There are some upgrades to your Airbnb that are essential before you invite guests into your home. One such expected device is the thermostat. If you are in a part of the country with extreme weather or are open during the winter or summer months then it becomes even more important to provide your guests the option to control their home experience. Your guests might be traveling from all around the country and the world and might have different preferences of a cozy temperature. To make those adjustments easily and handily you need to find a good device that is easy to use and reliable. We will go through the list of things to look for in a thermostat and recommend the best ones for your Airbnb.

There are some upgrades to your Airbnb that are essential before you invite guests into your home. One such expected device is the thermostat. If you are in a part of the country with extreme weather or are open during the winter or summer months then it becomes even more important to provide your guests the option to control their home experience. Your guests might be traveling from all around the country and the world and might have different preferences of a cozy temperature. To make those adjustments easily and handily you need to find a good device that is easy to use and reliable. We will go through the list of things to look for in a thermostat and recommend the best ones for your Airbnb.

The first thing to ask when you are buying a thermostat is how smart do you want your device to be? You can pick something that is, for the lack of a better word, dumb but is simple and straightforward to use. It will do only one job but it will do it well and will be familiar to most people who book your Airbnb. A thermostat can be electromechanical or fully electronic. It can be programmable or not. Modern thermostats are designed to use artificial intelligence to figure out heating and cooling schedules so that you don’t have to program them at all.

Here is a list of things to look for in a thermostat:

A bright, easily readable display. Set up process should be easy. In case it is not a smart thermostat, The programming process should be understandable and have minimum steps. The manual operation should be simple.

A good well-featured thermostat is important for controlling the amount of energy that you use around the house. It is your first defense against high energy bills. Smart thermostats will know when to turn off the HVAC or heating according to the time and outside weather temperature. If you get a simple electronic programmable thermostat, there is a good chance(40% according to a 2015 study) that you or your guests may not use its programmable features at all. For this reason, we recommend smart thermostats that learn schedules on their own over programmable thermostats.

It is a good idea to invest at least $100 – $150 in a good thermostat. You can get one for very cheap as far as $40 but it will be less expensive for a reason. The cheaper one might not be as energy-efficient. It might not be able to maintain the “comfort window” temperatures, either going under or overshooting the desired temperature by a wide margin. It may also lack features like wifi connectivity that lets you control the temperature from an app without getting off the couch. Some may have an unintuitive UI, that leads to making your guests not use it and wasting energy. Giving your guests the feeling of control by being in a smart home can really elevate the value proposition of your Airbnb.

Recommendations from Amazon:

Honeywell Home Wi-Fi 7-Day programmable thermostat: If you want to save some money and can hold off investing in a smart thermostat, this is a great upgrade. It works with virtually any system type except for electric baseboards. It lets you program for 7 days with 4 program periods per day. It can match almost any guest schedule. You can program it to activate during check-in time and if the check-out is within seven days, program it to automatically shut down too. It connects to Wi-Fi so you can access it via a free smartphone app. You can view the local weather. It also works with smart assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. This one does require a C-Wire to receive power. You should check if you have that or you could use a c-wire adapter.

Emerson Sensi Touch Wi-Fi: For a little more money you can get this one that was named Best Overall smart thermostat of 2017 to 2019 by USA Today. The thermostat helps you save up to 23% on HVAC energy. It installs in 30 minutes. It can be controlled remotely with a free app. It works with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple Homekit(So you can control your temperature with Siri). It has an HD touchscreen with a color display. It features smart alerts to detect extreme temperatures and humidity in your home.

Ecobee3 lite Smart Thermostat: If you care a lot about looks and design this one is a great option. It has a black finish and a minimal look. It has sensors that detect how many people are present in a room and adjusts temperatures accordingly. It is easy to install and can be controlled from anywhere with an app. It has extensive compatibility options with smart home setups like Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple HomeKit, Microsoft Cortana, Samsung SmartThings, Wink and IFTTT.

Google Nest Learning Thermostat, 3rd Gen: This one has an awesome feature called Auto-Scheduling where you don’t have to program the device anymore. It learns the preferred temperatures you like and your schedules and programs itself. It uses the magic of artificial intelligence and machine learning to achieve that. It takes about a week for it to learn your behaviors. It also keeps track of the weather and adjusts accordingly. It comes with all the previous features of connectivity with home assistants and control through the app.

Precautions to take:

With smart devices, come inherent security risks. If your device gets hacked, remote actors can control your thermostat. Though the chances of that happening are very low, you should pay attention to your internet router settings and wifi security to prevent any attacks.

If you are upgrading from a manual thermostat, make sure the new thermostat supports the equipment in your property. Make a list of all the things you would like to control. Each device may have multiple settings of operation. You need a thermostat that can handle all the different combinations. It is best to get this advice from a certified technician.

Happy heating and cooling 🙂

Scooch and Steve

