Help Center

A Guest Says Their Code Doesn't Work

Get them inside first, diagnose after. Send a code you know already works on that lock — a cleaner’s code or your own — or talk them through your backup entry. Everything below can wait until they’re in.

The most common cause isn’t a fault

Check the time. By default a code starts working 10 minutes before check-in and stops at checkout, not after it. Two situations account for most of these calls:

  • They’re early. Their code is correct and simply isn’t live yet.
  • They’re a late checkout. Their code stopped at the checkout time, so someone still packing at noon after an 11am checkout has a code that already expired.

If either fits, that’s the answer, and you can give them a working code for the gap. If late checkouts come up often at a property, give that property a checkout grace period so codes stay live a while longer — see when codes start and stop working.

Then check whether the code ever landed

Open the booking and look at the access code. If it never made it onto the lock, reapply it. If the lock is offline or its codes are wedged, that’s the real problem — see lock offline and codes stuck updating.

Check they’re using the right code

Guest codes come from the phone number on the booking. Two things follow from that:

  • If the booking has no phone number, or the channel didn’t pass one through, there was nothing to build a code from.
  • If the guest is reading a code from an old message — a previous stay, or a code that changed when their booking dates moved — they’ll be typing something that’s no longer valid. Ask them what they’re entering rather than what they were sent.

Also worth confirming they’re entering it the way the lock expects. Some locks need a confirm press after the digits; on others a slow entry times out mid-code.

Stopping the 2am call next time

Turn on emergency backup codes for your properties. GuestsKey checks the lock shortly before check-in and, if something looks wrong, emails the guest a working code before they ever reach the door. It’s off by default, so it isn’t protecting you unless you’ve switched it on.