Experience the difference of "Elite".

Anyone know of any calendar/thermostat integrations available?
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BlueMtnCabins
Aug 14, 2017 9:30 AM
Joined Jun, 2016 1115 posts

Does anyone know if there is any application that integrates calendar and wifi thermostats. meaning if I have a 3 night gap and property is not occupied, I want to set temps higher (or lower) to save on utilities.
I have 2 (soon will be 4) Honewell 9000 series wifi thermostats and also Bryant Evolution Connex (2 thermostats) also wifi.
I imagine such app would use my existing log in to those respective apps or portals and change settings based on occupancy. Anyone aware of such app?

BlueMtnCabins
Aug 14, 2017 10:10 AM
Joined Jun, 2016 1115 posts

https://ifttt.com/honeywell_total_connect_comfort has some applets(?) for Honeywell Total connect Comfort (which is what i have) but I do not see one that allows to use reservations calendar and follow something like this:

if checkout day, at 10AM ET and system = cool, set temp = 78F
If checkin day, at 2:30PM and system = cool, set temp = 75F


Sam Westcott
Aug 14, 2017 10:23 AM
OR Team Member Joined Dec, 2009 240 posts

@BlueMtnCabins: It would probably have to go the other way. The booking software (like OwnerRez) would have to push events to the devices (thermostats). The thermostat companies probably have APIs or bridge software where we could web-hook events to them. So OwnerRez would basically tell the thermostat "go to 78 degrees" around the time the guest checks out. There are a couple different patterns.

Chris Hynes
Aug 14, 2017 10:50 AM
OR Team Member Joined Oct, 2012 1400 posts

I was looking for iCal import on their site. I don't think they have it, but if they did it would be very cool -- you could do a setting where it was 78 degrees during events and 75 degrees the rest of the time. Zapier.com is another similar site, but it also doesn't look like they have anything triggering on iCal. They do have an event start trigger on Google Calendar, but not one on event end :-/

Oho... It looks like both IFTTT and Zapier have email triggering, for example: https://parser.zapier.com/. If you created triggers in OwnerRez to send out emails on day of arrival and day of departure, you might be able to tie your thermostat=78 to arrival and thermostat=75 to departure. It might be a bit more complex to figure out the timing as we send out the daily triggers at 3am. You'd also have to consider the case where you get an arrival and departure email the same day.

We have considered adding Zapier/IFTTT connection to OwnerRez which would make all of this simple, and I'm sure we'll get to that at some point. Right now, we're knee deep in 3 other things -- payments overhaul, walled garden site handling (including listing site criteria on renter agreements, separate checkout, etc), and channel integration for airbnb, booking.com etc. Once we've got all _those_ out of the way... :-D

BlueMtnCabins
Aug 14, 2017 11:31 AM
Joined Jun, 2016 1115 posts

I understand this is not the highest priority, i just thought that you guys being as technologically attuned as you are, may have come across some sort of a solution for your own VRs. I am building 3rd VR that will have THREE Honeywell 9000s, bringing the total number of thermostats I have to control:

1) 2 - VR#1 ( two independent HVAC units) - Honeywell 9000 thermostats
2) 2 - VR#2 (one HVAC unit, zoned) - Bryant Evolution Connex thermostats
3) 3 - VR#3 ( two HVAc units, one is zoned) - Honeywell 9000 thermostats - not built yet
4) 1 - own home - Honeywell 9000

That is 8 thermostats to control! ( currently 5)
So #1, 3 and 4 can fortunately be on same app.
But really looking forward to calendar integration, as now hubby is the one who has to remember to set the thermostats up or down between guests.

Randy Juneau
Aug 15, 2017 12:44 AM
Joined May, 2012 36 posts

Is there any way to tie a motion detector to your thermostat systems? Then if there was no motion detected for say 12 hours, it would trigger the thermostats to a setting. Check out MicasaVerde.com. They have home controllers that solve some of those issues. There's no integration with OR though but perhaps you could get someone to do the integration using their API.

BlueMtnCabins
Aug 15, 2017 7:22 AM
Joined Jun, 2016 1115 posts

No, unfortunately

BlueMtnCabins
Aug 15, 2017 7:23 AM
Joined Jun, 2016 1115 posts

I do not want yet another wifi enabled device ( thermostats are wifi already) - we are in the mountains, wifi is over satellite, we have limited data and experience outages. i want something simple, to control existing set up, not another hub.

BlueMtnCabins
May 18, 2019 12:39 PM
Joined Jun, 2016 1115 posts

I am resurrecting this topic in case someone has solved how to control the thermostat from ical? or some other way? I do not usually care to change temp on a turnover day, but if the gap is 2 nights or more, I'd like to have some way of setting temp. to what it should be. I have 3 VRs with 7 thermostats and 2 apps between them (5 are Honeywell 9000) so we are constantly on "thermostat watch". so I would like at least to be able to deal with the Honeywell bunch. If someone has figured it out via IFTTT or something else, please do share.

JTVRs
May 18, 2019 7:58 PM
Joined Jun, 2018 385 posts

Dunno. The following may help. I just searched ifttt and thermostat. There were other results. If you cannot, couldn't you also do by day of week to get some benefit, such as if most people check in Friday and out Sunday, make this your default?

https://ifttt.com/honeywell_total_connect_comfort

BlueMtnCabins
May 19, 2019 4:45 PM
Joined Jun, 2016 1115 posts

JTVRs said:

Dunno. The following may help. I just searched ifttt and thermostat. There were other results. If you cannot, couldn't you also do by day of week to get some benefit, such as if most people check in Friday and out Sunday, make this your default?

https://ifttt.com/honeywell_total_connect_comfort


I looked. It does not seem to have what I need.

JTVRs
May 20, 2019 10:04 PM
Joined Jun, 2018 385 posts

try searching on those terms. That was just one promising hit

BlueMtnCabins
May 21, 2019 12:20 PM
Joined Jun, 2016 1115 posts

JTVRs said:

Dunno. The following may help. I just searched ifttt and thermostat. There were other results. If you cannot, couldn't you also do by day of week to get some benefit, such as if most people check in Friday and out Sunday, make this your default?

https://ifttt.com/honeywell_total_connect_comfort


No in my market people check in any day. Not Fri or Sun or any specific day. I need something to take care of gaps more than one night. Which fall onto any day of week.

Rock island Reso
Nov 21, 2019 2:50 PM
Joined Oct, 2019 4 posts

I am really interested in this ! is anyone managed to make i ifttt that is trigger via Ical yet? Mysa thermostat work really well with ifttt so just wonder if it as been done?
Thank you
Olivier

Valerie R
Nov 30, 2019 11:58 AM
Joined Sep, 2019 119 posts

Hello,

I know my solution is not as automatic/hands off as what has been requested in this thread, but I've created an email template/trigger to be sent to my husband on the day a guest checks out check the thermostats and door locks after each booking.

My husband can then quickly open the thermostat and lock apps and make sure they are set the way he wants them to be set while the house is empty before the next guest checks in.

Rich S
Nov 30, 2019 3:06 PM
Joined Dec, 2018 301 posts

Valerie R said:

Hello,

I know my solution is not as automatic/hands off as what has been requested in this thread, but I've created an email template/trigger to be sent to my husband on the day a guest checks out check the thermostats and door locks after each booking.

My husband can then quickly open the thermostat and lock apps and make sure they are set the way he wants them to be set while the house is empty before the next guest checks in.

I haven't seen this discussion before, but I'll add some thoughts.

First off, I think Valerie's approach is probably going to work the best (ignoring the human husband part) for most folks. Fully automating this in a reliable way will be rather complicated, and worst of all will not be "set and forget", you'll have to monitor it and deal with issues when things stop working.

The original post was about a Honeywell 9000 thermostat, and it seems that they have an ability to register the thermostat (meaning make it connect to the internet using wifi) and then an app that should show current settings of all registered thermostats. So Valerie's approach of sending an email to someone can actually work... Send the email to yourself, and then at your convenience bring up the app on your phone and adjust the settings. This should be as reliable as the manufacturer's app, and not a huge inconvenience to the owner unless we're talking more than just a few units. Obviously if you manage 10 units this will quickly become a huge annoyance and you'd want a more fully automated solution.

I don't have specific suggestions about a thermostat manufacturer, but for anyone wanting to fully automate this you'll want to start by finding a thermostat that allows remote programming through something called webhooks. Or through a dedicated API, but in general webhooks should be much easier to get working if you don't have the software skill to write software to an API. I really don't know if there are many options (maybe zero) that would be accessible to anyone except for somebody with fairly deep software skills. I've done some quick searching online and there definitely are groups of people talking about how to do this, but they are all very technical approaches, some using plugins and special software.

Lastly, I think I've posted elsewhere in this forum about door sensors where I've described how to use IFTTT and webhooks, but if anyone is interested in more details I recently wrote up a word document that I could send. Just text your email and ask for it to 512 913 8609 (my cell) and I'll send it along. Or ask questions here... My document doesn't address remotely controlling thermostats, but it does show how you can install cheap door sensors (<$20) which will send you an email (or a webhook) using IFTTT. And they run off of batteries that should last >6 months and do not require any kind of a hub. They directly connect to the manufacturer's website, and from there you can access open/close history and do other interesting things.


Lydia B
Dec 1, 2019 9:36 PM
Joined May, 2019 159 posts

I am not familiar with the Honeywell. We use Nest and can set it so that when no one is in the house the thermostat knows and reverts to an Eco mode that keeps the temperature within whatever bounds you set. No need to monitor. It happens automatically. It's also nice for those days when the guests leave at 10 in the morning and don't come back until 8 that night. The thermostat knows there's no activity and switches to Eco. Does Honeywell have a product that will do that?

BlueMtnCabins
Dec 2, 2019 3:26 PM
Joined Jun, 2016 1115 posts

I would guess it has some similar feature, but I do not think eco setting is what I want. Also nests do not work with zoned systems, to my knowledge - Honeywell does (zoned system is when there is one unit but it is zoned with separate thermostats for different floors). I have 3 stories in one of my cabins, and one of the units is zoned across 2 floors (the other unit is dedicated to the 3rd floor). I do not think nests do that.

MyShortTermHome
Dec 30, 2019 10:32 AM
Joined Jul, 2019 11 posts

But won't guests complain when they return to a cool or warm house? I can only imagine the wrath we would get for a house that wasn't perfect the moment they walk in. Or am I not understanding how this solution works.

It is astonishing that nobody has an elegant cost effective solution to this common problem for vacation rental managers/owners.

Chuck K
Jan 5, 2020 9:27 PM
Joined Oct, 2019 83 posts

You can try this on IFTTT.

Connect your google calendar to the ical feed from ownerrez
Use IFTTT and create a new applet
When THIS happens...
Select google calendar
Select “when any event ends”
Selct amount of time after the event
Select the calendar with the name of the OR feed

The do this
Select Proper Honeywell app, attach it by logging in
Then select set temp.

This *should work* and probably also works with NEST and Ecobee.