During these days of uncertainty in tourism, our advice is to invest in improvements in your local accommodation without spending too much. For this reason, we will address some solutions to improve your property and make it more profitable. In this text we will talk about the autonomous check-in (or the well-known self check-in), where guests have the freedom to organize their check-in time in the apartment without depending on their contact with anyone. Want to know more? Read our piece!
Last week we talked about tips on how to improve your local accommodation for medium-term stays. If you haven’t read it yet, click here.
With the pandemic, the tourist’s very profile changed and with it, Airbnb accommodations also began to feel the need to adapt. A significant change was the increased demand for autonomous check-in. If it used to be a luxury, today it has become essential: nobody wants to have unnecessary contact with other people for sanitary reasons. Thus, the already familiar codes have become a recurring request for guests to feel safe, in addition to offering them even greater flexibility in line with a personalized service.
How often did your guests forget to communicate their arrival time and ended up having to wait for the host at your doorstep? Or, on the contrary, how often do hosts wait for the arrival of guests who are still looking for parking or looking for the property, which in an unknown city can be a long time? Not only does self-check in end unforeseen delays, but it also helps to lessen the anxiety of guests and hosts who stop living worried according to strict schedules. This issue is particularly relevant for people who are used to traveling for leisure and work to various destinations and who really value their time.
In addition, this type of check-in has other advantages for the owner. On the one hand, it allows you to receive last minute bookings without the need to conciliate schedules or previous consultation, which can be decisive for those who need to find a stay urgently. On the other hand, many of the systems on sale allow you and your guests to increase the level of security, while also allowing the remote monitoring of entries and exits and even, in some cases, the remote closing of the locks themselves so you can be sure that your home is safe.
There are several stand-alone check-in options, for all pockets and needs. For example, the so-called Lockbox (or safes), intelligent locks and simple numeric keyboards. At LovelyStay, the system we most recommend to our customers is Nuki – a system of digital locks that are secure and extremely efficient. With a simple installation, Nuki is a solution that is not too expensive and works through one application. For those who manage the property, it is possible to control who enters and leaves the apartment in real time, at what times and even to change codes and close doors remotely.
If your building already has an entry code but your apartment does not, a lockbox can be a very affordable and equally functional solution. The lockbox is essentially a small safe that is installed in the entrance door of the apartment and that holds the keys of the property so that they can be raised by the guest through the insertion of a code. The codes can also be changed constantly and these structures are surprisingly resilient to any attempt at vandalism.
Another option is the numeric keypad which, as the name already indicates, is just a keyboard where the guest must enter their code to open the door electrically, without controlling the mechanical security lock.
With Airbnb and Booking.com asking their hosts to invest in these solutions, we wanted to present some of their advantages. All to facilitate the autonomous check-in, increase the demand of your property, and, consequently, also increase your profitability!
Translated by Miguel Marinho Soares
LovelyStay
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