A smart door lock for Airbnb hosts, and everyone else too

Here’s a confession: I once lost the keys to an Airbnb room I was staying in. The host had no spare, which meant he had to replace the entire door lock.

Still, I got a positive review from the kindly old man. I was lucky.

Anyway, it turns out that handling keys, and checking-in to Airbnb apartments are hassles. More conscientious hosts will pass you instructions on how to get in. For others, you’d need to ask.

A startup is working on an elegant solution. Igloohome, hailing from sunny Singapore, has developed a smart door lock that promises to blow these problems away.

It features integration with Airbnb. So, as a host, once you receive a confirmed reservation, Igloohome automatically generates a code and sends it to the guest, who gains entry into your property without you lifting a finger.

“This eliminates the need for key exchange entirely,” says Anthony Chow, CEO and co-founder of Igloohome. Of course, guests won’t have access to your apartment forever. The code expires at the end of your guest’s stay.

You can deploy Igloohome in basements, beaches, and mountains.

Igloohome has more to offer. The service automatically arranges housekeeping in between stays. The smart lock also works without wifi, which means you can deploy it in many parts of Southeast Asia or even at basements, beaches, and mountains.

Instead of transmitting the code from Igloohome’s servers to the lock, the service uses two-factor authentication, similar to your bank.

“Essentially, there is a ‘formula’ that has been programmed in both the Igloohome smart lock and our app – likewise, in the bank system and security token – so that they can understand each other without being connected,” the startup explains in a blog post.

Igloohome is available in Singapore, Thailand, and Australia. It has the usual smart lock features too, like Bluetooth entry and a backup physical key.

In Singapore, the lock costs about S$399 (US$288), though there’s a huge discount going on now. There’s an optional installation fee of S$80 (US$57). The fancy Airbnb integration, however, costs S$9.90 (US$7.16) a month.

From Airbnb host to startup founder

The founding team consists of Singtel alumni. Anthony led a team of data scientists and engineers to develop algorithms to improve customer engagement.

Made for Asia