August / Yale Home Review
August and Yale Home don't sell software at all — they sell a smart lock that hands each Airbnb guest their own auto-expiring door code, for a one-time hardware price instead of a monthly bill.
Pros
- One-time hardware purchase with no subscription or monthly fee — confirmed directly on august.com/pages/airbnb, where every listed bundle, from $179.99 to $279.99, is a single upfront price
- Native Airbnb code sync: per August's own Airbnb page, a unique code is “automatically generated and shared with the guests” on booking and “stays active only during guest's stay duration,” so hosts never set or revoke a code by hand
- Installs over most existing single-cylinder deadbolts in minutes, per the same page — no locksmith visit or full deadbolt replacement needed
- Two brand lines across four ready-made bundles (Yale Approach and August Wi-Fi Smart Lock, each with a Keypad or Keypad Touch option) give a host a choice of look and price rather than one fixed design
- Wi-Fi models work with Siri/Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant, and the app can schedule separate, time-bound access for cleaners between guest stays
- Backed by a large, publicly traded parent rather than a small startup — Fortune Brands Innovations (NYSE: FBIN) confirms on its own site that it acquired the U.S./Canada August and Yale residential smart-lock business from ASSA ABLOY
Cons
- The Airbnb code integration “is only available for locks operating in the U.S. and Canada,” per August's own page — hosts outside North America get none of the automated-code feature this review is about
- The integration requires a compatible keypad paired with the lock — August's page states plainly that “a compatible keypad paired with an August smart lock is required” — so the cheaper $129.99–$199.99 standalone locks aren't enough on their own; you need a $179.99+ bundle
- It's a single-property tool: the Airbnb-integration page describes managing codes for one property inside the Airbnb app, with no multi-property or portfolio dashboard across listings for anyone running more than one unit
- Every guest-code feature on the page we opened is Airbnb-specific, with no mention of Vrbo or direct-booking-site code automation — multi-channel hosts would need separate middleware to sync codes elsewhere
- We could not verify independent review sentiment: G2 returned an HTTP 403 when we tried to open its August-related seller page directly (and the listing itself belongs to an unrelated company, Augur Technologies), a direct Capterra search rendered no results, and Amazon blocked automated access to the review section on two different August lock listings
August and Yale Home aren't a subscription platform at all — they're two co-branded smart-lock hardware lines, sold from sibling storefronts at august.com and shopyalehome.com, that link to each other through a “cobrand toggle.” Where nearly everything else in this ranking is software a host logs into, August/Yale Home sells a physical deadbolt-replacement lock, an optional keypad, and a companion app, built around one specific trick: syncing a unique door code to each Airbnb reservation automatically. Ownership is worth being precise about here. Per Fortune Brands Innovations' own announcement, Fortune Brands (NYSE: FBIN) agreed to acquire “the U.S. and Canadian Yale and August residential smart home locks business” — along with the Emtek and Schaub hardware brands — from ASSA ABLOY, in a deal the companies expected to close “on or before June 30, 2023.” So today, both the August branding on shopyalehome.com and the “a Yale Company” credit in august.com's own footer trace back to Fortune Brands Innovations for the U.S./Canada residential business this Airbnb integration serves, not ASSA ABLOY.
Pricing
August's own Airbnb-hosting page lists four ready-made bundles, each a one-time purchase — no subscription or monthly fee is mentioned anywhere on the page: Yale Approach™ Lock + Connect Wi-Fi with Keypad at $179.99, Yale Approach™ Lock + Connect Wi-Fi with Keypad Touch at $239.99, August Wi-Fi Smart Lock + Connect with Keypad at $259.99, and August Wi-Fi Smart Lock + Connect with Keypad Touch at $279.99. The same page also lists standalone parts for hosts assembling their own setup: a Wi-Fi Smart Lock alone at $199.99, a Yale Approach Lock with Wi-Fi alone at $129.99, a Smart Lock + Connect Wi-Fi Bridge at $199.99, and a Yale Keypad Touch alone at $119.99. None of the standalone locks include the keypad the Airbnb integration requires, so $179.99 is the real entry price for the feature this review is actually about, not the cheaper $129.99–$199.99 lock-only listings. This is hardware economics, not SaaS pricing: you pay once at checkout and own the device, with no recurring tier to weigh against a monthly plan.
Who it's for
August/Yale Home fits a single-property Airbnb host in the US or Canada who wants each guest to get a unique, auto-expiring door code the moment they book, without adding a monthly line item to run it. Per August's own page, the code is emailed to the guest right after booking, a check-in notification follows, and the code “stays active only during guest's stay duration” — no host has to generate or revoke anything by hand, and cleaner access can be scheduled separately in the app. It's a weaker fit for a host running Vrbo or a direct-booking site alongside Airbnb: every guest-code feature described on the page is Airbnb-specific, with no Vrbo or direct-booking mention at all, so multi-channel hosts would need separate middleware to sync codes elsewhere. It's a weaker fit again for anyone managing more than one listing, since the page shows no multi-property or portfolio view — you're operating each lock through the same consumer app a homeowner would use, not a manager's dashboard. And it isn't an option at all outside North America: the Airbnb code integration “is only available for locks operating in the U.S. and Canada,” per August's own wording.
What we could verify
We opened august.com/pages/airbnb directly and could confirm the bundle pricing, the keypad requirement, the US/Canada-only scope, and the mechanics of the Airbnb code sync exactly as described above — it's a specific, detailed product page, not a vague pitch. We separately opened Fortune Brands Innovations' own press release, which confirms the ownership change in its own words, as quoted above. What we could not verify is independent customer sentiment at any real scale. There's no genuine G2 listing for this product — the seller page G2 itself surfaced for “August” returned an HTTP 403 when we tried to open it directly, and belongs to an unrelated company (Augur Technologies) by its own listing title. We found no working Capterra listing either; a direct Capterra search for the product returned only a loading placeholder with no results ever rendered. We also opened two different August lock listings on Amazon, and both blocked automated access to the star-rating and review section, returning page-shell content only. That's a real gap: for a hardware purchase in the $180–$280 range, we could not independently confirm review volume or sentiment ourselves, across any of the three sources we tried.
How it compares to our top pick
BnBGenius isn't in the same category at all: it's free for your first 500 messages, then a flat $10/month with no PMS required, covering an AI phone concierge, a task-automation loop, review generation, and gap-night upsells. August/Yale Home doesn't do any of that — it's a physical lock that solves keyless entry and automated Airbnb door codes, full stop, and BnBGenius never touches your door hardware at all. The two solve completely different problems and pair naturally rather than compete: a host could run August or Yale Home for check-in and BnBGenius for everything a guest asks once they're inside. If a one-time hardware purchase with a genuinely useful native Airbnb code-sync feature is what you're after, August/Yale Home is a straightforward buy — just go in aware that its own site is currently the only real evidence of product quality available, since G2, Capterra, and Amazon reviews were all unavailable to us. See where it and every other tool in the category fit in our best Airbnb host software ranking.