How KeyNest Points helped revolutionise StayinLondon’s Key Management Process
KEY SUMMARY
StayinLondon is a medium-sized property management agency overseeing a portfolio of over 30, boutique locations in some of London’s most high-end areas. Known for maintaining a high level of personalised guest and host care, StayinLondon needed to provide a convenient method of key handovers that wouldn’t impede the already-established premium standard of service.
KeyNest Points, with its expansive network of locations across all of London, were the partner of choice for StayinLondon as they looked to improve the quality of check-ins across their entire portfolio.
The Pains of Inefficient Key Management
Before centralizing their logistics, the StayinLondon team relied on traditional lockboxes, and kept all back-up emergency keys in one location - their central office. This opened the door to three potential failures:
The Operational Void: StayinLondon management had no way to know when keys were collected or returned.
Compliance Risks: As London council began removing lockboxes from public infrastructure, it created the risk of guests arriving and having no way to enter the property.
Wasted Hours: If a guest couldn’t enter a property, StayinLondon’s dedication to providing a great service meant someone from their team had to spend precious time to travel across London and deliver the back-up set of keys from the central office.
The KeyNest Solution: An Expansive Network Spanning London
CEO and founder of StayinLondon, Dainius Podolinskis, quickly realised a modern key management solution was needed.
By taking advantage of KeyNest Points London-spanning network, the issues of an obsolete and inefficient key handover process quickly disappeared.
“Whenever we onboard a new property, there’s usually a KeyNest Point next to it.” - Dainius
Key Movement Tracking
Every key movement is now timestamped and digitally logged, especially valuable for StayinLondon’s cleaning process.
“We’ve been using KeyNest extensively mainly for full visibility of what’s happening to the keys. I think that’s a huge advantage, versus using a lockbox. We outsource our cleaning so it’s very important for us to know when the cleaners went in, when they return the keys. It gives us the possibility of tracking - how much time they actually spent inside the property - if they’re charging us for two hours, we wanted to make sure they were in there for two hours!” - Dainius
More Reliable than Lockboxes
Lockboxes were quickly becoming more of a headache for StayinLondon’s operations, both from a council compliant perspective and from a more practical, business perspective.
“Sometimes it’s just not possible to install a lockbox. [With KeyNest] We avoid issues with installing lockboxes illegally, like on fences. We even had guests complain about dogs peeing on our lockboxes!” - Dainius
Easier Key Access in the Case of Emergency Lockouts
Previously, emergency back-up keys were stored at a single office. Now, in case of accidental lock outs and key loss, StayinLondon stored keys at a central, 24/7 accessible location in Trafalgar Square. Dainius found, by combining KeyNest Points with KeyNest GuestCare - a round-the-clock and always-available guest support call centre - StayinLondon could deliver an ideal guest experience.
“It nicely ties in with GuestCare. For example, we had a situation where guests went out, they lost their bag, and had no way of getting back into the property. It was midnight, they got in touch with GuestCare [...] we used one KeyNest location in Trafalgar Square for emergency back-ups and GuestCare guided them through the process and created a code for them to collect the keys.” - Dainius
Thanks to KeyNest Points, StayinLondon could gain peace-of-mind with the ability to track all key movements, and provide their guests with a more convenient and accessible way to access properties.
