When Codes Start and Stop Working

By default, a guest’s code starts working 10 minutes before check-in and stops working exactly at checkout. There’s no grace period after checkout unless you add one in property settings.

The default window

Check-in grace period: 10 minutes before the scheduled check-in time
Check-out grace period: 0 minutes — the code stops working right at checkout

In other words: code starts at check-in time minus 10 minutes, and code stops at checkout time plus 0 minutes.

Why it’s asymmetric

The 10-minutes-early start gives an arriving guest a small buffer so they’re not standing at the door watching the clock. The checkout side defaults to zero on purpose — a code doesn’t automatically stay active past checkout. If you want departing guests to have a few extra minutes to gather their things, you need to explicitly configure a check-out grace period; it isn’t built in by default.

Both sides are configurable

Both the check-in and check-out grace periods can be set per property, anywhere from 0 to 180 minutes. If you don’t set a property-specific value, GuestsKey falls back to your tenant-wide default, and if that isn’t set either, it falls back to the platform default described above.

Property timezone

All of this is calculated in the property’s local timezone, not the timezone of the host or guest’s device. A check-in of “3:00 PM” means 3:00 PM at the property, wherever it is.