Best Z-Wave locks for Airbnb hosts
Practical Z-Wave smart lock recommendations for Airbnb hosts running local Home Assistant, with honest notes on which locks are actually Z-Wave.
If you host short-term rentals, you want a lock that lets guests in with a code instead of a physical key, lets you rotate that code per stay, and keeps working when your internet drops. Z-Wave fits that job well because the lock talks to your hub directly over a local radio rather than through a manufacturer’s cloud. Once it’s paired to Home Assistant, code management and automation run on your own hardware.
One caveat before the picks: a lot of “smart locks for Airbnb” lists are full of Wi-Fi locks mislabeled as Z-Wave. Wi-Fi locks are fine, but they are a different thing with different tradeoffs. This guide is specifically about locks that speak Z-Wave (or can, via a swappable module).
Why Z-Wave for a rental
- Local control. A Z-Wave lock paired to your hub does not depend on the manufacturer’s servers to lock, unlock, or change codes. If your ISP is down, the lock and your automations still work locally.
- Mesh range. Z-Wave runs in the sub-GHz band (around 908 MHz in North America), separate from your 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and Zigbee traffic, which helps with through-wall range. Note that battery deadbolts sleep to save power and generally do not repeat for other devices, so plan on a mains-powered Z-Wave node or two nearby for a solid connection.
- Code management in HA. With Z-Wave JS you can read, set, and clear user codes from Home Assistant, which is the foundation for per-guest code automation.
What you actually need for a rental: per-stay code creation and removal, a record of lock/unlock events, low-battery alerts, and the whole thing working offline. Here are the locks that deliver that.
Top picks
Schlage Connect (BE469ZP) - best overall Z-Wave lock
The Schlage Connect Smart Deadbolt (model BE469ZP) is the lock most local-first hosts land on. It is a genuine Z-Wave Plus deadbolt with S2 security, a touchscreen keypad, a built-in tamper alarm, and support for up to 30 user codes. It pairs cleanly with Z-Wave JS in Home Assistant, where you can manage those codes per guest. Build quality is its reputation - this is the deadbolt you see on a lot of doors for a reason.
Tradeoffs: it is on the pricier end, and the keypad is a touchscreen rather than physical buttons, which a few guests find less obvious. There is no fingerprint reader, but for a rental, PIN codes are what you want anyway.
Yale Assure Lock 2 (with Z-Wave module) - flexible and code-friendly
The Yale Assure Lock 2 uses a swappable radio module, so you can buy the lock and drop in the Z-Wave Plus module to make it a local Z-Wave device (modules are sold separately; the same lock body also offers Wi-Fi, Zigbee, and Matter modules). Paired over Z-Wave in Home Assistant, it handles PIN codes well, and Yale’s own app lets PIN-only guests be granted access for a specific date and time range - handy as a fallback to HA-driven scheduling.
A fingerprint version (the Assure Lock 2 Touch) also ships in a Z-Wave edition, but note the fingerprint enrollments give 24/7 access and cannot be time-restricted the way PINs can. For a rental, lean on PIN codes, not fingerprints.
Tradeoffs: the modular design means an extra purchase to get Z-Wave, and Yale’s app is best treated as a backup. Drive the lock from Home Assistant.
A note on Kwikset Halo Touch - not a Z-Wave lock
The Kwikset Halo Touch is a popular fingerprint deadbolt, but it is Wi-Fi, not Z-Wave - it connects directly to your home Wi-Fi and Kwikset’s cloud, with no Z-Wave radio. If you specifically want local Z-Wave, it is not the lock for this list. Kwikset’s Z-Wave family historically used the older non-touchscreen 914/916 SmartCode deadbolts; if you want a Kwikset on Z-Wave, look at those rather than the Halo line.
A note on Schlage Encode Plus and August - Wi-Fi/cloud, not Z-Wave
The Schlage Encode Plus is a Wi-Fi lock with Matter-over-Thread and Apple Home Key - a good lock, but not Z-Wave, and the Encode series is not Z-Wave compatible at all. The August Wi-Fi Smart Lock (4th Gen) is a Wi-Fi/Bluetooth retrofit, also not Z-Wave. August has good per-guest code management, but its Home Assistant integration is cloud-leaning (it relies on Yale Access offline keys via Bluetooth), so it does not give you the same clean offline behavior as a hub-paired Z-Wave deadbolt. If cloud dependence is acceptable to you, August is a low-friction retrofit; if you want true local-first, skip it.
Integration tips
For Home Assistant, add your lock with the Z-Wave JS integration. That requires a Z-Wave coordinator stick on your HA host - a Zooz ZST39 (800-series) or a Z-Wave JS-compatible stick from Aeotec works well. Once paired, the lock exposes a lock entity plus user-code management.
A simple per-guest code flow looks like this. Generate a code when a reservation starts, then clear it at checkout:
automation:
- alias: "Set guest code on check-in"
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id: input_boolean.guest_checked_in
to: "on"
action:
- service: zwave_js.set_lock_usercode
target:
entity_id: lock.front_door
data:
code_slot: 3
usercode: "{{ states('input_text.guest_code') }}"
- alias: "Clear guest code at checkout"
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id: input_boolean.guest_checked_in
to: "off"
action:
- service: zwave_js.clear_lock_usercode
target:
entity_id: lock.front_door
data:
code_slot: 3For audit logging, the lock’s events show up in Home Assistant’s logbook and history, so you can see when a code was used. Add a low-battery automation that notifies you below ~20% so you swap batteries before a guest is locked out.
Bottom line
For a clean local-first rental setup, the Schlage Connect (BE469ZP) is the straightforward Z-Wave pick. The Yale Assure Lock 2 with the Z-Wave module is the flexible alternative if you want modular radios and like its PIN scheduling. Ignore the lists that call the Kwikset Halo Touch or Schlage Encode “Z-Wave” - those are Wi-Fi locks. Pick a real Z-Wave deadbolt, pair it with Z-Wave JS, and your guests get in every time, internet or not.