What we watch · Temperature
A furnace problem becomes a plumbing problem in about 48 hours.
HVAC failures were the second most common incident type in our October 2024 survey, at 38% of operators. In an Ontario winter, the clock on a dead furnace runs fast.
The freeze chain
Furnace quits on a Tuesday night. The house coasts on stored heat for a day. By Thursday the interior is below freezing; by Friday a supply line has split — and a split pipe in a heated house is a mess, but a split pipe in a vacant house runs until someone shows up. Every stage of that chain is detectable, and every stage is cheaper than the one after it.
How we watch temperature
Continuous indoor temperature monitoring — using your existing smart thermostat where you have one — with thresholds tuned for vacancy. A slow drift downward in January reads very differently from a door open at checkout, and a human makes that call before anyone gets woken up. When the drift is real, you hear from us while it's still a furnace repair, and with your authorization an HVAC contractor is dispatched.
We learned this one personally too
We've had guests arrive at our own rental to find no heat. The scramble to rehouse them cost us a weekend; the reviews cost us months of lower rates. The damage from a cold house isn't just to pipes — about $3,000 in future bookings is what our survey pegged for one bad review.
Install photo — thermostat and temperature sensor setup