Mailing vacation home keys to renters is pretty much history and keyless entry systems for vacation rentals are becoming more popular with owners and managers.  The majority of rent by owner vacation homeowners use a simple lock box similar to a real estate agents key box.  Typically a 4 to 5 digit code is given to the renter to input upon arrival to access the key to the front door.  One drawback to this for security reasons is that the code needs to be changed often for new visitors.  Some property managers require keys to be picked up directly at the management office.

A new option for vacation rental by owners is KEYLESS ENTRY.  There are several levels for keyless entry, however, they all provide your rental clients instant access with an electronic pin code.  Some locks for vacation rentals provide software that allow you to transmit, set codes, and time durations for your visitors entry pin codes.  There are several manufacturers supplying keyless entry locks at many different price points. 

We have personal experience with the Schlage Keyless entry system.  It is the least expensive keyless entry for around $100 and is available at Home Depot and Lowes stores.  The downside to this entry system for our vacation home rental is that it can’t be remotely updated online.  In other words, you have to manually change the codes.  I have to visit the vacation home in person to update pin codes.  The upside is that it looks very nice, the key pad lights up at night so visitors can easily see the numbers and it works well thus far.  We do anticipate having to replace the batteries – 2 AA in the near future and that could be a problem if the batteries are not routinely checked.  All of these keyless entry locks require batteries.

In the winter 2009 VRMA – Vacation Rental Managers Association Review there were two prominent advertisements for Web-based keyless entry systems.  The first is the CODEPRO Electronic Code Access System by Onity and the second is ORACODE 460k and 660k by ILCO.  It appears from their respective websites that installation is pretty easy and the systems require no cards, no keys and no wiring.

I will most likely install one of these two entry choices in one of our vacation condos to test it out and provide a review at a later date.  There is one distinct advantage to the Schlage model in that it affords for manual keyed entry…in other words if you lose battery power access can be by key.  It appears with the others mentioned that if you happen to let the batteries die…there is no keyed access.  We will have to investigate what to do if the batteries are dead?  There must be some manual over-ride in this case?

Please comment on your experience with keyless entry locks for your vacation rentals here.