Are you getting calls at dinner asking you to unlock your rental property? Do you have a housekeeper that keeps losing the key? Unless you run a full time property management business, leave your house unlocked, or you are always home, you are bound to have experienced the issue of keys with renters. The renter undoubtedly will need access to your VRBO home when it is least convenient, after hours or when someone is not there.

If you do have someone available to greet your renters (to let them in), they will inevitable come during a lunch break, when someone is ill or is away from their desk. Don't rely or impose on a neighbor or relative to let your guests inside your home. It may workout once or twice but this is not a plan to run your successful business.

Should you hide a key? Your guests know where you hide a key and after awhile so many people know about the hidden key you may as well just leave it dangling from the door. You owe it to yourself to protect your guests from unwanted entry. You just never know when a former guest is in the area and just decide to see if the sweater they left behind is still there. They are sure no one will care and, believing no one is around,... break in. Not a good idea.

You leave yourself open for liability when you hide the key in the same place week after week. If there is a break in you will be held partially responsible since you enticed the break-in by hiding a key where many have had access. So what other options are there:

There is a key-less system that connects to the Internet. From a remote location you can change a code, open a door, and record the information for future use. This is very expensive. There is a high upfront cost as well as a monthly fee to maintain this system. I personally think the key-less entry with the remote access through the Internet has possibilities. In the near future I suspect the costs of this system will be within reach of the average owner.

Mailing a key has worked for many. However you need to have time to be able to do this. You mail a key to the guest and leave duplicate copies at the home. When they are done someone needs to mail a key back to you so the system can keep working.

The longer you give someone access to your keys the more tempting it is to copy the keys. It is recommended, due to these reasons, to have the locks changed once a year. This is not hard to do. It can be done in an afternoon. It does take two people to accomplish. You remove the locks from the doors and take them into a dealer, lock smith or box store that sells your brand name of lock. They can reset the lock to fit a different key. They will then make you however many new keys you need. This can be done for minimal money, usually under twenty dollars, and you have new keys and a new key combination.

Is there a perfect way to hand out keys? Until the cost of the Internet system comes down, I will use the Schlage key-less system. If you purchase this item from a quality specialized store, it seems to work better than if you buy from a box store. I have been informed by a Manager of these stores that the quality is not as good at the bigger stores due to the volume of items needed to fulfill a contract. I have had better luck going to a small specialty store. They will usually be competitive with the box stores.

The Schlage key-less entry has two options. You can select an entire door handle or just a door bolt. I prefer the model that replaces the entire door handle. This way you do not need to drill a hole in the door. There is a light built in when it is dark outside and there is no flashlight. The unit stores up to eighteen different numbers.

I use one number for the family, another for the maintenance person, one for housekeeping, and each guest is given their own unique number. When they leave you can easily remove the previous number. The cleaning people can do this with no problem. You can have a trusted individual reenter numbers every three months or so as needed, depending on how often you turn over your rentals.

You can go ahead and hire someone in the area to meet your guests upon arrival. This way they can be personally greeted, any questions with the premises or rented equipment can be addressed. And they can give out that all important key. What happens if this individual is sick or away on an emergency? Are you being fair to your business by relying on this person?

I put my faith in my cleaning person and my maintenance person. I don't want to rely on another human to let my guests into the house. It seems to never fail, I think everything is great and then something goes wrong. The finger is pointed back to something somebody said. It is just easier to use a system that has one less person in it. Take a look at the Schlage key-less system. It has been great for me.