Update.
The Yale locks and the Lockstate ones that Airbnb tout, don't work with beautifully designed 100 year old oak doors. Long story short, I decided that by process of elimination the Kevo smartlock with Plus hub was my best option to be able to control the door lock remotely, and allow guests access too.
Alas, Kevo only supply the Plus hub to US and Canada. Undeterred, I ordered my Kevo smartlock and a couple of fobs from Amazon, and had the Plus Hub delivered to a friend in Florida, then arranged a reverse collection and customs clearance to the UK.
With all the components to hand I set about drilling new holes for the Kevo Smart deadlock, following the instructions meticulously; even then it took me 5 or 6 attempts to fit the barrel and get it to retract smoothly via remote (fine with the key, but a slight snag with the remote), after chiseling away the barrel was fitted and the rest of the lock. It worked. Boy was I proud!
At this point you can open the door via an app and bluetooth on your phone - or a guests phone.
The hub allows conncetion to wifi and the lock to be controlled from anywhere in the world if you have wifi.
As you would expect it's just a black box, a transformer and a link cable. Easy to set up, "Woohoo".
Would the lock and the hub talk to each other...? Would they thump!
Is it because it's UK wifi? If I call tech support (In San Fran, 9 hours behind) will they tell me I shouldn't be using it in the UK?
Called tech support, After a 15 min spoke to Annie, who guided me through the usual reset and update type stuff for the lock and within 15 mins we were all up and running. "Yeah!"
The lock is fantastic. Phone in pocket you just touch the lock and it opens. You can allow guests access by sending them an invite, they then register and can do the same, but after our first guest had a phone that was too old for the app, and my wife's phone went flat in town so she would have not been able to get in, we decided we would keep it simple and open the door remotely for guests - they then use the regular 5 lever mortice lock during their stay.
This has proved to be the best way forward. I get to have a conversation with the guests when they arrive, the smartlock has a "wow" factor, but they are still staying in a lovely 150 year old romantic cottage.
It's only let us down once when the cable from the transformer to the Plus hub wasn't connecting properly. I plan on hardwiring the transformer to the hub to avoid this weakness.
I believe this may be the only Kevo Plus set up in the UK, but would love to hear from anyone else who has one fitted. It's been a great solution for us. I'm happy to advise anyone else thinking of going down this route.
Greg
