Blog / How to Manage Apartment Buzzer Access While Travelling
How to Manage Apartment Buzzer Access While Travelling
By Ty · 2026-10-08
You are boarding a flight when your phone lights up with a buzzer call from home. The person watering your plants is downstairs, your cleaner is coming tomorrow, and the next call could arrive while you are asleep in another time zone. Being able to answer your buzzer from elsewhere is useful, but it is not much of a holiday if every arrival still needs you.
Before you leave, decide which visits should happen, how those people will enter, and who can help locally if plans change. Build the arrangement around times when you will be unavailable, not just when your phone has reception.
How to fix it
Choose an approach that fits the people visiting and how often they need access.
| Option | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Answer buzzer calls while abroad | Keeps your usual routine | Depends on connectivity, call availability and time zones |
| Ask a trusted neighbour to help | Gives visitors a local contact | Requires someone to be available for each arrival |
| Arrange building-approved guest access | Visitors can use the building’s own process | Available options and handoffs vary by building |
| Lowkey | Passcodes and scheduled entry handle expected arrivals without you answering | Quick one-time setup with your building |
Make a short list of visits that genuinely need to happen while you are away. A cleaner may need one appointment, a friend may come twice to water plants, and a sitter may need recurring entry. Pause or redirect deliveries you do not want sitting unattended. Opening the lobby door does not guarantee a package reaches your apartment or that someone receives it.
For each visitor, plan the whole route: building entrance, elevator or internal doors, and your apartment door. Arrange the key, fob or apartment-door code separately. The pet-sitter access guide covers repeat visits that require someone to enter your home. If a roommate will be there, agree who handles arrivals and use the shared buzzer access guide to avoid routing everything through your phone.
Write visit times in the building’s local time when coordinating with visitors. When setting an access schedule, confirm which time zone the app uses and review the start and end times before saving it. Include the return visit if someone needs to leave and come back, and end access when it is no longer needed. A flight delay should prompt a deliberate extension, not leave you relying on a code that stays active indefinitely.
Test the plan before departure. Have a visitor start at the entrance and follow the same instructions they will use while you are away. For automatic entry, let the configured passcode or schedule handle the visit without answering the buzzer yourself. That checks the arrangement you will actually rely on during the trip.
Give visitors a local backup contact who has agreed to help. If you choose live calls instead, confirm how your mobile plan handles calls abroad, particularly if you use a travel SIM or turn off your usual line. An internet connection alone does not establish that calls to your regular number will reach you.
Where Lowkey helps
Lowkey lets you prepare building access before you travel, so expected visitors do not depend on your flight schedule or a late-night phone call. Give visitors passcodes they enter after dialing your directory entry, or set recurring access for regular visits. Time-limited access can expire automatically, and activity history and push notifications help you keep track of arrivals. Your building manager adds the virtual number once; you manage access from the app with no hardware to install.