Hospitality automation

A property operations layer for independent lodging.

Starlight Lab turns locks, reservations, climate, cameras, Wi-Fi, TVs, signs, dashboards, and maintenance notes into one documented operating system for small motels, Route 66 properties, and owner-operated lodging.

The actual problem

Small hotels usually have too many separate apps and no clean system map.

One app for locks, one portal for booking, one camera recorder, one thermostat app, one router dashboard, one TV platform, and scattered notes for staff. The Starlight approach is to map the building first, then connect only what should be connected.

  • Owner-controlled Home Assistant dashboards for local visibility.
  • Reservation-aware workflows only after scoped API authorization.
  • Room-by-room mapping for locks, climate, TV/IoT, cameras, and network devices.
  • Dry-run previews before live lock, sign, HVAC, or guest-impacting automation.
FoundationNetwork, inventory, labels, and backups
↓
Operations layerRooms, locks, climate, signage, dashboards
↓
AutomationBooking events, staff tasks, alerts, reports

What can be tied together

From room access to outdoor lighting, the pieces become a property system.

▣

Room access

Schlage-style guest code lifecycle, staff access separation, lock state, battery warnings, audit logs, and room reassignment workflows.

↔

Reservations

Cloudbeds-style webhooks and API reads that trigger safe local events without storing guest-sensitive data in dashboards or public repos.

⌂

Room dashboards

Front desk, staff, owner, and technical views for room state, device health, cleaning status, maintenance, and manual override.

◌

Climate and power

Occupied comfort, vacancy setback, checkout reset, offline climate alerts, exterior lighting schedules, and energy discipline.

◉

Cameras and safety

Camera coverage plans, PoE switching, recorder cleanup, motion-aware alerts, and network separation from guest traffic.

◇

Wi-Fi and TV/IoT

Guest networks, staff networks, TV/IoT segmentation, hospitality TV planning, casting exceptions, AP placement, and support records.

✺

WLED and signage

Exterior lighting, holiday scenes, status indicators, no-vacancy signs, event lighting, and Home Assistant-controlled visual cues.

✦

Documentation

As-built notes, room maps, cable labels, IP/MAC references, backup targets, account boundaries, and support handoffs.

⌁

Middleware

Starlight Bridge validates API events, applies customer rules, sends safe local events, and logs decisions for review.

Deployment path

Build the operating layer before trusting it with guests.

1

Survey

Inventory rooms, network gear, locks, cameras, TVs, coax/Ethernet, accounts, apps, and current failure points.

2

Map

Create room, device, VLAN, cable, API, and account-boundary maps so everyone knows what exists.

3

Pilot

Test one room, one lock, one dashboard, one sign, or one non-critical automation before property-wide changes.

4

Roll out

Expand in documented phases with manual override, backups, clear logs, and customer-specific support notes.

Good fit

Best for owners who want control instead of another black-box subscription.

Starlight Lab is a strong fit when a property already has some equipment, wants to avoid vendor lock-in where possible, and needs one person to understand both the low-voltage/network side and the automation/API side.

Useful first project

Start with a property technology map: rooms, network gear, cameras, locks, TVs, lighting, cloud accounts, support contacts, and the first three automations worth piloting.

Plan a hospitality system