Hello
I am replying to my own question as it may be useful to others!
I am very new to airbnb hosting, not a single guest yet, just setting up, and may have not fully understood the community platform fully.
Is it possible to restrict the community to UK only?
First big smart lock learning is that the States are way ahead of us with this stuff and a lot of locks that come up on searches will not work in the UK.
Most UK doors are multi point whereas most US locks are deadbolts.
It seems that airbnb are also ahead of the game in the States with smart locks integrating with the airbnb platform unless theres something i've not discovered yet.
So from my research it came down to a choice of 3:
Ultion Nuki, Yale Conexis L1 or L2 and Loqed
Ultimately it was a no brainer as in addition to a virtual key I also wanted a key pad for those who didn't like the idea of a virtual key or downloading an app, which excluded the Loqed, and a good old fashioned key in an external key safe for when all else fails, and that only left the Ultion Nuki
They have a great online quiz that confirms for you whether or not the Nuki will be appropriate for your door.
That then leads you to two options:
1. Where you have a door where the euro cyclinder is combined within a door plate that also contains the handle, you need the Ultion Nuki Plus
The Plus refers to the actual Nuki lock being a Pro lock i.e. the wifi is built in within the lock and you do not need a separate bridge in a socket nearby.
The wifi component is essential if you wish to send virtual keys to guests.
So you can have the Ultion Nuki with a bridge or just the Ultion Nuki Plus
The former also only comes in white where I have a black door so this was another reason to get the Plus as it comes in white and black.
Currently you can only get the Ultion Nuki Plus with the Nuki 3 Pro lock as they are clearing their stock!! There is a more recent Nuki 4 Pro
2. If however your have a stand alone euro cyclinder, not part of a combined handle and lock plate, then you can have the Nuki 4 Pro with wifi built in and the lock stands alone on the door. I confess I can't now remember what the 4 Pro had that the 3 Pro didn't but i'd probably always get the most up to date version if possible but because of my handle I could only get option 1 above.
I've seen some photos where people have mounted the Nuki 4 Pro on the top of the handle plate on their door, so it obviously works but in my view looks horrible. The Ultion Nuki Plus looks way better.
So I still have a key safe on the outside just in case all else fails, like theres no bluetooth or the batteries in the lock have died but i hope never to give access to this. Indeed I have a second key safe with a key to the patio doors in this eventuality as its much cheaper to replace this euro cylinder than it is the Ultion version!
Once they are inside I have two paired key fobs they can take with them when they go out if phones have died or they can't remember the key pad code. All of these virtual keys, codes and fobs can be cancelled and are issued with set time parameters.
For us given our airbnb is attached to our home, even though there is a locked interconnecting door, we felt security was critical. We didn't want the risk of keys being cut or taken allowing guests to return later.
So far the lock has been working really well and I think a lot of guests will really like it when we have some!
I was hoping with my initial post that someone could save me hours of research and say just get this............ but alas no one did.
I hope this fills a gap for someone else coming along behind us.
