The Aeotec Smart Home Hub Gen 3 remains our preferred SmartThings hub for most short-term rentals.

It isn’t the newest Aeotec hub anymore, but that is actually part of the reason we still recommend it.

The Gen 3 supports Z-Wave, Zigbee, Matter, and Thread in a single SmartThings hub, giving hosts access to a much broader selection of rental-friendly devices than most consumer smart-home controllers.

We’ve found that especially important for short-term rentals, where the best device for each job may use a different protocol. We may want a Z-Wave smart lock, Zigbee leak sensors, Matter over Thread contact sensors, and Wi-Fi thermostats all operating within the same property.

The Aeotec Smart Home Hub Gen 3 lets us bring those devices together under SmartThings without forcing the entire rental into one ecosystem.

Why We Still Prefer the Gen 3

Aeotec has released the newer Smart Home Hub 2, which is faster, smaller, and built around Matter, Thread, and Zigbee.

But it removes Z-Wave support.

For a typical consumer smart home, that may not matter.

For short-term rentals, we think it matters a lot.

Some of the devices we trust most for rental-critical applications—particularly smart locks, water valves, switches, and other infrastructure devices—are still available with mature Z-Wave implementations.

We don’t want to give up those devices simply to use a newer hub.

That makes the older Gen 3 unusually valuable: it supports both established Z-Wave and Zigbee devices while also functioning as a Matter controller and Thread Border Router for newer devices.

For the mixed-device rental environments we build, that flexibility is more useful than having the newest hardware.

Broad Protocol Support Is Its Biggest Strength

The Gen 3 supports the major smart-home protocols we currently use at short-term rentals:

• Z-Wave
• Zigbee
• Matter over Thread
• Wi-Fi-connected SmartThings integrations

Aeotec says the hub supports up to 100 Zigbee devices and 100 Z-Wave devices and includes Z-Wave S2 security.

It also acts as a Thread Border Router and Matter controller, allowing newer Matter over Thread devices to join the same SmartThings environment.

That means a host does not need to choose one smart-home protocol for the entire property.

We think that is the right way to build a rental.

Choose the best protocol and device for each operational job, then use the hub and automation platform to bring everything together.

Why a Dedicated Hub Matters at a Rental

It is possible to build a smart home almost entirely from Wi-Fi devices.

We generally don’t recommend doing that at a short-term rental.

Guests depend heavily on the property’s Wi-Fi network, and every additional infrastructure device placed directly on that network creates another dependency on the router, internet configuration, and guest network environment.

A dedicated smart-home hub lets devices such as locks, switches, sensors, and water valves communicate using protocols designed specifically for smart-home devices.

It also creates one central platform for monitoring and automation instead of requiring a different manufacturer app for every device.

That becomes increasingly valuable as a rental grows beyond one or two smart devices.

SmartThings Provides the Automation Platform

The Aeotec hub is hardware. SmartThings provides the software platform around it.

Devices connected through the hub appear in SmartThings, where they can be monitored, grouped, and automated.

SmartThings also supports local execution for many compatible device drivers and routines, reducing the number of automations that depend entirely on a cloud round trip.

For short-term rental automation, SmartThings has another important advantage: a broad API and device ecosystem that allows third-party platforms to interact with connected devices.

That is how a collection of individual smart devices can become part of a larger reservation-driven operating system rather than a collection of unrelated apps.

The Gen 3 vs. Aeotec Smart Home Hub 2

Normally we would recommend buying the newer generation of a smart-home hub.

In this case, we don’t.

The Smart Home Hub 2 offers improved processing performance, more memory, a smaller design, and enhanced local automation capabilities.

But it does not include Z-Wave.

That is a significant tradeoff for rental properties because Z-Wave remains one of our preferred protocols for smart locks and other critical devices.

If your entire property uses Matter, Thread, Zigbee, and Wi-Fi devices, the Hub 2 may be a perfectly good choice.

If you’re building the type of mixed-protocol rental system we recommend today, the Gen 3 remains the more flexible hub.

What We Don’t Like

The biggest drawback is that the Gen 3 is now the older generation.

Aeotec has introduced newer hardware, so we don’t expect the Gen 3 to remain the company’s primary hub forever.

Its processing hardware is also slower than the new Hub 2.

SmartThings itself remains partly cloud dependent as well. Local drivers and routines have improved the platform considerably, but remote control, external integrations, and some automations still require internet access.

Finally, the hub adds another piece of infrastructure that has to be purchased, installed, powered, and maintained.

We think those tradeoffs are easily justified at a serious short-term rental, but hosts using only one or two simple Wi-Fi devices may not need a dedicated hub.