As a property owner in the short-term rental market, ensuring the safety and integrity of your asset is paramount. One of the most notable risks that can lead to significant damage and costly repairs is water leaks. A single leaky pipe or an undetected burst hose in a vacant short-term rental can create havoc, leading to extensive damage due to the amount of time the leak can be active before the next staff or guest arrives and finds water everywhere. One of the most effective ways to mitigate this risk is by automating the water shutoff system to turn off the water when the property is vacant (see our recommendation below).
First, we wanted to share some of our experiences. Our team has seen numerous types of ways owners/hosts have tried to control their water shutoff – and have tried some of them ourselves. Here are some examples of how these controls work when implemented:
Some owners have tried the smart detection and shutoff systems, like the ones mentioned in this article. In all cases, they had to disable the systems because the automatic detection would commonly trigger and shut the water off on guests during their stays. Typically this would happen when a guest was taking a shower, right at the exact moment that you don’t want the water to turn off. In addition, the valve could only be reset by the app, so the only way the guests had to turn the water back on was to contact the owner and wait for a response.
If you have a short term rental property management service (or just a maintenance person in general) you can ask them to turn it on and off. However, we’ve had experiences where a braided water line under a sink broke unexpectedly. This ran for around 48 hours after the guest checked out and before the property management service was able to get there. In this case, the water leak occurred on the main floor so all the flooring was ruined on the main floor, and then the entire lower level was destroyed. It all happened in a very short time period between when the guests left and when the property management service arrived.
Many times, the property management group cannot go to the home at the same time or the same days the guests check in and out. That means there are windows of time where the home is vacant and something catastrophic could happen. By automatically turning the water off, you can avoid these types of situations.
There are less expensive smart water valves on the market, however we would recommend avoiding many of them for something as critical as an automated water shutoff.
We had a less expensive water valve installed at one of our properties and one day the internal components seem to have malfunctioned. From that point until we discovered it by manually checking, the valve was not turning on and off even though it was reporting that it had done so (it was reporting a changed state in the app even though the valve was not opening or closing). This can also be a high-risk situation where you think the water is turned off but it is actually on, leaving you open to water leaks and catastrophic damage.
Based on our experience, the best way we have found to prevent water damage at your Airbnb is to use a smart water valve and program it to turn the water on and off automatically based on your rental calendar. This is one of the primary reasons why Rental Home Automator was created, as it is designed to ensure the water will shut off when a guest checks out and turns on when a guest checks in. It can also turn the water on and off automatically for cleaning and maintenance staff as well. This type of system minimizes the risk of extensive water damage while also maximizing your ability to provide a great guest experience.
The basic setup we recommend for an automated water shutoff system is:
- A smart water valve like the Zooz Titan 700 series or a well control device like what is described in our step-by-step guides
- A SmartThings hub like the Aeotec Smart Home Hub Gen 3
- Rental Home Automator configured for your location with rental/cleaning calendars
You’ll want to start by installing these devices and connecting them to your smart system. You can find details and step-by-step instructions in our step-by-step guides.
Automating the water shutoff is key to protecting your home, and is the primary feature that Rental Home Automator offers. We were looking for a way to shut the water off in our short term rental property but couldn’t find any way to do it automatically based on the rental calendar, and remembering to manually do it with each check-out and check-in was a tedious task we weren’t terribly good at remembering. With Rental Home Automator, we’ve connected the rental calendar from multiple services like Airbnb and VRBO along with our cleaning calendar (a Google Calendar) to the smart home system to make sure all these tasks happen at the correct time and aren’t forgotten.
Keep in mind that part of the reason we recommend these devices is that we like how they are external to the water dynamics. We think that having a regular quarter-turn valve on your water main is the best thing to do for your plumbing, and then add an external smart water valve to the outside which will manually turn this valve. It keeps the smart system separate from your water line, they are easier to install and maintain without a specialized plumber, and if they do fail it makes it very easy to replace.
Read more about why we Don’t Recommend Using Smart Water Monitors.
Looking for a whole smart home setup for your short term rental? We have a collection of devices we recommend.
