests leave.

Noise monitoring

Parties are a big concern for Airbnb hosts and neighbors. Instead of secretly driving by your home to check on things, consider a noise monitor. These devices detect noise levels (but won’t record or transmit audio) at your property. A noise monitoring system is included (certain markets only) with Vacasa’s full-service vacation rental management. Our devices will identify any excessive noise issues and automatically notify your local team.

Virtual assistants

Smart devices don’t get much smarter than this. NPR and Edison Research recently reported that 1 in 5 Americans have a smart speaker at home, such as Google Home or Amazon Alexa. The best perk of a smart speaker? They can act as the brain for your entire vacation property and connect to all of your other smart devices. By adding “skills” to your device, guests can use voice commands to control their in-home experience. Sample commands could be:

• Hey Google, turn off bedroom lights
• Hey Google, set living room temperature to 65 degrees
• Alexa, pause the movie
• Alexa, turn up the volume

Just remember to leave explicit instructions in your handbook for your guests letting them know what your smart speakers are connected to.

Installing the right smart (vacation) home devices can help secure your property, make it more comfortable for guests, and make managing it from afar much simpler. Use this list of top smart home devices and ideas to transform your vacation rental into the ideal Airbnb space.