Self check-in is the expectation now. A smart lock on the unit door handles most of it, right up until the guest is standing on the pavement outside a locked lobby with a suitcase, looking at an intercom panel with your unit number on it.
That last twenty metres is where short-term rental check-ins actually break.
Why does the lobby door break self check-in?
Because a lock code gets your guest through your door, and the building's front door is not your door.
Most hosts solve the unit itself with a keypad or lockbox. The lobby is different: it is shared, the building controls it, and the only way through is usually the intercom calling a number listed against your unit. If that number rings a handset inside the apartment, and nobody is inside the apartment, the guest is stuck.
The usual workarounds are all bad. Meeting every guest in person does not scale and defeats self check-in. Propping the lobby door is a security problem the building will notice. Giving out the code to a shared entrance, where one exists, is something you cannot take back.
How does a phone-connected buzzer fix it?
The intercom rings your phone instead of an empty apartment, so you can let a guest in from anywhere.
Your guest presses your unit on the panel. Your phone rings, wherever you are. You hear them, they hear you, and you unlock the lobby door. That works equally well from the next room or another time zone, which is the entire point for a host who does not live in the building.
Talking to the person also matters more than it sounds. You can confirm it is your guest and not a stranger following them in, and you can tell them which lift to take or where the parcel room is, at the exact moment they need to know.
Can I let a guest in without answering the phone myself?
Yes. Access codes can be limited to a window, so a code works only between a start and end time you set.
That maps neatly onto a booking: a code that becomes active at check-in and stops working at checkout. Outside that window it does nothing. You are not handing out something permanent, and you are not relying on remembering to revoke it after the guest leaves.
Do I have to give guests my phone number?
No, and this is the part hosts tend to care about most.
The number your building's intercom dials is one issued for the buzzer, not your personal mobile. Guests interact with the buzzer, not with your contact details.
What about longer stays or co-hosts?
Anyone you add to the buzzer gets their own access by name, with deliberately limited powers.
People you add can answer the buzz and unlock the door. They cannot change settings and they cannot invite anyone else, which is exactly the shape you want for a co-host or a cleaner. When someone no longer needs access you remove them, and it ends immediately. There is no key to collect and no code still circulating.
I have several listings. Does that work?
One account holds more than one buzzer, each with its own access list and its own history.
That matters if you run two or three units in different buildings. Each one has its own number, its own members, and its own record of who buzzed and when. Buzz history is kept and searchable, which is useful the week a guest insists nobody ever came to the door.
What does this not do?
It does not open your unit door, and it is not a lock.
Buzz Me Up handles the intercom, which is the shared entrance. You still want a smart lock or a lockbox for the apartment itself. The two solve different halves of the same arrival, and the lobby is the half most hosts have no answer for.
If your building is set up on Buzz Me Up, guests can also be registered for visitor parking by plate and time window, which removes another arrival-day message.
It also cannot make your building's intercom something it is not. Setup means getting a number and having it listed against your unit in the building's directory, which we walk through in Install a Phone-Connected Apartment Buzzer in Under 10 Minutes.
The short version
Guests judge a stay in the first five minutes, and the first five minutes happen outside the building. A buzzer that reaches your phone turns the lobby from the weakest link in self check-in into a step your guest barely notices.
If deliveries are also a recurring headache at your listings, the same call solves those. Get the app to set one up.