Retiring smart-lock credentials after an STR stay

Methodology

1. This study follows one temporary access credential from authorization through retirement. The unit can be a guest code, vendor code, or other time-bounded credential tied to a single property and approved purpose. Inclusion requires an expected end condition, such as checkout, cancellation, vendor completion, or an owner-directed revocation. Permanent staff access, physical master keys, and building-wide emergency systems remain outside the sample unless the operator explicitly creates a separate review. The narrow question is whether records show that the credential reached its intended end state. It is not whether an attempted entry occurred, whether a person behaved improperly, or whether the complete access system is safe.
2. The evidence set has four independent sources where available: the reservation or work order that created the access need, the owner-approved access rule, the credential-management event log, and a verification artifact recorded after the planned cutoff. Airbnb material provides context for reservation changes and reliable hosting, but it does not validate a particular lock. NIST access-control guidance supplies the principle that permissions should match authorized roles and conditions. CISA guidance adds account protection and incident escalation. FTC privacy material limits unnecessary storage of guest identifiers. Facts from those publications stay separate from the proposed local test and from any conclusion about a specific device.
3. Before reviewing outcomes, define event times in the property's local zone and retain the original offset. Record the credential identifier without storing the secret itself, property, authorized person class, approving owner, activation condition, scheduled end condition, actual disable event, verification method, exception, and resolver. For a modified reservation, preserve the previous and replacement end conditions. Classify evidence as system-generated, manually reported, or inferred. An inferred status does not become confirmed because a turnover completed normally. Sample a second reviewer on edge cases such as extended stays, back-to-back bookings, and vendor work that continues after checkout.
4. The analysis reports absolute counts for credentials due to retire, credentials with a recorded disable event, credentials verified inactive, approved extensions, failures, and unknown states. Scheduled expiry and observed rejection are distinct signals. A code can show an expiry rule without proving the hardware received it, while a failed test can result from an unrelated connectivity problem. Review exceptions by cause and consequence rather than combining them into one success rate. The strongest counterexample is a credential that lacks the proposed paperwork but is demonstrably inactive; it tests whether the record adds assurance or merely administrative burden. Another is a complete record attached to the wrong property.
5. Limitations are material. Device clocks, offline locks, integrations, network connections, manual overrides, and vendor applications can produce incomplete or delayed logs. A successful retirement test at one moment does not establish future security. The method cannot detect copied physical keys, shared codes outside the approved channel, tailgating, coercion, or device vulnerabilities. It does not replace manufacturer instructions, a security assessment, incident response, local access law, or emergency planning. STRVirtualAssistant should not handle live secrets in a research file. Any suspected unauthorized access belongs with the property operator, platform, device provider, emergency service, or qualified specialist under the operator's escalation policy.