As you scale your short-term rental (STR) business, you face a growing risk of one or more of your guests causing a disturbance that upsets neighbors and results in costly property damage. It’s a horrible reality that keeps property managers awake at night.
That’s why you need a solution in place—so you can have visibility over the homes you look after while protecting the interests of your two clients: The guest and the homeowner.
But settling on the right device is itself a challenge. There are different kinds of solutions available to you, including noise monitoring, occupancy monitoring, cigarette smoke detection, and an all-in-one solution that consolidates all the above.
That’s why in this article we look at three industry-leading Roomonitor alternatives, so you can see the different approaches to home protection and decide which one will best keep your properties from harm.
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Roomonitor is a real-time noise monitoring device with an app that’s quick to install, connects to the local WiFi, and provides you with ongoing noise data across all your properties. You can monitor this data with customizable views on your laptop or smartphone.
If Roomonitor detects excessive noise at one of your properties, one of two manual solutions for addressing the issue kicks into action.
Roomonitor’s alarm assistant service follows the workflow described below:
Alternatively, you’ll receive a notification as soon as an alert is triggered so you can directly contact the guest yourself. Then, you can track the issue using the in-app noise graph to see if further action is required.
Roomonitor’s features include:
*Note that Roomonitor has recently added cigarette smoke detection to it's features
Used in combination with property protection systems for smoke detection, occupancy monitoring, temperature tracking, and security, you can use Roomonitor’s manual solution for noise control to provide you with the peace of mind that every property manager wishes for.
Nevertheless, you may be wondering if there’s a better alternative for your needs. Next, we look at why you might want to explore your options.
Whether you’re a Roomonitor user or not, you could be looking to compare alternatives if you’ve experienced:
Alternatively, you could be looking to consolidate your tech stack by using an all-in-one short-term rental protection system.
If you have to monitor multiple platforms to ensure safety and security at your properties, you could be in need of a comprehensive solution that simplifies your property management experience. This is especially true if you’re working on growing your short-term rental business or currently managing 20+ rental homes.
Preventing noise complaints and party damage are priorities for any property manager, but guest privacy and the guest experience are also chief concerns that are paramount to a successful vacation rental business.
Here are some of the most important features to look for in your home protection system so you can protect your guests, homeowners, and business:
If the noise levels in your vacation rentals get too high, you could soon be dealing with a flurry of complaints from neighbors, the homeowner, and even the police. Even worse, the property and its contents could be at risk.
Our recommended solutions are designed to mitigate those risks, keep sound levels in check, and make your job easier. These tools include an all-encompassing home protection system, a noise and occupancy monitoring system, and a mobile phone counter.
Minut is a tech company whose sleek, quick-to-install device is an all-around solution to vacation home safety and security.
Easy to customize (for example, you can set your own decibel thresholds according to your preferred quiet hours), Minut respects guest privacy by monitoring levels without recording personal data, like guest conversations. Meanwhile, it gives you complete, real-time visibility across all your properties and automatically notifies guests when the noise gets too high.
The web and mobile apps are easy to navigate, and you also have the option of utilizing Minut’s Call Assist and Guard Assist services, which provide a team of trained agents to manage guest communications on your behalf—you’ll be kept informed, but won’t ever have to lift a finger should an issue arise.
What really makes Minut stand out, though, is that it combines so many features within one device and platform. Plus, regular software updates mean the system’s capabilities are constantly growing and evolving.
For example, Minut provides noise monitoring for outdoor spaces, an occupancy sensor, a cigarette smoke detector, and a temperature and humidity sensor. Also, it’s a security and alarm system, a nightlight, and, because it integrates with Airbnb and your property management system (PMS), it can tell you when your guests check in and out.
In fact, Minut also lets you schedule templated messages to guide guests throughout their stay, from directions and smart lock check-in to house rules and check-out information.
As a result, you can use Minut to consolidate your short-term rental noise monitoring, security, and guest experience solutions in a single, standalone device.
“Last year Minut helped us prevent a guest stay from becoming a real party…excessive noise, movements, and phone signals triggered the automatic warnings…We were very happy—and the owner was very happy.” - Jean-Paul Godfroy, CEO and founder of Huswell
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NoiseAware is a vacation rental noise monitoring system that provides simple, smart-looking devices for indoor and outdoor use.
As with Minut, NoiseAware protects guest privacy by never identifying specific guest sounds or recording guests. It provides a real-time overview of noise levels in your properties, and, using its AutoResolve system, notifies guests when noise exceeds a predetermined threshold.
Unlike Minut, NoiseAware’s indoor devices don’t have rechargeable batteries, so they have to be connected to a power supply to remain online. However, the outdoor sensors are battery-operated and last an average of 3-6 months per charge.
Also, NoiseAware includes occupancy monitoring. Like Minut’s solution, this feature notifies you if a crowd begins to gather so you can take early action to remind your guests of your house rules and prevent a party from taking place.
Party Squasher is an occupancy monitoring system that works by tracking the number of mobile phones in your vacation home, which it does via a sensor that’s connected to your internet router.
There are two versions of Party Squasher: Standard and Pro. Standard provides you with mobile monitoring—the sensor provides continuous reports on the number of phones (they don’t have to be connected to the local WiFi to be detected), which you can monitor using your mobile app.
Then, if the number of mobiles exceeds your customized threshold or the sensor is unplugged, you receive an automated SMS or email alert, giving you the opportunity to contact the guest and address the issue.
Pro uses the same system as Standard but also provides you with a web dashboard, which you can use to simultaneously monitor occupancy across your entire short-term rental portfolio. You can organize your web dashboard to group properties by party risk, location, or local contact, plus connect it to other software, like PMSs and other monitoring tools and security devices.
Pro also lets you see your properties’ occupancy trends for the last 24 hours and event history from the last 7 days. Like all our recommended solutions, it respects guest privacy and operates without collecting any personal information.
Minut, NoiseAware, and Party Squasher are all solutions that other property managers successfully use to give them the visibility they need over their units and provide outstanding service to their guests and homeowners. But they have important differences in their approaches to home protection:
Like Roomonitor, Minut also offers a trained team to provide guest communication, as well as a number of other home protection solutions, including for temperature, mold, and home security.
By bringing together all your short-term rental protection needs into a standalone device and user-friendly platform like Minut, you can protect your clients, reduce your workload, and finally start hosting with confidence.
Roomonitor and Noiseware are popular noise monitoring solutions for vacation rental property managers, as is Minut, which is also an occupancy monitor, cigarette smoke detector, temperature monitor, and mold detector.
Roomonitor is a real-time noise monitoring system, whereas Minut consolidates all your home protection solutions, including noise and occupancy monitoring and cigarette smoke detection. Minut’s ongoing software updates frequently add functionality to your devices, so it is a highly robust solution for STR property managers.
The best way to choose the right Roomonitor alternative for your vacation business is to look at device functionality and reliability. For example, Minut provides real-time noise and occupancy monitoring, cigarette smoke detection, and more. Plus, Minut offers Call Assist and Guard Assist services, which are similar to Roomonitor’s Alarm Assistant service.
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