Before you start

What to collect before you touch Harmony — and roughly how long the job takes.

Configuring a hotel goes quickly when the information is already on the desk, and painfully slowly when you have to go and find each piece. Collect this first.

This page assumes Harmony is already installed and you can open http://<your-server>:81 in a browser. If it is not, start with Installing Harmony on a server and come back here afterwards.

The hotel itself

• The hotel's display name, as guests should see it

• Check-in and check-out times — for example 14:00 and 11:00

• A list of floors with the level number of each

• A list of rooms: number, floor, room type, and how many people it sleeps

• Any common areas guests reach with a card — entrance, garage, spa, lift

Put the room list in a spreadsheet before you begin. Columns: number, floor, type, capacity, gateway IP. You will use it three separate times during setup, and it doubles as the handover document.

Network and hardware

• The IP address of the Harmony server, and confirmation it is fixed rather than DHCP

• The IP address and port of every gateway — BUS units, eLAN units, and any REST devices

• Login details for any gateway that is password-protected

• Confirmation the server and the gateways can reach each other. Test with a ping before you start, not after.

Fixed addresses are not optional. Gateways and electronic locks are identified by IP address. If one gets a new address from DHCP, Harmony silently loses it. Reserve the addresses on the router, or set them statically.

People

• Names and email addresses for everyone who needs an account, and the role each should have

• Who will be the hotel's own administrator after you hand over

• Which computers reception uses, if you plan to restrict access by IP

Licence

• Your Harmony licence key (HRM-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX), if this property needs more than five gateways

A fresh install runs on a five-gateway trial with no time limit, so you can start configuring before a licence arrives. See Installing Harmony for how to request one.

Optional, if this hotel uses them

If the hotel has…	Collect
A property management system	API endpoint, credentials, and the hotel or property identifier
Online sales via Booking.com or Airbnb	Channex API key and property ID, plus the room types and rates to publish
Electronic door locks (DNAKE or Salto Space)	Lock IP addresses and web logins, or the Salto PMS host, port and encoder name
Guest emails sent by Harmony	SMTP host, port, username, password and the "from" address

How long it takes

For a 30–50 room hotel with the information ready:

Stage	Typical time
Hotel details, staff accounts, licence	15 minutes
Gateways and devices	1–3 hours, depending on the hardware
Floors and rooms	30–60 minutes
Zones, readers and automations	1–2 hours
Email, integrations and testing	1 hour upwards

Two people are much faster than one. One person walks the building doing gateways and devices; the other does hotel details, users, licence and rooms at a desk. Join up again at zones and readers.