When choosing a smart lock system for a hotel, motel, or other lodging property, connectivity is a core part of the decision. How locks communicate — and what manages that connection — directly affects reliability, battery life, and day-to-day performance. 

We’re often asked whether a Wi-Fi lock or a gateway-based smart lock system is the better choice. While Wi-Fi locks are commonly marketed as a simple, all-in-one option and may feel familiar from residential use, hospitality environments introduce very different operational requirements, especially when managing dozens or hundreds of doors.

In this article, we’ll break down what a smart lock gateway is, how it differs from Wi-Fi locks, and what those differences mean in real hospitality deployments. 

What is a Gateway for a Smart Lock

A gateway is a small, powered device that connects smart locks to the internet, enabling centralized remote management.

Instead of each lock connecting directly to Wi-Fi, locks communicate locally — typically via Bluetooth, Zigbee, or Z-wave — with a nearby gateway. The gateway maintains a constant internet connection and passes information between the locks and a cloud-based management platform. 

By centralizing connectivity, gateways make it easier to manage access, automations, and integrations consistently across multiple doors from a single system.

How a Smart Lock Gateway Works

Once installed and connected to the network, a gateway runs continuously in the background to support remote lock management: 

1) Access updates go through the gateway
‍When access is added, changed, or revoked, the update is sent from the management platform to the gateway and then applied at the lock.
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2) Lock activity syncs back automatically
Lock events, battery levels, and access logs are sent back through the gateway and are visible remotely.

3) Schedules and updates are applied without on-site action
Time-based access and scheduled changes are handled through the gateway.

Because the gateway is powered and always online, communication is fast and predictable, while the lock itself can remain in a low-power state until it’s needed.

Gateway Implementations Can Vary by Platform

Across the smart lock market, gateways are typically designed to work with a specific platform and set of locks. While the role of a gateway remains the same, the way it connects to the network can vary depending on the product and deployment. 

Common gateway connection types include:

• PoE (Power over Ethernet) gateways that use a wired network connection and draw power through the same cable. 
• Plug-in Wi-Fi gateways that connect over 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and plug into a standard outlet. 
• Cellular (4G/LTE) gateways that rely on a SIM card instead of the property’s local network.

Gateways can also differ in how many locks they support and how communication is handled. Some platforms limit gateways to one lock, while others support one-to-many or many-to-many configurations.

Regardless of setup, gateways centralize connectivity and remove the need for each door to maintain its own internet connection.

Where Wi-Fi Locks Often Fall Short in Hospitality

Wi-Fi locks can work well in homes or very small deployments, but challenges tend to appear as the number of doors increases. 
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‍Shorter battery life increases maintenance
Maintaining a Wi-Fi connection requires significantly more power than low-energy wireless communication. As a result, battery life is shorter and more frequent replacements are required. ‍
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Delayed updates and unreliable status reporting
To conserve battery, most Wi-Fi locks spend much of their time in a low-power “sleep” state, and access changes may be delayed until the lock wakes up. Lock “offline” status is often inferred from timeouts rather than confirmed in real-time, making it difficult to know the true state of a door. 

Large deployments can strain the network
Each Wi-Fi lock is another device competing for bandwidth on the property’s network. As the number of locks increases, so does the demand on routers, leading to congestion, more complex configurations, and greater reliance on IT support. 

Smart Lock Gateways vs Wi-Fi Locks: Key Differences

Why Gateway-Based Systems Are More Reliable 

After testing both approaches in real hospitality environments, gateway-based systems consistently outperform Wi-Fi locks. 

Faster, more reliable access updates
Gateways are powered and remain online, allowing access updates to be delivered quickly, issues to be detected sooner, and audit logs and lock data to be synced frequently. 

Flexible coverage with advanced redundancy
Gateways can be placed strategically to support coverage across a property. How coverage works varies by platform — some gateways are designed for a single lock, while others support multiple locks. 

33 Lock goes a step further by allowing locks to connect to more than one gateway. This many-to-many architecture helps ensure consistent syncing and functionality, even if one gateway becomes unavailable.

‍Longer battery life for locks
Since locks communicate locally instead of over Wi-Fi, power consumption is lower. This leads to much longer battery life and fewer replacements. 

Simpler network setup that supports scale
Only gateways connect to the internet, not every lock. This reduces the number of devices on the network and streamlines the setup and configuration. 

Gateways vs Wi-Fi Locks: The Bottom Line

The difference between Wi-Fi locks and gateway-based systems comes down to where connectivity is managed. With Wi-Fi locks, each door is responsible for staying online. That can work in very small setups, but it becomes difficult to manage in hospitality environments.

Gateway-based systems take a different approach. Connectivity is handled centrally to support remote management and scale, while locks focus on access at the door.

While both Wi-Fi locks and gateway-based systems support remote management, gateways are designed to simplify access control and automation as door count and operational complexity increase. When access needs to work reliably across dozens or hundreds of doors, those operational details matter. That’s why gateway-based smart lock systems are the stronger foundation for access control in hospitality. 

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Need help choosing the right gateway setup for your property? 

The 33 Lock team can help you evaluate your options and recommend an ideal access setup — whether you’re upgrading an existing site or planning a new deployment. 

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