StayFi Product Update: Vacation Rental Occupancy Alerts
At StayFi, we get some of our best product ideas from our customers. One issue that had come up again and again was how we could help alert property managers to parties or other large gatherings at their short-term rentals. This is how we came up with our latest feature, vacation rental occupancy alerts.
How StayFi Detects Vacation Rental Occupancy
When we looked through our vacation rental WiFi usage data, we saw that the average guest uses 2-3 separate devices on the WiFi over the course of the stay. It is not unusual to see guests bring a laptop, tablet, 1-2 phones, and an Xbox to a vacation rental, and that is why just counting the number of devices isn’t a great proxy for the number of guests in the home.
With StayFi, because each guest has to log in with their name, email and other optional data fields, we can not just count devices, but the number of unique guests in the home. Using StayFi occupancy alerts, you can set a unique guest threshold for each property and designate an email that will be alerted if that number is ever exceeded. Once the alert comes in, you can click through in the portal and see who exactly is on the WiFi using what devices.
Setting Up StayFi Occupancy Alerts
StayFi occupancy threshold settings are available on the Properties page of the StayFi portal.
On this page there are 3 relevant columns to pay particular attention to: Devices, Guests Online, and Occupancy Threshold. Devices shows a live view of the unique number of devices on the WiFi network and Guests Online shows the live number of guests. The Occupancy Threshold is the maximum number of guests you allow in your property.
When you edit the property, it brings you to the property details page where you can edit the occupancy threshold settings:
In addition to turning on occupancy alerts and setting the occupancy threshold, you can also set the different alert recipients for the alert. Anyone who is added to the account (set under Team in Settings) can receive occupancy alerts.
Once the alert is set up, the email message will look like this for a property:
Clicking through the link, you will see all the details of who is using the WiFi with what devices.
