If you've been evaluating Staykey and want to know exactly what getting started looks like before you sign up — or you've signed up and want a single read-through instead of clicking through the wizard — this guide is for you. It's the long-form version of the six-step walkthrough on the setup page: the same steps, with every path (smart devices, static codes, portal-only) explained in depth and cross-linked to the relevant help article when you want more detail.
By the end of this guide you'll understand:
- What Staykey actually does for your rental business (in one paragraph)
- How to choose between the Host and ProHost plans
- How to add your first property and pick an access mode
- How to import bookings from Airbnb, VRBO, or direct
- How to share your first guest link — manually once, then automated forever
- When it's worth adding smart devices, and when it's really not
- A go-live checklist to run before your first guest arrives
Who this guide is for
Two audiences. First: new hosts evaluating Staykey who want to understand the full shape of setup before starting a trial. Second: existing trial users who'd rather read a single document than tab through help articles while setting things up. If you're neither — you already use Staykey and just want a specific answer — the help center is the faster path.
What you'll have when you're done
One guest portal link per stay. Each link opens a clean, mobile-friendly page with Wi-Fi credentials, house rules, check-in and check-out instructions, a local guide, the weather, and — if you have smart devices — live controls for the lock, thermostat, and garage door. One link replaces the wall of text most hosts send today.
Behind the scenes: booking calendars sync automatically, access codes (if you're using them) are delivered without you touching a thing, and — on ProHost — a turnover is scheduled the moment a stay is booked, your cleaner confirms it about two weeks ahead (or right away for short-fuse bookings), and the calendar turns green when the clean is done.
What you'll need
The bare minimum:
- An email address, your name, and a mobile number
- Your property's address and standard check-in/check-out times
- A booking platform that supports iCal — Airbnb, VRBO, and most direct-booking tools all do
Optional, for specific paths:
- An iCal URL from each booking platform (Staykey will show you exactly where to find them)
- A smart lock and a Home Assistant hub, if you want fully-automated access codes
- A cleaning company's email address, if you want them on ProHost Cleans
Section 1: Sign up and choose your plan
Head to Start a free trial and enter your name, email, and mobile number. The mobile number is how Staykey will reach you about critical events (a guest can't get in, a cleaner flagged a turnover, a booking didn't sync) — we don't use it for marketing.
Host vs. ProHost
Staykey has two plans:
- Host ($15/property/mo) — everything for running one or more rentals: guest portal, booking sync, access codes, Wi-Fi and local guide surfaces, smart-device control.
- ProHost ($25/property/mo) — adds Cleans, the confirmation-first turnover management feature. Cleaning companies get their own portal, every new booking auto-creates a turnover scheduled on the checkout day, and nothing is ever marked done until the cleaner confirms.
Pick ProHost if you work with a cleaning company (even if it's one cleaner who does everything). Pick Host otherwise — you can upgrade whenever. Both plans get a 30-day free trial. Your card is collected but nothing is charged until the trial ends, and you can cancel anytime.
For the full billing story, see the help article on understanding your billing.
Section 2: Add your first property
Staykey drops you into the property-setup wizard after signup. You'll give your property a name, an address, a time zone, and default check-in/check-out times. Time zone matters — it's how the portal decides when to start showing "You're checking in tomorrow" countdowns to guests.
Choose an access mode
This is the one decision worth a minute of thought. Staykey supports three access modes, and they all work with the same guest portal — the only difference is how access codes (if any) get handled behind the scenes.
Static codes — You enter your own codes, Staykey shares them with each guest automatically. This works with any keypad lock you already own. Most hosts start here because they already have a physical lock or keypad, and they don't have to buy anything. Guests still get the full portal experience with Wi-Fi, house rules, and everything else. Pick this if you already have a keypad or are okay managing a single shared code.
Smart access — Fully-automated codes per stay. Requires a smart lock plus a Home Assistant hub (we recommend Home Assistant Green, ~$149). Every stay gets a unique code, set automatically when the guest arrives and retired after they leave. This is the full "hands off" experience, and it extends to thermostats, garage doors, covers, and anything else Home Assistant talks to. Pick this if you run multiple properties or want zero-touch access.
Portal only — No access codes at all; Staykey just handles the guest-facing portal. You hand keys over, meet guests at the door, use your existing smart lock's native app, or whatever you do today. The portal still carries Wi-Fi, the local guide, house rules, device controls, and the weather. Pick this if your access flow is already solved and you just want a better guest experience.
You can switch access modes at any time. Most hosts either start with Static codes and upgrade to Smart access later, or start with Portal only and add codes when they're ready. For deeper detail, read setting up your first property.
Fill in the guest-facing surfaces
While you're in the property wizard, you'll also enter:
- Wi-Fi network name and password — shown to guests once their stay starts
- House rules — the short version; guests read these on their phone, not a laminated card
- Check-in and check-out instructions — step-by-step, with photos if you have them
- Local guide — populated automatically from your property address. Staykey pulls popular restaurants, grocery stores, and activities within a fixed distance of the property. You can curate or override any of it later, but you don't have to lift a finger to get a useful first pass
None of this is required day one, but any of it you fill in shows up in the portal automatically.
Section 3: Import your bookings
Staykey talks to every booking platform through iCal feeds. Each platform exposes a URL you can paste into Staykey; from then on, new bookings and cancellations flow in automatically every few minutes.
The most common ones:
- Airbnb — Listing → Availability → Sync calendars → Export calendar. Copy the URL Airbnb generates.
- VRBO — Property settings → Calendar → Import/export → Export calendar.
- Direct bookings — if you use Hospitable, Hostaway, OwnerRez, or similar, they all expose iCal per property.
Paste each URL into Staykey's Booking Sources panel. Staykey deduplicates across feeds, so if you have the same property listed on three platforms, you won't see three copies of each stay.
iCal is enough to run Staykey, but it's a thin data source — the feed usually only carries dates and a stay ID, not the guest's name, email, or phone. That's fine for everything the portal does, but if you want richer stay details (for host-side context, better messaging, etc.), email forwarding fills in the gaps. Forward the booking confirmation email to a dedicated Staykey address and Staykey parses the guest info out and attaches it to the matching stay.
Email forwarding currently supports Airbnb and VRBO booking emails only. If you want enrichment from another platform, drop a feature request in our Discord or via the contact page and we'll prioritize based on demand.
Full details, including how to find each URL, live in setting up booking import.
Section 4: Preview and share your first guest link
Once bookings sync, you'll see each stay in Staykey with a preview link. Click it — that's what your guest will see. The portal already has the Wi-Fi, house rules, local guide, and (if you set it up) access codes populated from the property wizard.
Sharing the link manually
The fastest path to a first "it works!" moment: pick any upcoming stay, copy its link, and text or email it to yourself. Check that the countdown is right, that the local guide reads well on mobile, and that the Wi-Fi credentials show up when check-in time arrives. For step-by-step screenshots, see creating your first guest link.
Automating the link with Airbnb Scheduled Messages
The goal is to never send a link by hand again. The technique that works on Airbnb is their Scheduled Messages feature combined with Airbnb's {{reservation_confirmation_code}} shortcode.
Every Staykey guest portal lives on a short link — the root is https://s.staykey.co/ — and the path is the reservation's confirmation code. That's the only moving part, which is why automating it is straightforward. A portal link is active during the stay plus a two-week buffer on either side. Check-in and check-out instructions, the local guide, and the weather are visible the whole time the link is live; access codes and smart-device controls only appear during the stay window itself. Your scheduled message template looks like this:
Hi {{guest_name}}, looking forward to hosting you! Your guest portal has everything you'll need — Wi-Fi, door code, check-in instructions, and local picks:
https://s.staykey.co/{{reservation_confirmation_code}}See you soon!
Airbnb substitutes the real confirmation code at send time; Staykey resolves it to the right portal. Set the message to send 24 hours (or whatever you prefer) before check-in, apply it to all future bookings, and you're done forever. For a copy-pasteable template and the equivalent for VRBO, see automating Staykey links in Airbnb messages.
Section 5 (optional): Add smart devices
You do not need smart devices to get value from Staykey. That said, if you want fully-automated access codes or you're curious about running the thermostat from the portal, this section is for you.
Staykey uses Home Assistant as its local automation engine. The short version: Home Assistant is the open-source hub that actually talks to your lock, thermostat, or garage door. Staykey is the cloud service that orchestrates it — telling Home Assistant when to rotate a code, when to turn the heat up before check-in, and so on. It's the architecture that works with almost every brand on the market and keeps the critical path (door codes) running even if Staykey's cloud has a hiccup.
The reference setup:
- Home Assistant Green — ~$149 hub, plug it in, pair it with Home Assistant, and Staykey talks to it from there
- A Z-Wave USB stick — any Z-Wave device needs a Z-Wave radio plugged into the hub. We recommend the Zooz Z-Wave stick; pop it into the HA Green's USB port and Home Assistant picks it up automatically
- A Z-Wave smart lock (ideal) — Yale Assure 2 with the Z-Wave module, Schlage BE469ZP, and similar Z-Wave locks are the most reliable pairing. Matter-over-Thread locks like the Aqara U300 work too, but Z-Wave is what we recommend leading with
The pairing flow is Home Assistant first, Staykey second. All smart devices — locks, thermostats, switches, garage controllers — pair with Home Assistant, not with Staykey directly. Once a device shows up in Home Assistant, hop over to Staykey, enable it on the integration, and then enable it for use on the guest dashboard. From then on Staykey handles code rotation, check-in timing, and the rest; you don't touch the lock's native app again. For the step-by-step including Wi-Fi setup and troubleshooting, see connecting your Home Assistant hub.
Static codes work too. This is worth repeating because it trips up a lot of hosts evaluating Staykey: you don't have to go down the Home Assistant path. If you have a static code you use for all guests, or you're happy typing codes in manually and letting Staykey share them with each guest, you'll get 80% of the benefit with zero hardware.
Section 6 (optional): Cleans setup
If you're on ProHost, you'll also see a Cleans section. This is where you invite your cleaning company and let Staykey handle turnovers.
Invite your cleaning company
Enter the company name and a primary-contact email. Staykey sends them a portal invite. When they accept, they get their own login with a dashboard scoped to the properties you've assigned — their calendar, turnover notes, and photo-confirmation uploads all live there.
How turnovers work
When a stay is created, Staykey schedules a clean for the checkout day. Two weeks before the stay, Staykey notifies the cleaners on your list and they can confirm the clean — or immediately, if the stay was created inside that two-week window. When they arrive, they start the turnover; when they're done, they mark it complete (optionally with a note per your preference). Nothing is ever marked done on your behalf — it's a confirmation-first system, which is the whole reason ProHost Cleans exists.
The upside for you is that you stop having to text anyone to find out if the property is ready. Open your calendar, see a completed turnover on the checkout day, and that's your green light — the unit is clean, photos and notes (if you enabled them) are attached, and the next guest can walk in. No "hey, all good for tonight?" messages. If you'd rather not open the calendar at all, you can opt in to email and SMS notifications the moment a clean is marked complete.
It also closes the feedback loop before your reviews take the hit. If a cleaner flags a problem (a broken lamp, a stain on the couch, guest left early with damage), you're the first to know — not the next guest. You get a notification and can reply within the same turnover record: send a handyman, issue a resolution to the previous guest, or adjust your review of them while the evidence is fresh. Full details in getting started with Staykey Cleans.
Section 7: Verification checklist
Before your first guest arrives, run through this list. It's the same one the in-app onboarding uses, and you can also open the full version at onboarding checklist.
- Property details saved — address, time zone, check-in/check-out times all correct
- Access mode chosen — and for Static codes, you've entered a valid code; for Smart access, the test lock action works
- Wi-Fi credentials entered — network name matches exactly, password typed carefully (one typo = a support message)
- House rules written — short, scannable, on brand
- Booking feed connected — at least one stay has synced from each platform you use
- Preview portal checked — you've opened a preview link on your phone and every surface looks right
- Scheduled Message configured (Airbnb) — template uses the
{{reservation_confirmation_code}}shortcode and is set to apply to all future bookings - Cleaner invited (ProHost only) — they've accepted the invite and can see upcoming turnovers
If everything above is green, your first guest will get their portal link automatically, walk up to a door they can open, and never have to DM you asking for the Wi-Fi password. That's the bar.
Where to go from here
If you want the step-by-step version of any section above, every help article linked below has screenshots and edge cases:
- Getting started with Staykey — the condensed in-app walkthrough
- Onboarding checklist — the pre-first-guest sanity check
- Setting up your first property — property details, access modes, guest surfaces
- Setting up booking import — iCal URLs for every major platform
- Creating your first guest link — preview, manual share, link anatomy
- Automating Staykey links in Airbnb messages — Scheduled Messages templates
- Connecting your Home Assistant hub — HA Green pairing flow
- Getting started with Staykey Cleans — cleaning company invites and turnovers
Ready to try it? Start your free trial — 30 days free, cancel anytime.