To better solution, it helps to understand the problem space. What you are dealing with is a two part problem:
- User needs
- Intuitiveness of of the system user interface, and user experience (UI/UX)
Once you understand the problem space correctly, solutions tend to become more obvious.
User Needs
I put user needs first because you mention people plugging in wall worts and it's the easier problem to solve (I think). The best way to deal with this is to recognize that your renters may need to plug in wall worts and to make it easy to do so without messing with your existing plugged in items. Having a plug in a visually obvious place that is super easy to access and accommodates common sized wall worts helps a lot.
This is why hotels put plugs on the night stands and desks, to keep users from unplugging lamps and bedside clocks to use the plug for their own needs. Something I have done for my own convenience in my house is to find a nice mountable power strip and attach it to the back corner of a sofa side table or nightstand. It makes it super easy to plug something in on the fly and is (usually) visually obvious. Score bonus points if the mounted power strip has USB power ports available, super bonus points if the USB ports include USB C with Power Deliver support.
It comes to thinking about the traveling user's needs and making sure you accommodate them appropriately or the user will figure out their own solution, usually to your irritation.
Intuitiveness of the System / User Interface, User Experience
It may sound stupid to think of a house, or some portion thereof, as having a user interface, but it does. How you lock and unlock, turn on and off lights and fans, adjust comforts settings, etc, are all parts of the house's user interface.
You have three sub-problems in this category:
- User needs
- The user interface and experience renters are used to at home
- Making it obvious how you want your rental used
Wait, didn't we already discus user needs? Yes but user needs are also part of and can drive a large portion of the user interface and user experience.
Your second issue is that unfortunately people expect your rental house to work like their personal home and they will look for the same interface and operational aspects as such. The more your rental looks and feels like a generic home in its intended use style, the more compliance from renters you will get.
Your third issue is revolves around the fact that your rental will not work exactly like the renters home and how you make it obvious to work with the differences that way you (the landlord) want.
Let's take the common table or floor lamp as an example. People are conditioned to reach up under the shade and rotate a switch arm. They don't even think about it, they just do it. It's muscle memory. So long as the rotational switch exists and is usable you will NOT win this battle. It's a losing game. You need to do two things to resolve this:
- remove the rotational switch
- put an automation integrated switch right at or on the lamp so you is visually obvious how to turn on and off the lamp (and not screw up the automation system). The part in parenthesis, the renter will not care about, but you do and you have to account for it.
For the common table lamp, attach a Z-wave or WiFi button to the sofa table or nightstand. Keep it as simple as possible such as a single toggle button or a well-labeled set of on and off buttons.
For floor lamps make sure the wall switches are clearly labeled for the each room. For the lamps on a wall managed plug, label the wall switch floor lamps.
As for the house cleaners. Having automation enabled based on lock code entered or having a easily visible button that turns everything on and off (toggle) is the best you will get.
Wrap Up
I could go on and on but the point you should take away should be that
- If you don't give the users what they need, they will figure out how to get it themselves. The chances you will appreciate the result are low
- You have to make the way you want the house to be operated the only way available and make it easy to understand an use in the way you want it used
Nobody reads instructions and even if they do they likely won't care so long as they feel that what they want to do the way they want to do it doesn't break your home (in their perception). You have to keep in mind that most people don't have home automation and therefore won't think about breaking home automation when making choices on how to behave and interact with the home.
Footnote: I expect to see automation more and more when I travel. And it drives nuts to no end when I have to reverse engineer how the home owner or hotel designer wants the system to be used.
