A Saturday in July. Four departures in the morning and six arrivals: the first at 14:00, the last on the 23:30 ferry. There is no reception. You have another job, or you simply do not want to spend Saturday waiting in the yard.
Most rooms-to-let properties in Greece work like this. The question "how do I organise my rooms to let" really means: how does every guest get what they need, on time, without me being there. Below is one such day, hour by hour, with smart locks, a housekeeping app and automatic messages.
The six arrivals
- Room 3: 14:00, a couple with a car.
- Room 1: 15:30, a family who asked for a cot.
- Room 6: 17:00.
- Room 2: 18:00.
- Room 5: 21:00, coming from the airport.
- Room 4: 23:30, on the ferry.
Of these, rooms 3, 1, 6 and 2 also have departures the same morning. They must be cleaned before the new guests arrive.
Three days before: the directions have already gone out
A day with six arrivals is not organised that morning. It is organised three days earlier, when every guest gets an email with directions: address, map, parking, which door, check-in time, a phone number. In Bookmatrix.com this is a template that goes out on its own a number of days before arrival, in the guest's language.
The better the directions, the fewer the calls on Saturday. If a question comes up often ("where do I park?"), the answer belongs in that email.
08:30: five minutes with your coffee
You open the calendar on your phone. You see the day's arrivals and departures on one screen. Two things matter:
- Which rooms have both a departure and an arrival, and in what order the new guests come. Room 3 first, because its arrival is at 14:00.
- What is special. The cot for room 1. You write it as a note on the room, for the cleaner.
10:00 to 14:00: cleaning, without phone calls
The cleaner opens the housekeeping app on her phone with her PIN. She sees the rooms you assigned to her, which are departures and which are stay-overs, and the note about the cot. When a guest checks out, the room turns "dirty" on its own.
She cleans in the order 3, 1, 6, 2 and taps "clean" on each room. You see it at that moment, wherever you are. No need to call and ask "is room 3 ready?". If you want someone to check rooms before arrival, there is an "inspected" status too.
With an automation the cleaning task is created and assigned on every check-out, so the list is ready before the cleaner arrives. More about the app in "The cleaner has no email. She has a PIN.".
12:00: the codes go to the doors
This is where most of the work happens, and you are not the one doing it. Every reservation already has a PIN from the moment it came in: by default the last 4 digits of the guest phone, or a random one if that is taken. On arrival day, at the hour you set (12:00 by default), the code is sent through the TTLock gateway to the room lock and the main entrance.
As soon as the code is active, each guest gets an email with the code for each door and their room number. Six emails, and you wrote none of them.
A quick check at 12:15: on the Smart Locks page you see every code per lock. If they all say "Active", you are done. If one shows "Retrying", the gateway is not answering and the code will try again on its own. If it stays "Failed", check the power and Wi-Fi of the gateway.
14:00 to 18:00: the first four arrivals
The couple for room 3 arrive, type the code at the entrance and then at the room. The family in room 1 find the cot in place. You are not there, and you do not need to be.
At 16:00 a Booking.com reservation comes in for tonight, for room 7, which was empty. Availability closes on every channel. Because the booking is for the same day, the code goes to the locks at once and the guest gets their email. Room 7 was already clean from the morning check. That is the seventh arrival of the day, and you did not even take a phone call.
21:00 and 23:30: the late arrivals
These are the arrivals that, without smart locks, mean someone waiting with a key. The guest for room 5 comes from the airport, the one for room 4 from the port. Both have had their code since noon. If the ferry is an hour late, nothing changes for you.
If someone writes that the code does not open the door, you open the reservation on your phone: you can give a different PIN, create a new random one or change the hours it is valid.
The next day
At check-out every code stops working and is deleted from the lock (at 11:30 by default). The rooms turn "dirty" for the cleaner. The day starts again.
How much work it saves: an estimate
This is not a measurement. It is a sum you can do for your own property. If each arrival takes about 5 minutes to set the code in the lock app and 5 minutes to send it to the guest:
- 6 arrivals × 10 minutes = 1 hour on Saturday.
- And about the same again to delete the codes afterwards.
- Without code locks, the two late arrivals mean someone is awake at the property until midnight.
Two real properties already do this every day: Eos on Skiathos, with 30 reservations, and U boutique Experience in Alexandroupoli, with 249 reservations that got their code automatically since May 2026.
Frequently asked questions
How do I organise rooms to let without a front desk?
With three things: arrival directions that go out before the trip, a door code for every reservation, and a cleaning list that comes from the reservations. All three can run on their own.
What about a booking for tonight?
The code goes to the locks at once and the guest gets the email as soon as it is active.
Does someone need to be at the property?
For cleaning and for anything that breaks, yes. To open doors or hand over keys, no.
Do Smart Locks cost extra?
No. They are included in every Bookmatrix.com plan, as are the housekeeping app and the automations. You only buy the locks and the TTLock gateway.
Want six arrivals without waiting in the yard? Try Bookmatrix.com free for 14 days, with your own rooms and no card, at bookmatrix.com/demo. Or leave your details at bookmatrix.com/form and we will call you on the next working day. You can also call us at +30 2351 151525.