Keypad and app-controlled locks make sense for a holiday let on this coast. No keys to hand over at the airport, no key boxes on the wall, a new code for each guest. With thousands of tourist lets in the municipality and owners who often live abroad, they have become common.
They have one weakness that every host meets sooner or later: batteries. And they tend to meet it on the hottest day of the year, with a family standing at the door.
Why it happens in summer
Most smart locks run on AA or similar batteries and warn you, in the app or with a beep, when they are getting low. Three things undo that on a busy summer let:
- Use. A family opens the door far more often than the manufacturer’s average.
- Heat. A keypad facing the afternoon sun gets very hot, and batteries lose capacity faster.
- Nobody is listening. The low-battery beep goes off for a week while guests do not know what it means, and the app warning goes to a host’s phone a thousand miles away.
First: is there a way to power it from outside?
Many smart locks have an emergency power option for exactly this:
- a USB-C or micro-USB socket under the keypad, which takes a power bank;
- two contacts for a 9-volt battery held against the bottom of the keypad;
- a hidden mechanical key behind a cover on the keypad or the handle.
The manual will say which. If the guests have a power bank and you can tell them where the socket is, the door may open in a minute. Keep a photo of the manual’s emergency page on your phone.
If there is no way in from outside
Many smart locks for front doors still have a normal euro cylinder somewhere: behind the keypad, or under the handle. That cylinder can be opened like any other, usually without damage, and the smart lock carries on working once its batteries are replaced. Very few need anything more drastic. How a door is opened through its cylinder is explained in door opening in Orihuela Costa.
The guest will be asked to show they are booked into the property, and the host will be rung to confirm it, so keep your phone on at check-in times.
How to stop it happening
- Change the batteries on a schedule, not when the lock complains. Before the season starts and again mid-summer.
- Use the batteries the manufacturer specifies. Rechargeables often run at a lower voltage and trigger the warning early, or fail without warning.
- Leave a mechanical key with someone nearby, named, who can reach the property.
- Tell guests in the welcome message what a low-battery beep means and what to do if they hear one.
- Put the emergency power option in your house manual with a photo.
The rest of the season
A smart lock is one part of the check described in what a summer of guests does to a lock. And if your guest was locked out at the pool rather than at a keypad, locked out by the communal pool covers that. For anything on the management side, see holiday rental work.