Patent ID: 7478748

Claim:
A property management system for providing users access to properties at remote locations, said system comprising: a key generation system for generating electronic keys in response to a requesting application from users, said requesting applications comprising a property identifier identifying a user selected property and a time identifier identifying when the user desires access to the user selected property, said key generation system comprising an encryption algorithm for encrypting information contained in the requesting application; an access control device at each property for providing access to the property, each access control device having an access control identifier identifying the access control device and corresponding to the property identifier of the property to which the access control device can provide access, each access control device comprising a decryption algorithm, an internal clock for determining time and date, and an input method permitting the user to input an electronic key; a network through which the user may access the key generation system to submit the requesting application and receive generated electronic keys; wherein the key generation system receives the requesting application though the network from the user and using the encryption algorithm generates a generated electronic key which is forwarded to the user through the network, said generated electronic key containing encrypted information corresponding to at least the property identifier and the time identifier; wherein upon the user inputting the generated electronic key into the input method of the access control device located at the user selected property, the access control device decrypts the generated electronic key using the decryption algorithm to extract the property identifier and time identifier, and said access control device permits the user access to the user selected property, if, and only if, the property identifier extracted from the generated key corresponds to the access control device identifier for the access control device at the user selected property, and, the time and date determined by the internal clock of the access control device at the user selected location is greater than the time identifier.