A Practical Alternative to a Conventional Door Lock

If you are a landlord, with either a long or short term rental property, you may find one of your biggest bugbears is keys, particularly if your building has several entrances or you have more than one property to deal with.

On long term rental properties as one tenant leaves and others move in you could find yourself replacing door locks pretty frequently.  For short term rentals, a holiday let for example, keys could become a real inconvenience, for more than one reason:

•        It can be difficult to keep track of who has a key to the property – you may have to provide a set to the cleaning, maintenance or management team.  

•        The more people who have had access to the place the more likely it is that there are random keys floating around. 

•         Keys can remain in the hands of people who no longer have legitimate access to the property. 

•        It is almost impossible to prevent people from duplicating your keys without your knowledge.

•        It is easy to report a lost key and order a replacement.

•        It can be difficult to instantly replace keys should you lose them but you may need access to the property quickly.

Fortunately, all of this stress and anxiety can be circumvented in the modern world because there are electronic alternatives to the conventional key and they are all relatively simple to install and use:

•        The Keypad is still far and away the most popular system currently and employs a pin number to enable access.  Early models had buttons but more recent versions use touch-screen panels.  The pin code can be changed frequently, after each rental if necessary.  Each incoming customer can be notified of the passcode prior to arrival which negates the need for a physical hand-over plus cleaning or maintenance staff have no need to carry bunches of keys around with them.

•        The new generation of keypad locks – Thanks to technology you can now have a combination lock on your property which allows you to assign unique codes to your guests for the duration of their stay.  The information can be sent from your own mobile phone to the lock without the rental property having to have either internet access or any other form of wireless signal.  The absolute advantage of this system is not having to have access to the keypad physically so this system is perfect if you are not located near to your rental property.

•        Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) locks use a key fob or card for entry. Each key card contains data encoded on a machine-readable RFID chip. There is often no need to actually touch the card to the lock as they work via radio waves so proximity is sufficient to unlock the door.  The card codes can be changed frequently when necessary which is why many hotels use this system of room entry.

•        Bluetooth Entry system – Imagine not having to remember a pin number or carry a plastic card?  All your guest needs is a smartphone to enter your rental property - on the arrival day you send the access information to a pre-registered smart phone and your guests can go directly to the property and gain access via a Bluetooth connection.  Again there is no need for a meet and greet which is far more convenient if your guests are arriving late at night for example. The Digital Key will only work with the registered phone and can be set for a pre-organised length of stay. 

Keyless entry systems are certainly not a new concept, but they have been getting more sophisticated over the years.  Perhaps, as a landlord, you may consider that the outlay of changing locks on your rental properties is a necessary evil every so often, even if it’s not particularly cost effective.  However, from both a security and stress perspective it would seem to make perfect sense to opt for a modern keyless system when this situation does arise.  It will almost certainly save you plenty of time and effort in the longer term.