How Guest Codes Are Generated
By default, a guest’s door code is the last 4 digits of the phone number on their booking. You don’t set it manually — GuestsKey generates it for you once the booking has synced in from your booking system.
Default: last 4 of phone number
This is the out-of-the-box behavior for every property. The guest’s phone number comes from your booking system, and the code is simply its last 4 digits — easy for the guest to remember, since it’s already tied to them.
Alternative: random codes
If you’d rather not derive codes from phone numbers, property settings let you switch to random code generation instead.
Code length
The lengths available depend on which method you pick, and you set it per property:
- Last 4 of phone — 4, 7, or 10 digits, where 10 is the full phone number
- Random — 4, 6, or 8 digits
These are the choices offered; you don’t enter an arbitrary length.
When two guests would collide
Because codes are based on phone numbers, two bookings can end up wanting the same code on the same lock. When that happens, GuestsKey extends the code by pulling one more digit from the guest’s phone number — from 4 digits to 5, then 6, then 7 — looking for one that’s free. Extension stops at 7 digits, and the lengths a particular lock accepts can narrow the options further.
If no unique code can be found, GuestsKey falls back to the original code and alerts you rather than silently assigning something that clashes.
One code, every door
A booking gets a single PIN, and that PIN is applied to every automated lock on the property. If a property has a front door and a side gate both connected, the guest uses the same code on both — there’s no separate code per door.
If the guest’s phone number changes
If the guest’s phone number is updated in your booking system, the code updates the next time bookings sync from your PMS.