Airbnb Key Exchange From Other Cities

airbnb check out

You own apartment in another city. Why don’t start renting and making money with it?

Exchanging Airbnb keys  is simpler than you think…even from another city!

Nowadays people travel a lot and boundaries are disappearing.  Services like Airbnb allows them to find your rental property with ease. All you need to do is to make them feel like they’re at home.

BUT…How to do it when you live in another city?

What about check-in and check-out, passing keys and replenishing lost keys?

You will be surprised how simple it can be.

Airbnb Check-in

Check in’s are all about communication.

Your guest must inform you about their arrival time at the rental unit.  You can send them instructions or a map to make it easier. You both will agree to a specific hour and day to check-in and all the guest must do is collect keys to the Airbnb.

But wait…How will the guest get the keys while you’re not around?

Passing and Collecting Keys

They are a couple of ways to do exchange keys on Airbnb when you’re not around:

With Friends and Neighbors

Sometimes you can use a neighbor or close friend, but when your guests want to check in on 3 AM it can be a problem and you will probably have to charge guests extra for it.

Also, what if your neighbors don’t like that you are doing Airbnb?  No help there.

Another idea is to leave the keys in a coffee shop nearby but you are still limited by the business operating hours.

What about hiding keys? I know it has crossed your mind…but only amateurs do it. If you want to make serious money with renting on Airbnb, forget about leaving keys in unsecured areas.

With External Equipment

You could use key lock boxes. Tenant can collect keys from them while checking-in.

If you own a house, you can hang them on a fence or anything else sturdy and solid . When you have apartment for rent on Airbnb, you can hang the key box on a wall near the doors or directly on the door handle.

To check out, guests just drop the key into the lock box and they’re off.  It can be a little bit safer when you have self-closing doors – the tenant can just leave the keys inside and then give-up access to your property.

BUT what if they forgot something and need to get back in real quick?  You may need to go and let them in…if that’s even possible.



Key Exchange Services

You can also look into hiring key exchange services such as KeyCafe, Guesty or Handy.

These services will pass the keys to your tenants for you. Now you’re adding ANOTHER unknown person into the exchange.  This person must be trusted and you may have to pay them extra if you’re not bundling services together.  It can become expensive…especially when you own multiple apartments or houses in a couple different cities.

Other Solutions

There is another solution and it does a bit of everything mentioned above, but has other benefits as well.

It’s called RentingLock and it’s web app is linked to a special digital lock.  OOOO…Fancy!

Airbnb Lock

Instead of looking for people or places to leave the keys for your Airbnb, you just send door opening codes to your tenants. This is done directly from app dashboard as seen below.

airbnb key exchange

RentingLock Dashboard…Click to enlarge

The simple dashboard allows you to edit the check-in and check-out, as well as create digital key codes.  This gives you control and peace-of-mind for three reasons:

  1. KEYS CAN NEVER GET LOST!
    No more 3am car rides across town to let your guests in.
  2. You can be flexible with the check in and check out times with your guests
    Guests are leaving early?  Change their check out time and simply remove access to your property.
  3. You can track when and how often guests are coming in and out of your property
    If you like knowing what’s going on in your rental unit, this is a great feature.

RentingLock doesn’t even need electricity or Wi-Fi to work. It works without them.

All you have to do is to install the lock on your doors and send code to your tenant. While sending code, you can attach notes, maps and even write a short message to assure everything will go well.

You can learn more about RentingLock here.

Does RentingLock work when I’m in a different city?

We’re glad you asked….YES, it does.  It can even be cheaper than they way you’re exchanging keys now no matter where you are!

Think about it this way. When you arrange all the things for your Airbnb guests, you won’t waste your time moving and passing physical keys around for check-ins and check-outs.

Renting your unit out on Airbnb from another city is not a problem when you have RentingLock. It’s an opportunity to EXPAND your Airbnb business and free up your time.

Just think it through and choose the best options for your specific situation.

You may want to invest some money to make hosting on Airbnb easier and cheaper in the long-term by implementing a RentingLock.

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