Short-term rentals place a high demand on the systems they have. For starters, everything needs to be incredibly intuitive, leaving little to no room for a learning curve with guests. After wall, every week will be realistically introducing a new operator. So, when the owner of this property in Lake Conroe, Texas informed SmartXp the home was going to be rolled into such a property, the company knew right off the bat what it needed to do.
They needed to nail the user experience, of course, but they also wanted to deliver a ‘wow’ factor that would convince repeat stays and recommendations. The owner also needed to be able to stay tapped into those systems in order to ensure the property wasn’t being abused. Did we mention this all needed to be done for a budget of around $8,400 as well?
Smart Sourcing and Clever Connections Create a Strong, Budget Build
“To achieve the client goals, we used different consumer brands (Phillips Hue lights and Smart Hub, Eero, Ring Pro camera, Yale, Aeotec SmartThings Hub, Innr LED strips, Zooz 700 series Z-Wave Plus S2 Dimmer switches, and Brilliant smart home control) to create an easy-to-use system for the owner, integrating all the devices in a single control easy to use from the wall or tablet with only one app,” says Joel Tec, COO at SmartXp.
The real challenge was being able to deliver adequate security and surveillance while creating a strong point of reference for the area. However, the homeowner and judges of the CE Pro Home of the Year Awards agreed that the result was “amazing.”
Following the installation, many neighbors even started contacting the homeowner to get the name of who did the job. More importantly, though, the homeowner now feels confident that his short-term rental property will have nice, consistent occupancy once people see the property, or the pictures the next time they’re browsing through AirBnB or Vrbo.
