I am writing to request technical support regarding an issue with the Schlage entry codes generated for my guests.
Currently, the system initially sets the access code as the last four digits of the guest's phone number. However, prior to the scheduled check-in, guests receive an automated message stating that a problem occurred and a new, different code has been assigned.
Could you please explain why these codes are being changed and how I can ensure the original code remains active? This inconsistency is causing confusion for guests during the check-in process.
Answered
Schlage codes updating?
Best answer by Kristijan Laco
Hi
Thanks for reaching out about the entry code changes, I completely understand how this could cause confusion for your guests, and I’m happy to clarify what’s happening.
I looked into your case, and the reason the code was changed is that the original code (based on the last four digits of the guest’s phone number) was not successfully confirmed by the Schlage lock. In other words, the lock did not report back that the code had been properly set. To this date we still don’t have that confirmation.
When this happens, our Backup Code feature automatically activates. This feature generates and sends a new code to ensure your guest can still access the property without disruption. The backup code is only triggered when we detect an issue with the original code and it’s designed as a safeguard to prevent lockouts.
You do have the option to customize your backup code message here, or disable the feature entirely if you prefer (though we generally don’t recommend disabling it, as it helps protect the guest experience in situations like this).
We also have a helpful article that explains in more detail how backup codes work.
+7- Hospitable Team Member
- Answer
Hi
Thanks for reaching out about the entry code changes, I completely understand how this could cause confusion for your guests, and I’m happy to clarify what’s happening.
I looked into your case, and the reason the code was changed is that the original code (based on the last four digits of the guest’s phone number) was not successfully confirmed by the Schlage lock. In other words, the lock did not report back that the code had been properly set. To this date we still don’t have that confirmation.
When this happens, our Backup Code feature automatically activates. This feature generates and sends a new code to ensure your guest can still access the property without disruption. The backup code is only triggered when we detect an issue with the original code and it’s designed as a safeguard to prevent lockouts.
You do have the option to customize your backup code message here, or disable the feature entirely if you prefer (though we generally don’t recommend disabling it, as it helps protect the guest experience in situations like this).
We also have a helpful article that explains in more detail how backup codes work.
+4
I do recommend setting a custom message to help the guest in case the original code did work. We currently have
Oh darn, we may have encountered an issue while setting your code on the lock. No need to worry! You can try your original code provided earlier %smartlock_code% and if it doesn't work, this is the backup instead: %smartlock_backup_code%
+7- Hospitable Team Member
I do recommend setting a custom message to help the guest in case the original code did work. We currently have
Oh darn, we may have encountered an issue while setting your code on the lock. No need to worry! You can try your original code provided earlier %smartlock_code% and if it doesn't work, this is the backup instead: %smartlock_backup_code%
You’re right, Anthony. We’re waiting on their official incident report, and we’ll share more as soon as it’s available.
Same issue for me. This is sent to every guest. I know it is working because the lock is integrated into Air BnB. It is populating there any many guests reported using the original code without issue.
+4FWIW
I do recommend setting a custom message to help the guest in case the original code did work. We currently have
Oh darn, we may have encountered an issue while setting your code on the lock. No need to worry! You can try your original code provided earlier %smartlock_code% and if it doesn't work, this is the backup instead: %smartlock_backup_code%
You’re right, Anthony. We’re waiting on their official incident report, and we’ll share more as soon as it’s available.
I took a look back at when this started.
I had no issues in 2025. First one sent on Jan 02 and its been sent to every guest on 14 reservations this year. Its not platform specific either as I've had reservations from VRBO, AirBnB and Booking.com.
I do recommend setting a custom message to help the guest in case the original code did work. We currently have
Oh darn, we may have encountered an issue while setting your code on the lock. No need to worry! You can try your original code provided earlier %smartlock_code% and if it doesn't work, this is the backup instead: %smartlock_backup_code%
You’re right, Anthony. We’re waiting on their official incident report, and we’ll share more as soon as it’s available.
This still remains unchanged. Every booking this year recieves this redundant message.
Amy updates?
+7- Hospitable Team Member
I do recommend setting a custom message to help the guest in case the original code did work. We currently have
Oh darn, we may have encountered an issue while setting your code on the lock. No need to worry! You can try your original code provided earlier %smartlock_code% and if it doesn't work, this is the backup instead: %smartlock_backup_code%
You’re right, Anthony. We’re waiting on their official incident report, and we’ll share more as soon as it’s available.
This still remains unchanged. Every booking this year recieves this redundant message.
Amy updates?
Hi
I’ve reviewed your account and noticed that none of your check-in messages currently include the %smartlock_code% shortcode. Because of that, the backup code message continues to trigger, as our system detects that the door code has not been shared with the guest.
At the moment, your check-in message only states:
"A unique door code will be sent prior to your arrival."
You have two options:
-
Add
%smartlock_code%to your existing check-in message. -
Create a separate ruleset dedicated to only sharing the door code. This message must be scheduled before check-in and include the
%smartlock_code%shortcode.
The easiest solution is Option 1. It's perfectly fine for the code to be included in your check-in message because the smart lock code is scheduled and will only become active at the guest's check-in time.
Let me know if you’d like help setting this up.
I do recommend setting a custom message to help the guest in case the original code did work. We currently have
Oh darn, we may have encountered an issue while setting your code on the lock. No need to worry! You can try your original code provided earlier %smartlock_code% and if it doesn't work, this is the backup instead: %smartlock_backup_code%
You’re right, Anthony. We’re waiting on their official incident report, and we’ll share more as soon as it’s available.
This still remains unchanged. Every booking this year recieves this redundant message.
Amy updates?
Hi
I’ve reviewed your account and noticed that none of your check-in messages currently include the %smartlock_code% shortcode. Because of that, the backup code message continues to trigger, as our system detects that the door code has not been shared with the guest.
At the moment, your check-in message only states:
"A unique door code will be sent prior to your arrival."
You have two options:
-
Add
%smartlock_code%to your existing check-in message. -
Create a separate ruleset dedicated to only sharing the door code. This message must be scheduled before check-in and include the
%smartlock_code%shortcode.
The easiest solution is Option 1. It's perfectly fine for the code to be included in your check-in message because the smart lock code is scheduled and will only become active at the guest's check-in time.
Let me know if you’d like help setting this up.
Hey Kristijan,
I did add the Smartlock code to my current automations and it never made any difference. It continues to send arbitrary emergency codes to every single guest despite the message before including an actual Smartlock code.
Any insights?
+7- Hospitable Team Member
Hi
I’ve checked the most recent case for Jonah.
It looks like a code for Jonah had already been created on the lock on October 28. Because that code was already present, our provisioning attempts were rejected.
Did you created this code manually, or is your Schlage account connected to another service, such as Airbnb?
Either will interfere with Hospitable’s code provisioning. We normally push reservation codes to the lock around 72 hours before check-in. In Jonah’s case, our attempts were rejected because the code already existed, so we fell back to the backup code. That’s the expected behavior in this situation.
Your next reservation is on September 4. I can see that the code for Kora is prepared but hasn’t been pushed to the lock yet. Could you please avoid making any code changes outside of Hospitable for this reservation? That will allow us to confirm that everything is provisioning correctly.
Best,
Kris
I get 90%+ bookings through AirBnB, and it was connected, so it would send to almost all reservations. I likely wouldn’t notice the few instances where it did not send, because it would be much less frequent for Booking.com/Vrbo. I can now see that it did not send to the last Vrbo guest, suggesting that this is an integration conflict.
This does undermine the guest experience though, AirBnB allows smartlock integration. I upgraded to a Schlage Encode after booking an AirBnB stay and immediately seeing a code for my stay in the app. I realized that it was an awesome guest experience to immediately have the code and to have it housed directly within the application I used for my reservation.
The message is still sent 72 hours in advance and displays the correct code that was created by AirBnB (last 4 digits of phone number), so Hospitable message automation can see the guest has a code created by AirBnB and communicate it accurately. Why can’t it simply validate if a code is not programmed and send in those instances. I don’t need it to create the code in all scenarios, I need it to validate if the guest has a code and provide an emergency backup when it there is a problem.
So I suppose I can disconnected the lock from Air BnB so that this will no longer conflict with the lock provisioning. This will also remove the lock code from AirBnB app and impact guest experience for 90% of my guests.
Or I can change my message automation for smartlock backup to exclude AirBnB, so that there is no backup messge on this channel. Then if AirBnB connection fails to create a lock there is no backup method in place. This is likely the road that best automates user experience, but it can also be a major friction point for a guest who shows up and has no primary or backup code.
+7- Hospitable Team Member
I get 90%+ bookings through AirBnB, and it was connected, so it would send to almost all reservations. I likely wouldn’t notice the few instances where it did not send, because it would be much less frequent for Booking.com/Vrbo. I can now see that it did not send to the last Vrbo guest, suggesting that this is an integration conflict.
This does undermine the guest experience though, AirBnB allows smartlock integration. I upgraded to a Schlage Encode after booking an AirBnB stay and immediately seeing a code for my stay in the app. I realized that it was an awesome guest experience to immediately have the code and to have it housed directly within the application I used for my reservation.
The message is still sent 72 hours in advance and displays the correct code that was created by AirBnB (last 4 digits of phone number), so Hospitable message automation can see the guest has a code created by AirBnB and communicate it accurately. Why can’t it simply validate if a code is not programmed and send in those instances. I don’t need it to create the code in all scenarios, I need it to validate if the guest has a code and provide an emergency backup when it there is a problem.
So I suppose I can disconnected the lock from Air BnB so that this will no longer conflict with the lock provisioning. This will also remove the lock code from AirBnB app and impact guest experience for 90% of my guests.
Or I can change my message automation for smartlock backup to exclude AirBnB, so that there is no backup messge on this channel. Then if AirBnB connection fails to create a lock there is no backup method in place. This is likely the road that best automates user experience, but it can also be a major friction point for a guest who shows up and has no primary or backup code.
Having the code available directly in the Airbnb app is a great experience, and it’s actually something I’m currently working on with Airbnb through their Seamless API. I don’t have an ETA to share just yet, unfortunately.
Seamless Entry aside, to answer your question about why Hospitable can’t simply validate whether a code has been programmed: for us to reliably manage access and provide a backup when something goes wrong, there needs to be a single source of truth for the codes, and that source needs to be Hospitable.
When a device is first connected, we synchronize it and try to reconcile the existing codes we can access. From that point forward, though, we expect reservation codes to be managed by Hospitable. If both Airbnb and Hospitable are independently creating and managing codes on the same Schlage account, we can end up with duplicate codes or conflicting state, which is what happened here.
For that reason, I wouldn’t recommend excluding Airbnb reservations from the backup code message. As you pointed out, that would leave you without Hospitable’s fallback if Airbnb failed to provision a code.
The safest setup for now is to disconnect the Schlage integration from Airbnb and let Hospitable manage the codes. There’s no need to do that immediately while you have a guest staying, feel free to wait until the current guest checks out.
I realize that means giving up the in-app Airbnb code experience for the time being, and I understand why that’s not ideal. It’s exactly the gap we’re hoping to address with the Seamless Entry work.
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