Apartment access without mobile app (Top 4 apartment access challenges)

Thanks to Booking.com and Airbnb, apartment rent has been the fastest growing hospitality market segment up until the Covid19 outbreak. Although many say that “nothing will be the same”, once the pandemic is over, it is safe to assume that the trend will continue. That is good news for the smart lock and mobile access control vendors. Their market niche has been lately enjoying extraordinary demand due to the need to remotely manage the apartment access.

It turns out there is a wide range of managed access solutions targeting the apartment rent market, with vast variety of smart locks and almost equal number of approaches to access management. The differences can be huge, and often hard to figure out quickly due to the abundance of mechanical, electrical, communication and software possibilities. Yet in most cases, the users are confronted with some considerable challenges.

One company, Spica from Ljubljana, Slovenia is tackling these challenges by offering the alternative solution. They run Door Cloud, a general-purpose, cloud-based and mobile-friendly commercial access control service. This is how they tackle the four major apartment access challenges:

1. Mechanical – There are countless shapes and forms of door locks, some smart locks need full replacement, some are mechanical add-ons, some are partial replacements. Finding a mechanical fit for a particular door is not an easy task.

Solution: Instead of locks, Door Cloud works with generic electric strikes, which can coexist with almost any type of conventional lock. Electric strikes are well known and widely used with intercom door access devices. 

2. Electrical– Majority of smart locks are battery operated, and the quoted battery life is rarely realistic. So batteries will need some regular attention if we want to avoid nasty surprises.

Solution: Electric strikes are mounted on the door frame allowing for conventional wired power supply, so there are no battery worries. 

3. Communication– Majority of smart locks communicate with smart phones locally via WiFi or Bluetooth. Such setup itself is rarely easy, it is often prone to glitches and may require occasional resetting or even reconfiguration from scratch. As with other WiFi and Bluetooth devices, the reliability is not exactly rock solid.

Solution: Door strike is wired to the door controller which is hooked to the apartment router. The ethernet cable provides rock solid, trouble-free communication with Door Cloud servers. The smartphone communication is separate and independent, via mobile data network or apartment WiFi. 

4. Application– Apps clutter the phone, need space and require more or less annoying registration process. So there is understandable resistance to installing “yet another” app, more so if it is needed only temporarily.

Solution: The app can be replaced with something they call Key Link. It is a simple URL (web link) which can be used by guests to access the apartment. All they would need is some online device, usually a smartphone. 

So, how it’s done? Using the mobile app, the apartment manager can remotely open the door at any time. More interestingly, she can generate the Key Link which allows anyone to open the same door during the set time period. She then sends the link to the guest via email or chat – just like any other web link. Once the link is received, the guest is able to use it simply by clicking on it – the url will open the browser at the door opening page. One button press on the page, and the door opens.

Key Link may be used for the 1st guest access only or even for the entire duration of the stay. Key links can also be used for cleaners, deliveries and similar. The security is not personal and can be compared to that of a long PIN code, which should be good enough for less-than-permanent use.

For more about Door Cloud go to www.doorcloud.com.