Nuki is a great product, don’t get me wrong, I’ve been backing it up from when it was a small startup but, is it mature enough to use in Airbnb/Booking (short rental)? I have tested the product in 8 airbnbs for the last 3 years and below are my thoughts
1- Not durable enough. Guests (not familiar to nuki) will ALWAYS try to open (push) the door when smartlock is working or they will try to stop (cancel operation) manually from inside the door using the silver ring when smartlock is working. This could potentially have an impact on the smartlock motor which seems to be very delicate. In 3 years I have. replaced the smartlocks a couple of times, which is becoming a frustrating exercise as I have to go every time through the same support which is non existent.
2- No real integration with Airbnb. Codes are sent to the guests on their registered airbnb email address (not in airbnb inbox), which is doing things more difficult with guests asking for me to manually send them the codes in the airbnb inbox…
3- In case of reservation alteration by means of changing checkin/checkout dates, it seems that the codes are not being updated automatically with guests being locked up in the middle of the night etc. You need to manually update them, and it really doesn’t make your life easier if you thought a smartlock will save your life…
4- The arrow key in the keypad, looks like an Enter button, confuses guests when using the code to unlock the door, pressing the code first and the Enter (arrow) key will delete the last digit which makes it VERY confusing and frustrating for guests to just put a simple key to unlock a simple door, having to contact us to explain, again and again.
5- Eneloop rechargeable batteries. Life/money saver. USE them if you want to save the planet (and your own pocket), otherwise you will need change batteries every 3-4 months. I think Nuki Smartlocks should be shipped by default with those batteries, simple! One thing to note however is that even if you have the best batteries, the app battery notification is not reliable, AT ALL! I have had a smartlock stop working in the middle of the night, without any warnings!
6- Support is non-existent and replacing a faulty smartlock takes ages! So if you have multiple airbnbs and you have a problem with a couple of smartlocks, it will take time while you battle with support and dealers to explain that you are not an elephant and you are just asking for a simple product to work as expected! No one wants to replace a product every 6 months if it was working as expected!
7- IFFFT integration sucks! If you are looking to make smart ‘things’ behave smart, its a total fail! You cannot create a simple task such as turning off boiler/aircon when the guests locks the door using the keypad (arrow key). Thats the only way you know that someone has left the apt, so the devices should be switched off… I cannot do that and its not great, at all!
8- Warranty! Even to this day, I have not understood what is the defaul warranty of the Nuki smartlocks, Is it a lifetime warranty which covers a smartlock replacement in case it just breaks while working? I would love someone explain me.
To be fair, I have still a Nuki v1.0 which we use in our office by a lot of (educated) employees and its working great, however in the world of short-rentals where people’s only mission is to unlock/lock a door by all means (not educated), things are different and I think Nuki Smartlock is not up to the expectations, at least not yet!