Smart lock check-in message
Send this on arrival day, after you have opened the door once with this stay's code.
{Guest name}, the door for {Property name} is {Door name}. Your code is {Door code}. It starts at {Check-in time} and will not open the door before then.
Enter the code and wait for the lock to finish moving before you turn the handle. Lock {Door name} from the outside when you leave.
If the code does not open it, use this backup: {Backup step}. Reply in this thread if you are stuck. The code is for your group on this stay.
When to send
Send the smart lock note when three things are true. The stay is confirmed, the lock has a code for this guest, and you have opened {door_name} with {door_code} yourself. {checkin_time} has to be the moment that code starts working, not midnight and not the previous afternoon, unless the lock is truly active then and the listing allows entry then.
{guest_name} should see the code in this thread and nowhere else you control. Do not also text it to a number, and do not leave it in the confirmation you sent at booking. A rotating code that is copied early gets tried early, fails, and shows up in your messages as a broken lock.
{backup_step} is the plan for a dead battery or a lock that spins and does not throw. Name a real object or a real person: a key in a lockbox you describe, a second code you have tested, or a co-host who is awake and can be reached in this same thread. “Message me” is not a backup if you will be asleep or on a plane.
Timing tip
For a code that changes every stay, the morning of arrival in the property’s time zone is the right send, after the test. If they land at dawn and {checkin_time} is 16:00, the sentence that the code will not work before {checkin_time} is what keeps them off the step at noon. Leave that sentence in.
Same-day bookings get the message as soon as the test is done. If the code cannot start until a cleaner leaves, say the clock time it will start, even if that time is later than {checkin_time} on the listing. A late code is a problem you solve in the thread with an honest time. A code you hope will be ready is how people stand outside with luggage.
If arrival is after quiet hours, add one line about the entry light or send the late-night message as well. Do not split the code across two notes. The code lives here.
Common mistakes
A code window that starts at midnight is the usual failure. The guest arrives early from a flight, the lock refuses them, and the review mentions a lock that “did not work” even though it worked at 16:00. Set the device and {checkin_time} to the same moment, and write the moment in the message. People do not reopen the listing while holding a suitcase.
The second failure is the wrong door. {door_name} has to pick one door when the building has a lobby, a garage, and a unit. “Front door” is not a name. Say the floor and the side of the hall. If the lobby uses a different method, put that method in {backup_step} only if it is the backup. The primary path stays in {door_name}.
The third is a shared code saved inside the template. The braces are the point. {door_code} is filled for this stay. The saved text should not contain a live code. When the stay ends, that code should stop working if your lock can expire it. Say that the code is for this group, which the template already does, so they are less likely to hand it to a visitor the listing does not allow.
Test it like a guest
Open the door with {door_code}, lock it from the outside, and open it again. Then read the message without looking at the building. If you are unsure which door {door_name} means, they will be too. Check the battery on the same visit. A backup you have not touched in a year is a story, not a plan. Touch {backup_step} the same day.