Smart Home Hubs: Which One is Best For Your Rentals?

A smart home hub is required for a smart home system to unify control, enable complex automations, and overcome device compatibility issues by acting as a central controller for different smart devices. It allows you to use a single app to manage various gadgets from different brands, create advanced routines that are not possible with individual devices, and prevent network congestion by offloading some communication from Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. 

How a Smart Home Hub Works

• Centralized control: A hub acts as the “brain” of your smart home, creating a single point of control for all your devices, such as lights, thermostats, locks, and cameras.
• Device communication: It acts as a bridge that translates and relays information between devices that use different communication protocols, like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, and Z-Wave.
• Simplified management: Instead of juggling multiple apps for each device, a hub provides a single app to manage and monitor everything in your home.
• Automation: It enables more sophisticated automations that can be triggered by multiple conditions, such as time of day, weather, or your presence at home. For example, it can turn off all lights and lock the doors when you leave, based on a single command or trigger. 

The Smart Hub of the Future

What if one device could function as a rental unit’s thermostat, manage access and empower smart home automation? For property managers, this would offer centralized control and efficient management of the property’s smart devices, while reducing hardware costs and installation complexity. For your residents, this would create a seamless, modern living experience with remote control capability, personalized smart home automation, and enhanced comfort, meeting their demand for convenient and tech-enabled amenities. Enter Rently’s Smart Hub Pro.

This new smart hub of the future combines the central component of a smart home, a hub, with a built-in smart thermostat all in one device for total control. It installs like a thermostat on the wall and works like a hub to control temperature, manage access, and automate an entire unit via Z-Wave, Wi-Fi, and cellular communications protocols. Plus, it’s Matter-ready for the future. This new smart hub and smart thermostat becomes the gateway for controlling lights, smart outlets, unlocking doors, and connecting other smart devices for a truly connected-living experience. 

Rently Smart Hub Comparisons

Rently hubs can control a wide range of devices, such as lights, smart locks, doorbells, thermostats, and more. Offering these smart home amenities not only enhances the living experience for residents, but also streamlines property management for property owners and operators.

Rently manufactures its own line of smart home hardware, including smart locks, hubs, thermostats, and sensors, for the rental industry. While Rently is known for its smart home and self-touring software solutions, it also develops and produces a wide range of hardware to integrate into its platform.  As a manufacturer too, Rently is able to fully control quality and can bypass external supply chain constraints.

Summary of Rently Hub Features

Rently’s Smart Hubs feature carrier-agnostic SIMs to connect to multiple networks for expanded cellular coverage and automatically determine the best network available. Both are equipped with Z-stack plus Matter capabilities, enhanced data speed and connection range, SmartStart for even easier installations, eliminating pairing issues and S2 security. 

Key features of Rently smart hubs:

• Centralized control: Manages multiple smart devices, including locks, thermostats, and lights, from a single interface via the Rently Smart Home app.
• Remote management: Allows users to monitor and control their smart home from anywhere with an internet connection.
• Reliable connectivity: Uses Tri-Band technology (Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and 4G LTE cellular) to ensure constant connection, even if one connection type fails.
• Device compatibility: Compatible with a wide range of Z-Wave devices from different manufacturers, and some models are Matter-ready for future-proofing.
• Security: Includes high-grade security protocols and encryption for data and communication.

Rently Hub 4

Rently Hub 4 is a smart home device that allows property managers and residents to control and manage smart home devices remotely. It acts as a central point for a variety of connected devices like locks, thermostats, and sensors, often using Z-Wave, Wi-Fi, and cellular (Tri-Band) connectivity for reliability. It is typically placed in the middle of the rental unit, plugged into a power outlet and is a moveable device. Some clients report that this device gets accidentally unplugged or removed by residents causing the smart home devices to go offline. 

Rently Hub Pro

Rently’s newest Smart Hub Pro combines a thermostat and hub in one device, giving residents intuitive control while managers save on hardware, installs, and service calls. No more accidental unplugging of hubs by residents, as it’s physically mounted to the wall in the unit, just like a thermostat. With Wi-Fi, cellular, Z-Wave, and Matter built in, the Smart Hub Pro reduces complexity for managers while ensuring residents can control their environment with ease. It’s fewer devices to install, reduces costs, and provides greater reliability.

For additional information about Rently smart home hubs, check out these other blogs: 

• Blog: The New Smart Hub for the Modern Renter 
• Blog: Why Matter Capability is Important for Smart Home Hubs
• Blog: How Rently’s Z-Wave Hub Increases Smart Device Connectivity