Checklist for Home Safety while Traveling
With summer just a few short months away, many homeowners will be planning trips, both domestically and abroad. Vacation is a time to relax and unwind from your life back home, but it unfortunately is also the most common time for a home burglary. In this era where social media and other internet-connected platforms can display a person’s location with the click of a button, would-be burglars have become savvy in utilizing these tools to pinpoint a time when a homeowner will be away from their home for an extended period of time. Uxari wants to help homeowners fight this new era of “techno-burglars” with your own line of technological home security features. Before you pack your bags and head to the airport, consider some of these tips on keeping your home safe while you travel.
Enlist Trusted Neighbors
If you are friendly with (and trust) your neighbors, drop by their house a week or two ahead of your trip and inform them of your trip itinerary. Let them know when you’ll be leaving, when you’ll be back, if you’ll be expecting any package or visitors at your home, and how they can contact you in the case of an emergency. Ask your neighbor to walk around the house a few times while you are away to make sure there is nothing out of the ordinary. By equipping your home with Uxari’s smart door locks, you’ll even be able to provide your neighbor with a temporary “key” on their smartphone that will allow access to any door that is protected with a smart lock.
Keep Social Media in the Dark
As mentioned before, burglars come from every walk of life, and may even be someone you know. If you are heading off on a vacation, it’s best to not post any updates to social media letting your followers or friends know that you will be far away from your home. Even if you take tons of pictures that would be perfect for Instagram, save them until you return home to ensure that a would-be burglar who already knows where you live doesn’t see your home as an easy target while you are out of town.
Stay Connected
Even if the goal of your vacation is to get away from smartphones, laptops, emails, and other tech gadgets, it’s important in this day and age to still be accessible in the event of an emergency. Homes equipped with an Uxari home automation bundle can notify you of events occurring in and around your home from anywhere in the world, as long as your smartphone or tablet has a data connection or is connected to WiFi. Imagine being able to greet a suspicious visitor at your doorstep from your beach chair via Uxari’s smart doorbell. They’ll certainly think twice about returning to your home!
Set Your Home to “Auto”
Home automation products provide so much more than the ability to turn things on and off from your smartphone. With Uxari smart home products, you can set your home automation system to an “energy efficient” mode that will adjust things like the ambient temperature in the home to save on heating and cooling costs, lighting utilized in the home to save on energy, as well as security system sensitivity, to ensure that Fido doesn’t trigger your alarms and have the police at the door. At any point in time, Uxari homeowners can monitor and adjust settings across any individual product, or throughout the entire Uxari home automation system.
Before booking your next trip, take a look at Uxari’s home automation bundles and learn more about how Uxari can keep your home protected whether you are around the block or around the world. Our affordable bundles are easily installed and set up, so you’ll be living in a “smart” home just a few short hours after your bundle arrives at your door. While we all may love a good vacation, there is nothing better than coming back to your home, just the way you left it.