HomeKit accessories for a holiday home: this is how you make your second home smart

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In this guide we explain how to use HomeKit accessories if you have a holiday home or second home. For example, consider a security camera to keep an eye on everything when you are not there. Or a smart door lock to give unexpected guests access.

HomeKit in a holiday home, isn’t that too much overkill? No! With smart accessories you can control all kinds of things, such as granting access, detecting leakage and controlling the lighting. We explain what you need, how it works and which accessories are suitable.

  • This is how you make your holiday home smart
  • HomeKit accessories for your holiday home
  • Practical tips for your holiday home

This is how you make your holiday home smart

To start with, it is good to know that you have to create a separate HomeKit home for the holiday home. You also need a home hub to control things remotely with HomeKit. It is best to use a HomePod mini for this, because it is relatively cheap and is also useful for playing music. An Apple TV is of course also possible, but it is a lot more expensive and you will not always have it in your holiday home. Certainly not if changing guests come.

In the Home app you use virtual homes, which are divided into several rooms. You can assign accessories to a specific room to control them simultaneously.

To add a new home:

  1. Open the Home app on your iPhone or iPad.
  2. Go to the first tab, Home.
  3. Tap the plus sign at the top right.
  4. Choose the Add new home option.
  5. Give the property a name, for example Holiday Home.
  6. You can now start adding rooms and adding accessories. You can also invite other people to HomeKit.

If you are new to HomeKit, you will find tips on how to use HomeKit on the Home tab with Apple.

Add HomeKit home

HomeKit accessories for your holiday home

Which devices are useful for your holiday home? Below we provide some suggestions, with links to pages where you can find more information. The accessories we mention are suitable for a home where you are not present every day or every week, but where you want to keep an eye on everything.

  • Smart door locks: This allows you to give others access to the home, even when you are not around. You can issue temporary codes to give someone access. This can also be useful if you have hired a cleaner who has to work after the guests have left. If friends want to stay in your house spontaneously, you can give them access remotely. For example, you can use a Nuki number pad for this.
  • Security camera: Do you want to keep an eye on whether someone is sneaking through the house? Then you set up a HomeKit camera. With some cameras you receive a notification when there is movement, while other cameras are able to recognize people and animals. Such a camera is mainly intended as reassurance: if you regularly check whether everything is still OK, that is one less thing to worry about. You could also use a motion sensor for this, but then you won’t be able to look around the room or garden. You can also install window and door sensors to receive a notification as soon as someone enters.
  • Water sensors: Leakage is sometimes only noticed late in a holiday home. You can prevent this by placing a water sensor in places where there is the greatest risk of water damage. Unfortunately, you cannot solve this problem remotely, but at least you will be there in time.
  • Smart lighting: For many people, the first thing they purchase when it comes to smart accessories. With smart lamps you can simulate presence, so that there is less chance of burglary. This is possible with Philips Hue, but because you are not in your holiday home every day, you can also look for cheaper options such as Tuya or IKEA Tradfri.

Philips Hue bedroom

  • Smart buttons: If you regularly have guests in your holiday home, you don’t want to just give them access to your HomeKit house. You can solve this with smart buttons and light switches, which you provide with a clear label. This way, guests can turn the lights on and off in a normal way, while you maintain control remotely. If the guests forget to turn off the lights after departure, you can still do that yourself.
  • Smart doorbell: You are not always present in a holiday home, but you do want to know if someone has been at the door. With a smart doorbell equipped with a camera, you can answer the doorbell and talk back, or check whether there has been trouble at the door.

You can of course make it as crazy as you want by making your holiday home smart in even more ways, but we think that the accessories mentioned above are the basics. You could also consider smart plugs to switch off appliances remotely and a smart thermostat to heat the holiday home before the guests arrive. Anyway, not everyone wants to invest a lot of money in a home that you don’t visit very often. Fortunately, nowadays there are also cheap smart home solutions such as the Lidl smart home system.

Practical tips for your holiday home

To make your smart holiday home a success, we have two more tips:

Continuous internet

In order to connect to the devices in your smart holiday home, the home hub will need to be connected to the internet. This means that WiFi will have to be available continuously.

Save energy

By controlling heating, lighting and power consumption remotely, you can save energy and therefore money. By replacing normal lamps with energy-efficient smart LED lamps, you consume less. You can also keep a better eye on consumption and become more aware of ways to save energy. If no one is there, no devices need to be turned on. Except for the internet router, to control everything remotely.

In our guide to a smart home in a rental property you will get even more tips about using smart accessories in places where you are not allowed to simply drill and renovate. Also read our guide with tips to get the most out of HomeKit.

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