Blog > Upgrade Your Vacation Rental Home with These Awesome Gadgets
Upgrade Your Vacation Rental Home with These Awesome Gadgets
Macaulay Gidado | Monday, 24 August 2022
Vacation rental hosting is all about the experiences you give your guests, and the best experiences revolve around comfort and convenience. Fortunately, these can be achieved with technology. It doesn’t matter whether your property nestles in the bustling heart of New York City or a quaint Alpine village along the Tour Du Mont Blanc hiking trail. Tiny quality tech upgrades can put a long-lasting smile on your guests’ faces and also make hosting easier for you.
Below are some cool gadgets I would recommend to any vacation rental host.
Smart Locks
If you are like the vacation rental hosts we have worked with, you don’t reside, or have a concierge present, on your property. Even when you reside on the property, your schedules sometimes clash with guest arrivals. What do you do?
- Leave the keys under the doormat? That can’t be safe.
- Use a key collection location. Wouldn’t that inconvenience your guests?
- Use a lockbox? A bit outdated, don’t you think?
Or you could upgrade to smart locks. RemoteLock, for instance, allows you to automatically create a temporary access code for each guest, and then remotely monitor and manage access to your house from anywhere in the world. You can learn more about how RemoteLock works here.
Video Doorbell
This cost-effective remote surveillance gadget comes in handy when you want to add an extra security feature to give both you and your guest peace of mind. With a video doorbell, you can identify guests before they check in. You can even use the gadget along with a smart lock to remotely vet guests before giving them access to your vacation rental home. Installing a video doorbell also means your guests will see who is on the door before opening it. A video doorbell will show your guests that you have their safety at heart.
Smart Thermostats
Smart thermostats come with sensors for detecting temperature variations in specific rooms to determine whether there are people in the rooms. Then it adjusts its settings accordingly to help the rooms maintain an optimum temperature. Smart thermostats also have manual displays that are easy to use. So, when your guests are not comfortable with the temperature of the house, they can manually adjust the thermostat.
However, the best thing about smart thermostats is that they can be controlled remotely. Hence, should a guest have issues adjusting the settings, you can do it for them from anywhere in the world.
Smart Lights for Your Vacation Rental Home
When you don’t reside on your property, who do you rely on to turn off the lights during daylight or when there are no guests in the house? Your guests? The truth is that people are forgetful, and even the most well-meaning guests can forget to turn off the lights when they aren’t using them. I mean, it’s not their property. They aren’t the ones paying your power bills.
You could take matters into your own hands and also give your home a bit of an awe-striking factor by installing smart lights. These lights have sensors that detect when someone enters or leaves the house or room. They go on and off accordingly. They can also be controlled remotely. This means you can turn the lights on or off from anywhere in the world. Trust me. Smart lights will save you a lot on your energy bills.
Media Streamers
Cable is slowly becoming outdated. Smart TVs and streaming sticks like Fire TV, Roku, and Chromecast are the future. Improve the guest experience, and make them feel at home, by installing smart TVs in your vacation rental home, or using a streaming stick to turn your traditional TV into a smart TV. This will allow guests to conveniently use their own streaming accounts to watch their favorite shows and programs while at your place. Still, we recommend you subscribe to at least one streaming service, to ensure that guests without their own streaming accounts can still entertain themselves.
Multiport USB Chargers
The world is filled with mobile devices with USB charging ports. Why not make life easy for guests by installing a few multiport USB chargers in strategic places like the kitchen counter, by the bedside, and even in the living room? They are affordable, despite the huge convenience they offer. There are quality options out there, and many support high-speed charging. This is one of those little things hosts can do that more or less every guest appreciates.
Wi-Fi Extender
I’m assuming you already have Wi-Fi installed, given that it’s a basic amenity every host should have in their vacation rental home. But what if your property is large? Chances are there are dead spots where the signal isn’t strong or constant. Any guest staying in that section of the house will certainly not be pleased. And that’s why you need a Wi-Fi extender to boost the signal in the dead area.
