Hello,
I do not have a Nuki yet.
I have seen documentation, videos, etc, so please correct me if I’m wrong about my understanding of Nuki and how it works for guests.
I have 2 different AirBnb scenarios:
A - Apartment in a building so it needs the Nuki Opener;
B - House with the door opening directly to the street and for security reasons I do NOT want to install the keypad on this one
So in these scenarios I do not want to have a “only the keypad” solution but I’d still want my guests to have a very easy experience.
For both scenarios, these are the steps my AirBnb guests need to do (acc. to this document):
1 - Get message/link (via AirBnb/email/…) about an app they need to install
2 - Install the Nuki App
3 - Get the message (via AirBnb/email/…) with a code corresponding to the lock(s)
4 - Use the code in the Nuki App to add the locks
5 - Go to the Nuki App to Open the door(s)
6 - On Checkout they receive a message to uninstall the Nuki App
My opinion of this is the following:
- For some guests, step 2 is difficult (free space, security concerns, skill challenged, …, …).
- Steps 3+4 seem simply cumbersome as you already did some installing, and now need to do more steps - the guest just wants to unlock the door(s).
- And step 6 well, it should never have been there in the first place, so for most guests it is probably a relief to delete the app but for many others it will be clutter that will remain in their phone as they will forget to delete it.
So, this is not the experience I want to give my guests.
On the other hand, I’m currently using another smart lock solution.
That other smart lock is lacking is many aspects of the host experience (both SW and HW).
But the guest experience is amazing.
And, I’d like to have a better experience as host (buying into the Nuki solution), but I will not do that at the expense of the guest experience.
So, what did the people from the other smart lock company do to have a better experience?
They changed from an App solution (similar to yours) to have a guest webapp.
With that, the steps for the guests are just these:
1 - Receive the link for Nuki for their reservation (*)
2 - Click the link and open the locks
(*)
The link points to the service the guest requested with everything already preconfigured: the locks, the dates/times, even the keypad code can be shown here (additionally to sent via message).
No other menu/configurations are available for the guest.
For security, the link has a parameter for the session that is 32 characters long, but you can even improve on that if you feel necessary.
Imagine for instance: https://web.nuki.io/guests?session=IUHGfdr56yhnJKjhdrTghjkjnb456ygN
These are the steps I believe the guest wants to do.
(from experience with current and previous versions of this competitor’s solution)
The steps Nuki currently has are a bunch of steps that made sense to the tech guys (I should know, as it is my background).
So, am I just wrong?
Or should I create a feature request?
PS: This also seems to go in line with some requests people were making a couple of years ago here: Simple 'guests'version of Nuki App? - #3 by NoSync