Securing your home while on your staycation

Use your social media and mobile devices to create some extra peace while on your away

Criminals are now excellent digital researchers and dedicated geo-tagging fans. Picture: iStock

WE’VE ALL done it. The big grinning Instagram post from the packed departure lounge at the airport. This year, this insufferable behaviour has a special piquancy. Some of us may well be ahead of the check-in queue, with vaccination “passports” riding on a few grey hairs. Finally, the callused oldies have their day in the sun, and what better than stabbing out a little citrus-spirited announcement of our travels.

Whether it’s a stay-cation, clinging to a tent on Achill, or a long August weekend in Milan, we know we should keep our absence from home on the down-low.

There are multiple reasons. There’s basic human decency. Without vaccinations for the kids, and in many cases without sufficient funds, time and support, many of us will not be holidaying at all. Putting all that fine thinking aside, what about home security?

With an intelligent keypad on the door, you can set, change and share the codes to allow multiple or one-time entry to trades, friends and house-sitters. Picture: iStock

Our online braying is a lot more public than most of us realise. Even if you post to a chosen group of friends, they may chat on their much more public forum about your holiday or inadvertently tag you in images. The sad fact is, that many break-ins are perpetrated by individuals the resident already knows. Sandalled feet, flickering candlelight with an arty, unexplained sunset backdrop? Er, no. By the way, who are your friends and followers? Unless you’re an influencer, take a wry look. Think about weeding out odd names you accepted on a flattered whim.

Criminals are now excellent digital researchers and dedicated geo-tagging fans. They trawl the “about” section of Facebook for example to sift out the address and profession of a likely mark. Are you completely clear on about the privacy settings on your social media platforms? Various apps in the phone you are snapping away on and social media can instantly give away your location. Take the time to disable that feature. Left intact, foreign and distant hotel or restaurants can signal you are “checking in”.

Overall, social media posts regarding holidays are best done on your return, rather than thumbing your nose from the silver sands. Just keep a blog and release those fantasy experiences in one insufferable lump, crushing your friends with humble brags and body tuned images weeded from the rows and sun-burned mishaps. Back home, we want to create the impression that you’re still there and new technologies can be a fantastic help.

There are some great ways to use your phone-based apps and even social media to put the bad guys off exploring your home. Oddly, the best advice I’ve been given is to post pictures to social media during a holiday of the family or individual showing the person at home. Declaring that darling teenage Mark or Mandy is going to be looking after the pekes’ and plants on Instagram?

Why publicise that a relatively inexperienced wide-eyed house-sitter who may not know the neighbours and your friends is home alone or potentially throwing a free-house? If your innocent, adoring post gets tagged to Mark or Mandy’s feed — you could be mopping up Iron Brew for days on your return. For this and many other reasons your small valuables including vital paperwork will be locked away, impenetrably, in a bolted-down safe.

Digital doorbells are useful for when you are home and when you're not, allowing you to answer the door via intercom from anywhere. Entry-level Ring doorbells start at €199.

Today’s smart doorbell and/or wireless alarms and indoor/outdoor HD cameras married to an app on your mobile device (with or without a central hub), can stream and record what’s happening everywhere from the driveway and garage to the front hall, and beyond.

Live-streaming drama from a wireless alarm won’t save valuable, light belongings left littered around the house in the event of a quick smash-and-grab, but it can create a discouraging amount of noise, alert any paid monitoring service and ideally record the activity securely to the cloud.

For rural homes, it’s the old tree falling in the forest scenario, even if you’re bristling in Ibiza with a notification that someone uninvited has actually entered a room, cracked open a window or set off a siren, you should have a mechanism ready to get boots on the ground.

If you have a smart key-less lock on the door, an intelligent doorbell and say facial recognition cameras installed in the principal halls, you can let someone in from a tradesman to a neighbour in while you’re gone, and a clever ding-dong can act as an intercom, allowing you to appear to be home, even when you’re not. Monitors will keep anyone minding the house on the straight and narrow too.

Your eyes (however discreetly) might be on them. It just gives the trust a little galvanising. Don’t be a nosy, bossy creep about it, and keep all cameras out of bedrooms and bathrooms, obviously.

Think it through, just what are your expectations regarding app-based security measures? How much are you taking upon yourself in terms of guarding your own house while relaxing on the Costa. Rehearse closely, in order of happenings, what you intend to do if something does occur back at Castle Me.

Casting should include a key-holder to be on the spot where needed. Tell your local Garda station of your holiday plans. The day before you go is not the time to set any alarm or home monitoring system up — we need them aligned with your network and communicating perfectly through your mobile device, with your keyholder on board for period checks and emergency action.

There are a number of reputable products in connected home CCTV bundles that work straight out of the box, with wireless, battery-operated operation intended for amateur installation. Blink, Nest, and Ring are three of the best-known brands of smart cameras with closely similar detailing including live, two-way audio.

Nest IQ cameras offer facial recognition technology.

Nest IQ cameras with 4K sensors, HDR and 940nm infrared LED (for night vision), are feted for facial recognition technology. If the camera picks up someone it doesn’t recognise from its accrued and approved gallery of people, it will alert your mobile, allowing you to take action (including talking back through a speaker) continuing to track the rogue, recording the imagery to the cloud. Intelligent motion and sound alerts cover predetermined “activity zones”. Privacy zones are something you will include when mapping out the house.

All of these systems should be used in combination with adequate physical door and window security (rim locks, in frame locks and dead-bolts) and an additional compatible, wired or wireless audible alarm (open/close units and PIR). With the right app, you can be alerted to and disarm a nuisance alarm from anywhere.

Connecting the various components of your security system including lights and plugs, this can be topped off by a remote monitoring service that will alert key holders and the gardaí if required. Top makes in self-installed smart alarms include Yale, Abode, and SimpliSafe, and there are multiple professional suppliers providing a total package of smart locks, cameras, sensors, and a siren alarm. There’s a lot to be said for a bespoke wireless system delivered in a day with all the advantages of app-based monitoring and a central hub.

If you’re not sure how to use those smart bulbs to set up a shifting algorithm that turns them on and off indicating occupancy, pay the extra to have a pro detail some convincing spectral habitation by app. With everything in place, log out of all your home PCs having left them protected with a two-factor password, and post the signage provided with most alarms on a front downstairs window for example. Ensure any alarm key is complex.

Going it alone, a Nest IQ Indoor 1080P HD security camera in white is around €349.99. Enhanced capabilities come at a relatively small extra spend, for instance, alerts even when the wi-fi goes off-line. Subscribe to Nest Aware by the month from €5 for 24/7 (digital) monitoring. Their new Nest Aware Plus save a 60-day event history. Blink system cameras run from €95-€330. Entry-level Ring doorbells start at €199, with stick-up cameras from €99. Ring Protect subscriptions from €10 per month (covering all cameras and doorbells), eu.ring.com. Keep in mind that alarms demanded by insurance companies generally must comply with the European Standard EN 50131 and must be Installed by an accredited firm.