Not every residential home in Denver is purposed for long-term residence. The vacation rental trend spearheaded by Airbnb has transformed many extra homes and investment properties into delightful hotel alternatives. There’s no denying the appeal of staying in a real house on a quiet Colorado street instead of a busy one-size-fits-all hotel room with no kitchen or garage.
Whether you’re an old hand at Airbnb or just getting started with vacation rentals, Denver houses with a garage for guest use are in particularly high demand. However, managing how your guests use the garage can be more complicated than it seems. The good news is that you don’t have to settle for handing out garage door openers or leaving your garage standing open for guest access.
1) Programmable Keypad Entry
By far the most traditional solution for guest garage door access is the programmable keypad. A keypad outside your garage can allow guests to use a code you give them after booking to open the garage for themselves. This allows them to come and go as they please during their vacation without the need for an opener that might be lost or broken.
The keypad does require guests to get out of their vehicle to open the garage, but it also ensures that they can’t accidentally leave with a garage door opener. You can also reprogram the code after each guest so that past guests will not be able to return and access your garage without booking the home first.
2) Smart Home Wireless Entry
Even better than an outdoor keypad (or in addition to this reliable security access solution) is a smart-home-enabled garage door opener. With a quick and simple MyQ upgrade to your current garage door opener, you can have a garage that opens and closes through an easy-to-use mobile app on your phone. Once this is set up, you can provide your guests with a guide on which app to download and how to log in so that they, too, will be able to open the garage from their smartphones upon arrival.
This is the best solution for providing your vacation rental guests with a garage door remote without actually handing them a physical remote. Then, when their stay is over, you can change your passwords and app settings so that only your current guests have access to your garage.
3) Parking Assist Lasers
One concern shared by almost all vacation rental hosts is that guests will accidentally damage something in the home. When you open up your garage, you also open the possibility that guests will accidentally drive too far in or not far enough and get into trouble. While you could hang the traditional tennis ball in the right position, there is a better and much cooler solution to the same problem: Lasers.
A laser guidance system can be mounted on your garage ceiling to provide the same service as the tennis ball by pointing a visible red laser onto the hood of parking vehicles to let them know when they are exactly far enough in to close the garage door without running into anything. Not only will your guests appreciate the courtesy, but they will also likely rave about your excellent Airbnb host technology.
4) Automatic Closing
Finally, there’s always a chance that careless guests will leave your garage hanging open when they leave or over the duration of their stay. The good news is that there is a simple solution: programming your garage to close after about 10 minutes from being opened if there is nothing obstructing the path.
Find More Garage Door Solutions
This can be done in a number of ways, but the best is to combine the If This Then That programmable app with a smart home garage door opener. This combination allows you to set a variety of dynamic garage door controls that will keep your garage closed safe and tight whether guests are staying with you or they have left and forgot to close the door behind them.
The vacation rental trend is a fantastic way to turn additional properties and spare rooms into pocket money and many people have fun playing host in person or at a distance. However, hosting short-term guests does have a way of complicating traditional garage door solutions. Let us help you find the perfect Denver home for vacation rental and from there, you can make any modifications that will make the home more welcoming for guests or residents.
Contact us today for more Denver real estate tips or advice.
