Step 8 · Automations

IF / THEN rules that make the hotel act by itself.

Automations are the rules that make the building behave without anyone touching a screen: a guest presses a button and reception gets an alert; a booking is checked out and the heating drops.

Every rule reads as one sentence — IF something is true, THEN do something.

Go to Automations and click Add automation.

How the builder works

The dialog has two columns: IF on the left, Then on the right. You add cards to each. All the IF cards must be satisfied for the THEN cards to run.

What IF can watch

Type	Watches for	You choose
Device	A device changing state	Gateway, device type, device, and the value to match
Room event	A booking's status changing	Room number, and one of Free, Offered, Booked, Confirmed, Checked in, Checked out
Valid card	A guest card accepted at a reader	Which reader
Schedule	A moment in time	A date and a time

What THEN can do

Type	Does	You choose
Device	Switches or sets a device	Gateway, device, and the value to write
Message	Raises a notification on the bell	The event, the message text, and whether it repeats until acknowledged
Email	Sends an email	Recipient, subject, body or a saved template

Name the rule at the top, then Save. Rules can be switched off from the table without deleting them.

The six rules almost every hotel needs

Written here for room 203 — repeat per room.

1 · Make Up Room raises an alert

IF Device → 203 MUR button is on THEN Message → MUR room 203

This is the rule that feeds the housekeeping board: Harmony reads the room number out of the message and creates a cleaning task automatically. Keep the room number in the text.

2 · Do Not Disturb

IF Device → 203 DND button is on THEN Message → DND room 203

Reception and housekeeping both see it, so nobody knocks.

3 · Butler call

IF Device → 203 Butler button is on THEN Message → Butler room 203, set to repeat until acknowledged

4 · Save energy after check-out

IF Room event → room 203, Checked out THEN Device → 203 temp set = 18, and 203 light ceiling off

5 · Warm the room for an arrival

IF Room event → room 203, Checked in THEN Device → 203 temp set = 21

6 · Welcome lighting on first entry

IF Valid card → the reader at room 203's door THEN Device → 203 light entry on

Writing rules for fifty rooms

Rules are per room, so a 50-room hotel with six rules each is 300 automations. Make that manageable:

1

Perfect one room first

Build all six rules for one room and test each by physically pressing the button.

2

Name them by pattern

203 MUR alert, 203 checkout eco. The list then stays searchable by room and by purpose.

3

Then replicate

Room by room, changing only the room number and the device names.

4

Spot-check the last one and one from the middle

Copy-paste mistakes cluster.

Test as you go — press the real button, watch the real alert. An automation that looks right in the list and does nothing in the building is the most expensive kind of mistake to find later.

Things that catch people out

• Several IF cards mean AND, not OR. Every condition must hold. For an either/or, write two rules.

• Leaving the room number out of a message breaks automatic housekeeping tasks. Write MUR room 203, not MUR.

• Rules that fight each other. If one sets 18 °C at check-out and another sets 21 °C on a schedule, the last one to fire wins. Decide which rule owns the setpoint.

• Disabled is not deleted. If a rule seems dead, check its status in the table before rebuilding it.