I am writing this for other hosts as they consider how they would like to manage his or her property. This is an honest review, from an actual LockState customer and is meant to assist other hosts.
We purchased the LockState/RemoteLock as a way to better manage our property after the unpleasant experience a couple of guests either showing up well before check-in time or leaving well after check-out time (in one case, refusing to leave, which panicked our cleaners because we had other guests arriving the same day).
The problems started from the beginning. The lock arrived in May of 2017, in non-working order (two of the several wires were pinched, and it would not connect to the wifi). After several phone calls to the customer service helpline, they finally agreed to send me a new lock. Unfortunately, I live in a different location than my vacation rental, and they could not get me a new one for nearly a month--well after I was gone. I had them send it to me nonetheless and fixed the wires temporarily until I could get back in December (seven months later). After fixing the wires, the locked seemed to be functioning well enough, which was great, because it requires an extra hole in the door, which would have shown had I been forced to put the old lock back on.
Fast forward to September, and we received a frantic call from our guests that were locked out three hours early. Fortunately, the guests found another way into the unit and were great about working with me so I could figure out why the lock malfunctioned. It turned out, the time stamp on the lock had somehow changed. Though it was set to the correct time (HST) the time stamp was approximately 2.5 hours off.
After sending several emails and leaving many messages with LockState's customer service, we finally received an email. We provided the information they requested, but it took another set of phone calls and emails to their support team (and as a last resort, a call to Airbnb to see if they could help) before they got back to us with a "solution." I say solution because as soon as we typed in the reset code, they provided us, the unit went dead. We had replaced the batteries seconds before typing in the code (they were at 50% and needed to be replaced anyway) but the system said the batteries were completely dead. Our cleaner went out and bought a second brand new pack of batteries, but within minutes, those too were dead.
We again reached out to LockState and have yet to receive an explanation or fix the problem. I had to hire an electrician to install the lock with the replacement they sent me, but even the new lock doesn't work. We have had to make copies of the key and have had to provide the last three guests with a copy.
Considering this is the most expensive lock, by several hundred dollars, the lock only worked for three months, and their customer service and tech support have thus far proven terrible, I would advise you do your homework before even considering switching to this lock.
We have had to provide compensation to guests because of the lockouts, pay our cleaners an extra fee for the extra trips to the store to replace the batteries and to hand out a key to the guests, and an electrition to install a new lock that has yet to work. If we had received a defective product (even as it was the second one in a row) but had been more attentive with their service and solutions, we likely would never have had cause to warn other Airbnb owners or Airbnb host support. Unfortunately, we have been left with a VERY expensive manual door lock. Not only that, but we still need to find a new product to replace it with, figure out how to repair the door (with the extra hole that the ResortLock required for installation) and contact our credit card company to see if we can at least get a refund for the product. We are still out the additional funds for all of the repair work, guest compensation but not trying to recover the almost $600USD the lock cost would be silly at this point.
It is a very unfortunate situation, one I hope to warn other property owners and managers about so they can avoid the same issues with this company (including the effect it's had our guest reviews).
Best,
Kristi
