Thermostat Integration

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Digital thermostats have become a very popular addition to rental properties. They allow owners to reduce costs when the homes are not occupied during very cold or hot days. 

I would like to request a feature that would integrate with a third party controller to automatically turn thermostats up or down based on guest reservations. Ideally there would be an option to adjust it a day or two ahead of their arrival.

I have just installed Daikin AC units in Florida rentals, so would like the integration to work with the DaikinOne system.

Honeywell 

Honeywell 

How does the Honeywell integrate with OwnerRez?

We have Nest thermostat, and have configured Zapier to send us an email reminder to turn up the thermostat the morning of a multi-day calendar event (i.e. a Guest Booking, synced to a Google Calendar), and a reminder to turn down the thermostat when there are no events on the calendar. This is not ideal or fully automated, but it works to automate reminders to manually adjust the temp.

I use Lynx to manage my thermostats.  Set min & max temp as well as prevent users from running the fan constantly (prevents excessive wear and tear).  Also have an out building set to turn off daily at a certain time.  All tstats have freezing and overheating prevention configured as well.

Had it setup to adjust the temperature prior to a guest's arrival, but that didn't work as well as I'd like.

I have Ecobee in several properties and Nest in a couple others. This would be fantastic. Nest is a pretty closed system, but Ecobee seems amenable to open access of various types. If OR isn't able to devote resources to this, maybe there's a third-party integration that could sort of help facilitate automation such as this?

I was asking for HW integration. What is zapier?  I visited the website and could not understand what it does. I have configured OR top send me email/text to change tstats

Zapier is a platform to integrate systems that otherwise would not talk to each other directly.  For example, you could have an integration (which they call a "Zap") to log facebook messages into your CRM.  For a while I had it pulling bookings from my old PMS and importing them into the accounting software I was testing.  You could integrate OR with MailChimp to put all of your guests emails into a mailing list, for example.

There are others pre-built that share your instagram posts to facebook or auto post things from an RSS feed to your facebook page.

A lesser known competitor is "IFTTT" which stands for "IF This Than That" which is basically how Zapier works.

To compare it to OR, Zapier/IFTTT function on "Triggers" that kick off a specific task once triggered, much like when you setup a message to go out two days before a guest arrives.

Hope that helps explain what it is.

Hey has ownerrez made any committments to integrate with the thermostat yet?

I wanted to vote for this.

I have Bayweb thermostats which were the only ones available way back when.

I will buy whatever OR decides to integrate with.

OR?

Does the product need to integrate with OR? If so, why?

I just did this using IFTTT. It was super easy; I have an Ecobee thermostadt. 

I set up a template and a trigger in OR that sends an email to IFTTT, based on certain conditions (summer season and no one stayed in the place the night before). 

This email triggers IFTTT to turn the Ecobee thermostadt to a certain temperature and Hold until the next scheduled transition. 

This way, I can set the AC to kick on a few hours prior to a guest's arrival, so they don't arrive to a hot place. 

There have been plans to integrate with Zapier, which would provide some of these capabilities, but we try not to give ETAs as software companies are infamous for not meeting them and that just annoys people.

We do have an integration with DACK, which comes with some thermostat integration capabilities:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/DACK

Give them a look!

Sloanish, If I created a tool that integrates with ownerez and your thermostat would you buy it? So you don't have to wait for the zapier integration to happen?

FYI, here's one that you can plug in:

https://thermograte.webflow.io/

Doesn't seem worth $10/month to me (especially when IFTTT does it for free), but some of you may be interested. 

I attended the VRM Intel conference in Branson this week and met the guys from BeHome247. They claim to have an OR integration and also sync up with most smart home devices out there, so it would do what this feature request asks.

If their product works as advertised, it would also replace Breezeway (or EZCare/Turnoverbnb/ResortClean) and my RemoteLock and TouchStay subscriptions, as they claim to have native door lock/code management and guest guidebook offerings (unlike TouchStay, BeHome247's guest portal/PWA app lets guests control smart thermostats, click to check out (proactively notifying housekeepers, etc.).

The pricing is actually not that much more than Breezeway+RemoteLock+TouchStay, so I'd basically be getting thermostat management for about $5/month/property. I have a demo booked for next week, so we'll see how it actually looks and works in practice.

I just did this using IFTTT. It was super easy; I have an Ecobee thermostadt. 

I set up a template and a trigger in OR that sends an email to IFTTT, based on certain conditions (summer season and no one stayed in the place the night before). 

This email triggers IFTTT to turn the Ecobee thermostadt to a certain temperature and Hold until the next scheduled transition. 

This way, I can set the AC to kick on a few hours prior to a guest's arrival, so they don't arrive to a hot place. 

 

 

This is brilliant! so if I understand I could just set up a trigger to send an email to IFTTT say, 5 hours before a guest checks in to engage the thermostat. and then something similar for afterward. SO helpful! 

IFTTT doesn’t seem to be recognizing the emails being sent from OR. I know sometimes emails sent via OR get filtered so I’m wondering if you did anything special to get IFTTT to process your triggered templates. 

I have a verified domain. 

IFTTT works fine if I send the email directly from my email account so it appears to be issue on OR side. 

Yes, this is because the OR emails are sent from the *@inquiryspot.com rather than from your associated email account. 

It's been awhile since I set it up and I honestly don't remember how I did it. I think I set the OR trigger to send to my email account, then I set a rule in that account to forward that email to IFTTT. 

There is a great reddit community devoted to IFTTT issues. This is a workaround I just found; I'm not sure it will help you but it may get you started down the rabbit hole. : )

https://www.reddit.com/r/ifttt/comments/b85ni8/gmail_mail_forwarding/

Let us know how it works out for you; it might be helpful for future OR users to know exactly how to configure it. I sure wish I had written down what I did to make that piece work. 

Good luck!

Yes, this is because the OR emails are sent from the *@inquiryspot.com rather than from your associated email account. 

It's been awhile since I set it up and I honestly don't remember how I did it. I think I set the OR trigger to send to my email account, then I set a rule in that account to forward that email to IFTTT. 

There is a great reddit community devoted to IFTTT issues. This is a workaround I just found; I'm not sure it will help you but it may get you started down the rabbit hole. : )

https://www.reddit.com/r/ifttt/comments/b85ni8/gmail_mail_forwarding/

Let us know how it works out for you; it might be helpful for future OR users to know exactly how to configure it. I sure wish I had written down what I did to make that piece work. 

Good luck!

Do you not use this anymore? Or is it possible for you to post screenshot of your OR settings and IFTTT settings? I think many people would find this useful. 

I probably would.  I had guests try to maintain the temperature to 65 F in the middle of Arizona summer (100 F+).  I don't care who you are or what your comfort level is, the only thing such behavior does is destroy the AC unit and rack up the electricity bill!  (You can't vacation in a completely different climate than you are used to and expect to live according to your environment back home).

The point of this is, while the Ecobee API has the ability to query and set things such as temp limits, IFTTT has not developed on very many meaningful (to me) commands.  So, I either need to learn how to write software to interface via various API (I'm interested!) or find someone else who will do it for me.