Smart Access – On The Rise In Homes, Properties, and Vacation Rentals

Smart Access – On The Rise In Homes, Properties, and Vacation Rentals

The introduction of smart technology is game-changing, and there is no doubt that it has been taking over the world by storm in recent years. It is reshaping how we live – from personal needs to social demands, many aspects of our day-to-day lives have become integrated and in turn, made easier.

‘To do more with less’ pushes us for greater efficiency in our daily tasks. People nowadays lead a busier lifestyle than ever before, creating even more of a need for convenience and multi-tasking capabilities.

Tremendous growth of the smart lock industry expected Home automation is one sector that is receiving an increasing amount of interest. Home owners can now control different parts of their home with a single device – the smartphone – even though they may not even be physically present in the home. Over a wide range of household applications, access solutions are an area that is expected to experience tremendous traction – the smart lock industry is projected to reach USD$25 billion in 2024.

2 key areas of growth in the smart lock industry in particular are hospitality – with expected compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) year on year of 80% – and sales in Asia Pacific – with over 70% expected CAGR. As a growing smart access solutions provider, igloohome has built a strong focus on these 2 key areas that are projected to take off in the next few years.

Consumer Expectations on Smart Access Beyond just going keyless, home and property owners are now expecting the convenience of remote management for home access. It is not uncommon that home owners find themselves wanting to let a visitor in even though they are not at home. Based on an

internal study conducted, over 30% of consumers surveyed were interested in letting the housekeeper in remotely.

Letting the delivery man, or part-time cleaner, or pet-sitter in remotely – smart access will facilitate the growth of the on-demand sharing economy as it lowers barriers and improves the experience for both host and guest.

A generation of smart locks has been developed in response to this. There are numerous brands out in the market, such as August and Kwikset, which promise the freedom to be where you want and yet still retain control over your home access. igloohome products do the same, and even work offline, which demonstrate how technology is pushed beyond boundaries to meet home owners’ needs.

These smart locks commonly allow for access sharing through various forms, such as bluetooth keys or PIN codes. These can be created from the smart lock mobile app, and easily sent to visitors across different messaging platforms, making it that much easier to grant access.

Door locks, ultimately, are made to allow owners to manage their properties with a peace of mind. With this in mind, these virtual keys that are created can be set with a validity period which only allows your visitor in for a limited period of time. When the time period has passed, the virtual keys no longer serve their function. This ensures that the property remains secure.

Aside from providing convenience, another feature of smart locks is their ability to store information, for retrieval when necessary. Access logs is something that many home owners find helpful – being able to retrieve the exact dates and times at which visitors enter their home gives them much greater visibility over their home access.

Smart Locks in Hospitality The features of smart locks mentioned above are perfect for the hospitality industry, in which short-term visitors are a frequent occurrence, and there is a need to restrict access based on time. Costs can be cut for hotels, hostels, serviced apartments and more – being able to manage multiple guest entries from a single dashboard means a lot less manpower expended.

Vacation rentals too face the issue of key handovers, and the industry has been showing their support for the smart devices which promise to make check-in a breeze. Remote management of access eliminates hosting worries of key handovers at awkward hours, and has been very much welcomed by the big players in the rental industry. Airbnb, for example, has launched its Business Travel Ready badge – that indicates which property listings fulfil a certain set of criteria such as self-check in and fast wifi – and smart locks such as igloohome’s help hosts to attain the badge.

The New Chapter – Identity In this new age, convenience is key, information is essential, and efficiency is paramount.

Smart technology has made a lot of people’s lives easier, and is likely to continue to do so.

As for smart access, this is what the future is likely to be – identity. Being able to verify the identity of visitors who enter your home will bring about a whole new level of surveillance and peace of mind for home owners and rental hosts, thus making it an essential component of the smart home of the future.

About the Author Anthony Chow is a Co-founder & CEO of Igloohome. igloohome is a home automation company that has created several smart home devices, of which most notable is the igloohome smart lock that allows home owners to grant access to their homes remotely, via its mobile app.

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