Help & known issues

The problems we've actually seen, and the fastest way out of each. Not listed here? Write to support and we'll dig in.

A guest says their door link "won't load"

Nine times out of ten the guest opened the link inside an app's built-in browser — Airbnb's, Instagram's, WeChat's — which can block the security check on the shared guest page. When that happens the page now falls back on its own: it asks for the guest's check-in date alongside their phone digits and lets them through without the check.

Fix: usually none needed — the guest enters their check-in date and continues. If they're still stuck, have them open the link in their phone's real browser (press-and-hold → Open in browser), or skip the shared page entirely and send their direct link: open the Host tab, tap the guest, and hit Copy next to their door link. The direct link needs no phone digits and no security check.

The guest enters their phone digits and no stay is found

The shared guest page matches the last 4 digits of the phone number on the booking. It comes up empty when the reservation was booked on someone else's behalf (the number on file isn't the guest's), when the booking came from Vrbo (no phone data in the calendar), or when the confirmation email wasn't forwarded to Otto yet.

Fix: send the guest their direct link (Host tab → tap the guest → Copy). To prevent it for future bookings, finish the email-forwarding step in the Pro setup guide.

"We couldn't tell your stays apart"

Two current guests share the same last 4 digits — rare, but with several rooms on one property it happens. Otto refuses to guess rather than risk handing one guest another guest's door link.

Fix: send each guest their direct link from the Host tab.

The "Unlock Door" button says the lock is offline

Your smart lock is reached through whatever you connected it with — Home Assistant, or SmartThings — and this message means Otto couldn't reach that connection at the moment the guest slid the button. The buzzer and building door keep working; only the smart-lock button is affected. If a connection stays down for more than fifteen minutes, Otto emails and pushes you rather than waiting for a guest to find out.

Fix (Home Assistant): make sure the Otto integration is v0.1.1 or newer (HACS → Otto → Update, then restart) — older versions could hold a dead connection for hours; v0.1.1 heals itself within a minute. If it just happened, have the guest wait a minute and tap again. Still offline? Check that Home Assistant itself is running and has internet. One more cause worth knowing: pressing Regenerate link on the smart-lock card invalidates the token Home Assistant is holding, and it will keep failing until you paste the new one into the integration.

Fix (SmartThings): if the card says the authorization has lapsed, tap Reconnect — your doors are kept, so you won't have to pick them again.

SmartThings said it unlocked, but the door didn't

SmartThings accepts an unlock and passes it to your hub to carry out, rather than confirming the bolt actually moved. So a success on the guest's screen means Otto reached SmartThings — not that the lock responded. Home Assistant is different: it confirms the lock itself, which is why it can report "offline" where SmartThings can't.

Fix: open the lock's history in the SmartThings app — if the command never arrived, the hub or the lock's battery is the place to look, not Otto. A lock that's reliably slow or unreachable through SmartThings is worth adding to Home Assistant instead, where a failure surfaces to the guest immediately.

The buzzer answers, but the building door doesn't release

The intercom heard the call and Otto played the release tone — but some building panels need a longer press, a different key, or a beat of silence first.

Fix: in Settings → Buzzer, confirm the release key matches what a human would press on a phone (ask your building manager if unsure), nudge the pause before tone slider up, and if your panel needs a code, enable multiple tones and enter the full sequence.

A schedule window didn't open the door

Schedules run in your account's timezone. If that timezone doesn't match the building's, windows fire at the wrong local time.

Fix: check the timezone in Settings, and on the dashboard confirm the window shows the amber open pill during the hours you expect.

"Having trouble reaching otto — check your connection"

The guest's phone briefly couldn't reach the internet — an elevator, a parking garage, spotty roaming data. The page keeps retrying on its own and recovers as soon as the connection does.

Fix: nothing on your end. If a guest sees it persistently, have them check Wi-Fi vs. cellular or step outside — and remember the intercom itself still works: the buzzer opens on a buzz during any active window.

"This link is no longer active"

Unlike the messages above, this one is definitive: the link's access window has genuinely ended — the stay checked out, the reservation was cancelled, or a manual fob expired.

Fix: if the guest should still have access, check the reservation on the Host tab (or the fob's dates on the dashboard), then tap the guest and copy their current link.