📣 A Door Tag Your Tenant Can Use Without an Account

The worst version of a maintenance request is a voicemail that says "the air conditioning is broken" and gives no unit number. The second worst is a text message with a photograph of a thermostat, which tells you the room is warm and nothing else.

What makes a request useful is boring: which unit, what is wrong, since when, and a picture of the thing rather than the symptom. Tenants are willing to give it. The problem is that every system for collecting it asks them to install an app or create an account to report a broken fridge once every three years.

What the Tenant Sees

Each unit gets its own tag. The printed tag is headed "Need something fixed?", with the building name, the unit and a short code under it, and a large QR code in the middle. The web address is printed in full under the QR code, because cameras do not always focus and somebody should still be able to type it in. Three steps run across the bottom: point your camera at the code, describe the problem and add photos if it helps, and send it. The last line tells the tenant to call the number they normally use for emergencies, because the tag is for non-urgent requests.

Scanning opens a page headed Request service, with the building, the unit and the same short code that is printed on the tag. The code is not a password. It is there so that a sticker somebody swapped for their own is easy to spot. If you have filled in an emergency number or an office phone, a red Emergency? box with a Call button sits at the top of the page.

Then come four questions: "I can smell gas", "There is fire, smoke or sparking", "Water is actively running or flooding" and "The unit will not lock, or a door or window is broken open". Tapping any of them takes the form away and shows "Do not use this form." with what to do instead. For gas: leave now and call from outside, without using switches, appliances or a phone indoors. For fire: get out and call 911. For water or a unit that will not lock: call, because it cannot wait for a written request. A form is the wrong channel for a gas leak, and this page is built so that it can never answer one with "we have received it".

If none of those apply, the form is short. Their name, which is optional. What’s wrong?, with a prompt asking where it is, what it is doing and how long it has been happening. Up to 3 photos, also optional; if they pick more, the page keeps the first 3 and says so. Under the photo picker it says that photos are visible only to the people who maintain the location. There is no box for the unit, because the tag already knows it, and no box for a callback number, because the tenant name, phone and email you have on file for that unit are added to the request when it arrives.

Below the form is whatever you have typed into BUILDING INFO FOR TENANTS: the office name, phone, email and hours, and sections such as shutoffs, fire safety, utilities and notices, with any document links. The page never shows the tenant's own name, phone or email. If you switch on Pay rent from the door tag for a unit, the tag also shows a Pay rent button while that unit has an open rent bill, and nothing about the bill appears until the tenant types the email or phone number you have on file for them.

After sending, the tenant sees Request sent, with a line saying the request went to the team that looks after that building and unit, that someone will review it, and that it does not schedule a visit on its own. If you have an emergency number or office phone filled in, it is repeated as a button: "If it gets worse, call" that number. The wording is deliberate. A form that implies a technician is now on the way creates a worse problem than the one it solved.

Where It Lands

Requests arrive in the Tenants tab of the TRANSFER INBOX on the phone, and in the TENANTS tab of Dispatch on the web dashboard, with a count on each. Each one says which unit it came from, because the tag carries the unit, and who is on file for that unit. From there you choose CREATE WORK ORDER, mark it handled, or delete it along with its photos. A tenant request never turns itself into a work order, never schedules anything and never touches an equipment record on its own. That is why it is safe to put a code on a door.

Who gets told is set in Site Info, under UNITS, TENANTS & RENT, in the TENANT ALERT LIST. The people on it are emailed, and texted once their number has been confirmed. You and your managers also get a push in the app. The vendor check-in lists are never used for tenant requests, so the contractor who signs in at the plant room does not hear about the inside of somebody's apartment. The alert links to your inbox rather than carrying the photographs, so a notification landing on somebody's phone never exposes the inside of a home.

The list is required. A door tag cannot be printed, and tenant requests cannot be turned on, until it has an email or a text number. The app says so and offers GO TO THE TENANT ALERT LIST. A request should always reach a person.

The Limits, and Why They Exist

A code on a door is open to anybody who walks past, including anyone who photographs it and walks away. So it has limits, and they are enforced in the security rules, not only in the page. A page is not the only way to reach a form.

One request per hour per tag. Because every unit has its own tag, that limit belongs to one door: a neighbor reporting a leak ten minutes after 4B reported no heat is not turned away. Three photos per request. Photos readable only by the account owner and their active team members. And requests are only accepted for an account on Pro.

The last limit is the awkward one, because it is a limit on the cleanup rather than on the tenant. Photos have to upload before the request is written, since their paths are part of it. If the write is then refused, the page tries to take the photos back off the server, and for a signed-out tenant that attempt fails. The storage rules only let the account owner or an active team member delete tenant request photos, and that is the same rule that keeps those photos private in the first place. So the page does not claim a removal that did not happen. It counts the photos that are still there, says so, and tells the tenant that they stay visible only to the people who maintain the location. Nobody else can read them, but they are on the server, and the page says that rather than something more comfortable.

You can stop requests without taking tags down. Accept tenant requests, in the same part of Site Info, turns them off for the whole location. Each unit also has its own switch, Accept tenant requests from this unit’s tag, for a unit between tenants or one where requests go another way. With a unit switched off, its tag still opens, names the place and shows the emergency number and what to do about gas, fire, flooding or a door that will not lock, as text to read rather than a form. If a card goes missing or a unit turns over, REPLACE THIS TAG makes a new code, and the old one stops working straight away.

The Same Problem on Equipment Tags

The door tag came out of a defect on a completely different surface. Scanning a machine's own QR tag used to offer one action: log completed service. So anybody who scanned a tag to report a problem had to file it through a form that asked for a before photo, an after photo, which parts they had replaced and how much refrigerant they had added.

So "the walk-in is warm" arrived in the inbox as a completed repair. Not a mislabeled record but an actively misleading one, because the history then showed work that had never been done.

Equipment tags now offer Request Service next to Log Completed Service. The request form asks what is wrong and how urgent it is, on a scale of down, urgent, soon or routine. It has one photo picker labeled "Photo of the issue" and a button that says Send Request. Both the phone inbox and the web Dispatch page label every entry SERVICE REQUESTED or COMPLETED WORK. A guest submission that gets refused now says that service submissions are not active for that location and to contact the location manager or site contact. The old message was "Failed to submit service log. Please try again.", which sent a technician standing at a rooftop unit into a retry loop that could never succeed.

How to Print One

Door tags are made one for each unit. The building-wide tag can no longer be printed. On the phone, open the location, tap Site Info, open UNITS, TENANTS & RENT and tap TENANTS & DOOR TAGS. Tap a unit, tap CREATE THE DOOR TAG, then PRINT DOOR TAG (PDF). It prints letter-size, so any office printer will do. MAKE A STICKER LABEL opens the QR Creator for label sizes from 1 by 1 inch up to 4 by 6, and SEE WHAT A SCAN SHOWS opens the page your tenant will see. On the unit list, CREATE MISSING TAGS makes a tag for every unit that does not have one yet, and never replaces a tag that already exists, and PRINT ALL TAGS prints every tag at once.

On the web dashboard the path is the same: open the location, click Site Info, open UNITS, TENANTS & RENT and click TENANTS & DOOR TAGS, pick a unit, then Create the door tag and Print the tag. The QR code guide for property managers shows every code the app makes and what a scan of each one shows.

It is a Pro feature. The hosted page behind it and the private photo storage are the reason. Setting up units and tenants is free; the tenant alert list and the door tags are Pro.

Put it inside the unit, on the back of the front door or beside it, where the tenant sees it every day, or hand it over with the keys at move-in. A single rental house is one unit and gets one tag. The tag is plainer than the vendor door sign, because the reader is a resident with a problem, not a contractor following a process.

If one of the older building-wide tags is already on a wall, it keeps working. It opens the same page with the same safety questions, but the tenant is asked to type their unit, there is no short code to check and there is no Pay rent button. For anything new, print a tag for each unit. How the per-unit tags work in more detail is here.

What This Is For

It is not a work order system and it is not a helpdesk. It is a way of turning a phone call you were going to get anyway into a written record with a unit number and a photograph attached to it, before anybody drives anywhere.

That matters most on the calls that would otherwise become a diagnostic trip. A photograph of the actual appliance, with a model number visible in it, is frequently enough to know which part to put on the truck. More on dispatching prepared instead of dispatching to look.

Does a tenant need an app or an account to send a request?

No. They scan the tag on their door with their phone camera and a web page opens. They fill in the form and send it. No install, no sign-in, and no account is created for them.

Does the tenant have to type their unit number?

No. Each tag is made for one unit, so the request already says which unit it came from. The tenant name, phone and email you have on file for that unit are added to the request when it arrives, so the form does not ask for them.

What happens if a tenant reports a gas leak?

The form never takes it. Before the form, the page asks about gas, fire or sparking, water running or flooding, and a unit that will not lock. Tapping any of them replaces the form with what to do and a button to call your emergency number or office phone.

Does a tenant request create a work order automatically?

No, and that is on purpose. Requests land in the Tenants tab of the TRANSFER INBOX on the phone and the TENANTS tab of Dispatch on the web for review. Nothing is scheduled and no equipment record is changed until you choose CREATE WORK ORDER.

Who can see the photos a tenant attaches?

Only the account owner and the active members of their team. That is enforced in the storage rules, not just in the page, and the alert email links to your inbox rather than carrying the images.

How many requests can be sent from one tag?

One per hour per tag. Every unit has its own tag, so the limit belongs to that one door, and a neighbor is never turned away because somebody in another unit reported first.

How many photos can a tenant attach?

Up to three. If they pick more, the first three are kept and the page tells them so.

Can I still print one tag for the whole building?

No. Door tags are made one for each unit, under TENANTS & DOOR TAGS in Site Info. A building-wide tag that is already on a wall keeps working, but it asks the tenant to type their unit.

Is the tenant door tag a Pro feature?

Yes. It uses a hosted page and private photo storage, both of which sit under Pro. Adding units and tenants is free; the tenant alert list and the door tags are Pro. Vendor check-in signs and equipment tags are separate codes with their own jobs.

Can somebody report a problem by scanning an equipment tag instead?

Yes. A machine's public page offers Request Service alongside Log Completed Service. The request form asks what is wrong and how urgent it is, and the entry is labeled SERVICE REQUESTED so it is never mistaken for work that has already been carried out.

Jonathan Curtis

HVAC Technician & Founder · Equipment Tracker Pro

Jonathan Curtis is an HVAC technician and the founder of Equipment Tracker Pro. He built the app to solve real-world property handoff challenges, including the absolute nightmare of losing years of maintenance histories and having to reprint physical asset tags.