Tenant onboarding without friction: from booking to first door opening

The last metre of digitalisation

Many operators invest in booking systems, access control and automation — and then lose tenants at the last step: app setup. The smartest access system is useless if 30% of tenants can’t figure out how to set it up.

Tenant onboarding is the “last metre” of digitalisation. And it’s exactly where many implementations fail — not technically, but in terms of UX and communication.

What good onboarding looks like

The ideal flow has five steps:

1. Confirmation email with clear instructions
Immediately after booking, the tenant receives an email with a direct link to the app download and a step-by-step guide. No jargon, no “log in to the portal”. Just: download here, open this, tap that.

2. App installation with pre-filled data
The link in the email leads to a deep link that pre-fills the facility and unit. The tenant doesn’t have to search, scan or enter anything. The app knows what it needs to know.

3. One-time verification
Either email link or 6-digit code — one step, not a multi-page form. The tenant verifies their identity once and is immediately through.

4. Access right displayed in the app
After verification, the tenant immediately sees their unit in the app. Status: active. Method: NFC, Bluetooth or PIN — depending on the facility setup.

5. First door opening
The first successful door opening is the actual completion of onboarding. Everything before it was setup. The door opening is the proof that everything works.

Where it usually goes wrong

In practice, frictions arise at predictable points:

Delayed confirmation email: If the booking is confirmed immediately but the access setup email doesn’t arrive for 30 minutes (or worse: manually sent by staff), the tenant has already been on-site once and been unable to get in.

Generic instructions: “Please download our app and set it up” is not an instruction. Tenants need a step-by-step guide, ideally with screenshots.

Technical barriers: Older smartphones, unusual Android versions, restricted app store access (company devices) — these are real cases. A PIN fallback covers these situations without the tenant having to contact support.

Unclear access rights: The tenant has the app, but doesn’t know which unit they can access, when, and with which method. Good onboarding shows this information prominently in the app.

The fallback strategy

Even with perfect onboarding, there will always be tenants who can’t complete app setup — because of technical problems, reluctance or missing smartphone. A PIN fallback at the door is the right safety net here.

The PIN should be:

• Automatically generated (no manual assignment)
• Unique per tenant and per unit (not a facility-wide master PIN)
• Limited in time (valid for the rental period, automatically expired at end of contract)
• Logged just like app accesses

sedisto generates this PIN automatically for every new tenant and includes it in the onboarding email. The PIN is valid only for the contracted period and only for the contracted unit.

Measuring success

Good onboarding is measurable. Operators should track:

• App activation rate: What percentage of tenants activate the app within the first 72 hours?
• First door opening rate: What percentage of tenants successfully complete their first door opening?
• Support tickets per new tenant: How many support requests per 100 new tenants relate to access setup?

With optimised onboarding, activation rates of 85–92% are achievable. The remaining 8–15% use PIN. Support tickets for access setup should be below 2 per 100 new tenants.

If these numbers are higher, the onboarding process needs to be improved — not the access hardware.