@beh333, sorry to hear you got this review, you will get others that will be 5 stars and this will look like some anomaly.
I rent a private room/bathroom in the upstairs of my small home. I don’t go upstairs while guests are here, (then again, I have a 4 night maximum stay).
I also make it clear in my listing (not that anyone reads it, that I do not enter the upstairs while guests are here unless maintenance is required.
No locks on these doors, well, there is one on the bathroom door. My bedroom door is an antique, I’m not changing it as of yet, not one guest has mentioned it.
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@beh333 It’s horrible that you got (what I consider to be) such a mean review on your second hosting, but as others have said, that will soon be a memory as you build up more reviews like your first 5-star one.
The question whether to enter a guest’s room or not seems to have become a fraught one, as you’ll see from the discussion above. Those of us, like @jaquo and myself who, come from the traditional B&B world are quite used to going regularly into a guest’s room to clean, but that seems to be changing. However, I don’t agree that the room belongs to the guest while they are staying. Yes, their privacy is importance, but so is the maintenance and care of your asset (whether it’s a room in a private house or a separate home).
So to balance these needs you will probably have to find a compromise (and I think perhaps as a single male host you may need, sadly, to protect yourself here). You could put a lock on the door, but guests are not stupid and they will know that you also have a key - as you must! So you can tell guests that you won’t enter their room until you’re blue in the face, but what proof do they have that you don’t? I think probably the best solution is the simple bolt or hook and eye system as suggested by Jaquo, for when guests are sleeping or, ahem, otherwise engaged …
In a way, it’s quite good that you’ve had this warning as you now know that some guests are more privacy-conscious than others and you’ll be able to gauge their level early on. If you want to empty the garbage or wash their coffee cups or do twice-weekly cleaning or whatever you can mention it at the beginning and ask if that’s ok with them. I do this and most of the guests are really pleased that the room will be serviced during their stay.
And as others say, ignore the annoyingly patronising Airbnb messages!
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I enter the guests’ rooms each day. That is part of my listing- breakfast items will be refreshed daily, so the guests are not surprised. If they have closed the door to the bedroom, I have no idea what is going on behind that door, but I do feel free to enter the sitting room to replenish their granola, milk, and leave the breakfast items that they have ordered.
Our cleaning folks come every other Thursday. I ask the guests if they mind having the rooms cleaned while they are out [though I don’t give them an option to opt out of having their private bathroom cleaned.] To date, only one guest has preferred that their bedroom not be cleaned. Since we clean the rooms so thoroughly between guests the cleaners are really not totally needed for the sitting room and bedroom. Took some time, but the cleaning women now know NOT to fold all the clothes in the room and put them on shelves. That was awkward!
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beh - this is terrible. I would try to contact the guest and ask her to edit the review. I think Kona has experience with getting a guest to edit a review that was too harsh. If possible, she should change your overall star rating from a 2 to at least a 3, hopefully a 4 if you beg. Completely unfair that she gave you a 5 for cleanliness and location, and then a 2 for overall experience.
I would just apologize to her and say you are new at this and really had no idea - you just assumed the guest would know. You wish she had come to you and are very sorry, etc. Would she consider editing her overall star rating, as now this will completely ruin your business - and you already have a lock installed.
I hope you already have other bookings in the works, that way her review can be buried.
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Hi @cabinhost. Thanks for the suggestion. It’s nerve-wracking to consider contacting the guest but perhaps worth it. My last 2 guests since the 2-stars gave me 5 stars all around with effusive public written comments, and I have 10 more parties booked through the end of October. So the road to recovery seems ahead of me. The 2-star guest did not yet write anything negative in public except for the 2-stars. Will my listing really get ruined by one anomalous bad review?
She left stars but no review? That’s odd. Your listing won’t be ruined by one bad review. They are averaged so as you said you are well on the way to recovery with 10 October bookings. I wish I’d get 10 advance bookings in a month. LOL.
honestly, I think it’s silly to provide a door that they can lock from the outside. Sure, it might provide them some peace of mind, but really, what kind of host would you be if you didn’t have a spare key to their room on the off chance that they lose their keys? What would stop you from using your spare key to go in without their knowledge? Not to say that you (or any host, for that matter) would do that, but it’s foolish for them to think that they would have the only key to that door.
I have a basic locking doorknob in my guest room, and have never had a complaint about it since I’ve been hosting (June 2015)
It reduces the number of people who have access to that room from an indeterminate but non-zero number to 1. I.e. the host. And possibly the host’s family, but let’s not go there. Not silly at all.
Personally, I have the spare guest keys locked away, and nobody else knows where it is or has access to it.
Nothing to stop you. And I’m sure they know the host has the key to the door. It’s one of those things people mutually agree to politely overlook. Like relatives hiding their real feelings about each other during Christmas visits.
See that’s the thing, it’s only myself and my dog that live in my apartment, or who are ever at my place for that matter. I guess in a multiple room rental situation, I can see your point, but it’s just me in my place, and only one room I rent, so I don’t see a point in offering something like a lock from the outside for my guests.
Well, presumably you have visitors, friends and family, workmen, etc. stopping by occasionally. If nobody but you ever enters your place then indeed it would be a moot point. Though it might still serve to make your guests more comfortable.
Actually, I really don’t have visitors at my place. I’m pretty anti-social I guess. Haha
Fair enough. (And it doesn’t mean antisocial; sometimes one tends to meet people outside the home.) But bear in mind that your guests don’t know that.
In your case, her 2 star review will not necessarily affect you negatively. For example - I list on multiple platforms…so my next “Air” guest may not be staying for a month. Then all those viewing my listing may see some horrible review as the last review standing. It is different when people have a high volume of short term rentals on Air.
Keep in mind some have posted on here that their bookings came to a halt after one negative review. That is very real, and should not be ignored. I know some say, “oh it will just get buried” - not always if you don’t have enough bookings down the pipeline. But in your case you seem covered.
It doesn’t hurt to grovel - glad to hear she didn’t state anything publicly. 
I found this thread and everyone’s replies very helpful. It’s been a month since my alarming 2-star experience. I am relieved to say that my guests since then have been very happy. I’ve been getting lots of 5-star reviews and new reservations seem to be arriving just fine.
I also installed a keyed lock on the guest bedroom door, and I stopped doing any cleaning of the guest room when it’s occupied.
Thanks, everybody
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