Keyless check-in for a holiday apartment: open the door from your phone without changing the lock
A flight landing at eleven at night, a guest who can’t find the key box, the cleaner waiting in the street: in the south of Tenerife that is everyday life for many holiday apartments. If the building or apartment door already has an electric door opener, there is a simple way to open it from your phone without changing anything that’s there.
How it works
A smart relay such as the Shelly 1 Gen4 is installed; it measures about 4 by 4 centimetres and fits behind the button or inside the intercom box. It has a dry (potential-free) contact: it does the same as the open button, without touching the lock or its power supply. From then on, the door opens from the phone app, from anywhere and at any time.
- You let the guest in when they arrive, even if you’re on another island.
- You give the cleaner or the technician access only during their shift, and remove it afterwards.
- It connects over Wi-Fi and also supports Zigbee and Matter, so it can become part of a bigger smart-home system later on.
Things to bear in mind
It only works if the door already opens electrically (intercom, door opener or motorised lock). It depends on power and internet, so the usual key stays as a backup. And if you want each guest to have their own code, valid only between check-in and check-out, the right tool is a lock or keypad with codes per booking; the relay and the code lock can be combined: one for the street door and one for the apartment.
Before installing anything, we look at what the door has, how the internet reaches the apartment and who needs to get in. That tells us the cheapest option that solves the problem.