Guest PIN activates the hallway, corridor, bathroom. You're away — get a notification with the guest name and arrival time.
Trigger
Guest PIN on access panel or door sensor + recognition
Action
Hallway + corridor + bathroom lights 80% · setpoint 22°C in guest zones · owner notification
Devices needed
Why it helps
When you're expecting someone at home — a parent arriving with a child, a friend visiting from abroad, or someone looking after the place while you're at work — the empty apartment usually feels dark and chilly. The thermostat sits in eco mode so it doesn't waste heat, the blinds are down, and the guest arrives to a dimly lit hallway, a locked door, and a room that only warms up later. The guest-arrival scenario changes that with a single gesture: at the right moment the hallway and living room come up softly, the climate shifts from eco to comfort, and the guest is welcomed — with a short voice message or by the door opening, if you choose that. It isn't about spectacle but about a natural reception: someone walks into a warm, lit home rather than a cold space they have to "start up" themselves.
How it works
The trigger can take several forms, depending on who is arriving. The simplest is a button: you press it in the app when the guest is at the door, or you press a scene switch indoors. The second option is a geofence — the scenario starts on its own when an approved phone (yours when you return, or a family member's) gets near the home, so the heating has time to reach comfort before anyone walks in. From there the automation runs a short sequence: the hallway and living-room lights come up at a warm level, the thermostat shifts from eco to comfort (warmer in winter, cooler in summer), and the smart speaker speaks a welcome. If you have a smart lock — for example LOQED, which we install as its official distributor — the scenario can also unlock the door, but that always stays an option you enable deliberately, not a default setting.
CasaSmart builds the scenario on a local hub, usually Home Assistant, running inside the apartment and holding the Zigbee bulbs and dimmers, the thermostat and the lock in a single automation. Because the logic lives on the hub, turning on the lights and moving the climate to comfort work locally, on your network, even if the internet drops for a while. What needs a connection is the geofence trigger at a distance, the spoken welcome, and any command sent from elsewhere in the city. The key difference from doing it by hand is timing: warming a room takes time, so a geofence that fires early means the guest enters an already-warm space rather than one that is only beginning to heat. The thresholds, the list of lights, the comfort temperature and the message text are configured together with you.
Setup steps
Together we pick the elements of the welcome: the hallway and living-room lights, the thermostat zone that moves to comfort, the speaker for the spoken message and, optionally, the smart lock for unlocking. The rest of the home stays untouched — the scenario only works with what you've defined.
The Zigbee bulbs and dimmers, the thermostat, the speaker and the lock are paired to the central hub (usually Home Assistant). That puts them into one automation, controlled from a single app, without depending on several cloud accounts.
We add a manual activation (a button in the app or a scene switch by the door) and, if you want, a geofence that starts the scenario when an approved phone nears the home. For heating, the geofence is useful because it provides the lead time the apartment needs to reach comfort.
We set the light levels, the comfort temperature the thermostat rises to (warmer in winter, cooler in summer) and the text the speaker reads out. Unlocking the door is included only if you explicitly ask for it, and it always remains a controlled action.
We run the scenario as a trial and measure how long the room actually needs to reach comfort, so we can calibrate the trigger moment. If you've included unlocking, we check the lock's log and make sure it activates only for the arrivals you expect.
Practical tips
FAQ
Yes. You can press the button in the app remotely the moment the guest arrives, and the scenario turns on the lights, raises the climate to comfort and speaks the welcome. If the guest is someone you trust and you share access, a geofence on their phone can be used too. The remote command and the spoken message need the internet, but the rest of the logic runs on the hub in the apartment.
Only if you choose to include that step. Unlocking is not a default setting; we add it at your request and tie it to a smart lock (for example LOQED, which we install as its official distributor) that keeps a log of openings. For most guests we recommend a welcome message plus manual opening or a temporary code, so you keep full control over who comes in.
It depends on the room and the heating system — a well-insulated apartment reaches comfort faster than one with high losses. That's why the geofence helps: it starts the scenario while the approved phone is still a few minutes away, giving the climate time to rise from eco to comfort. At installation we measure how long it actually takes in your home and calibrate the trigger moment accordingly.
Partly, and the essential part does. Turning on the lights and moving the thermostat from eco to comfort are driven by the local hub (usually Home Assistant) in the apartment, so they work on your network even without internet — including via the scene switch by the door. What needs a connection is the remote geofence trigger, a command sent from elsewhere in the city, and the spoken welcome message.
Auto morning routine
At 7am blinds rise, coffee maker starts, kitchen warms to 22°C. One Home Assistant scene.
Auto leak shutoff
Bathroom or kitchen leak sensor detects water and closes the main valve via a motorised relay. Before the neighbours notice.
Vacation simulation
On vacation, the home "lives" by itself: lights turn on randomly, blinds move, music plays for a few minutes. Burglars see an occupied apartment.