If you’ve been searching for something to replace RBoy Apps’ Rental Lock Automator (RLA) to manage smart locks and automations for your Airbnb or vacation rental, you already know how powerful it once was. But with the SmartThings Groovy platform shutdown, RLA stopped working without offering a modern solution.
That left a lot of hosts stuck. No more automated lock codes. No thermostat resets. No hands-free guest check-ins.
Rental Home Automator was built to be the smarter, simpler, and more reliable RBoy Apps replacement—designed specifically for vacation rental owners.
What Happened to RBoy Apps?
For years, RBoy Apps provided SmartThings-compatible tools like RLA that made it easy to:
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Automatically send lock codes to guests
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Adjust thermostats based on occupancy
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Manage stays based on calendar data
But in 2022, SmartThings shut down its Groovy-based IDE, effectively breaking RBoy’s apps. Since then, RBoy Apps has gone silent—no updates, no support, no alternatives. The Edge Drivers that are available now only allow actions upon unlocking the door.
That left short-term rental hosts scrambling for a solution that wouldn’t involve rebuilding their entire setup from scratch.
Expensive Alternatives
We searched around and tested alternatives, and what we found was that the solutions on the market were expensive. Most of them lacked at least one critical piece of functionality. The biggest drawbacks to any of the alternatives we tested were:
- Individual device charges: The companies we have found providing solutions in this space do not have a low-cost pricing model. If you only want to automate one door lock they may be okay. However, as soon as you add a couple of door locks and a thermostat (or 10 at some of our properties), they become far too expensive.
- Integrations through Seam.co: Most companies have switched to use Seam.co as their API integration to all the smart devices. This is easy and effective, but it means they are subject to the pricing model of Seam. Seam charges per device and even charges a monthly fee per lock code you have managed on the device! It’s too many incremental costs.
- Too many features: Other short-term rental automation companies lacked critical features but have too many others. It means you end up paying for features that most of us don’t want to use. We didn’t want a guest portal to try and upcharge our guests (especially with Airbnb working hard to prevent this from happening), and guest communications don’t need to be part of the automation tool.
Can’t we just have a simple, affordable solution that connects a short-term rental property or Airbnb to a rental calendar?
Rental Home Automator: The Perfect RLA Replacement
Our platform was designed and built to fill the gap left when RLA quit working, offering a simple, powerful and user-friendly solution. Here’s how we stand out as the ideal replacement:
Seamless Rental Calendar Integration
Rental Home Automator allows you to integrate with any iCal, and can process any of the information provided in the iCal link. This means you can hook up your rental calendar along with any cleaning and maintenance calendars you want to use, all in one place. (We’re also working on deeper integrations with other platforms, more to come)
User-Friendly Design
We’ve created a simple interface that gives you the ability to quickly create and manage your automations. Instead of having to create your automations from scratch, we made it easy to add your location & devices, then quickly enable the automations you want to run on the calendar schedule.
Device Support
Since we use SmartThings as the primary automation platform, it means we support any device that integrates with SmartThings. That gives our users a huge amount of flexibility and choice when it comes to what devices to use at their properties. We also support all the different types of devices in our automations – from water valves to switches and door locks!
One Low Monthly Cost
The most important thing: our pricing is simple and affordable. With one low monthly fee per location, you don’t have to worry about how many locks, valves, switches or thermostats you have at your property. Just add them to your location, select them in your calendar settings and you’re set! Pair unlimited devices with unlimited locations!
If you’re looking for the best RBoy apps RLA replacement on the market, look no further than Rental Home Automator. Our features are tailored to short-term rental and Airbnb hosts and property managers. The software will allow you to automate all the safety and convenience features of your smart rental property.
Get started today with a free 14-day trial to experience worry-free vacation rental management automation.
Keywords: RBoy Apps replacement, RBoy RLA replacement, short-term rental management, rental calendar integration, Rental Home Automator, Airbnb smart device automation.
