The guest locked himself out (i.e. left the key in the flat) on a Saturday night, and was leaving Prague by train on the Sunday morning, so needed to get back in. The receptionist was not contactable (she was out of town for the weekend, and is only on hand during working hours as I explain in the intro email - although usually she is in Prague and would have been able to help) and I am in Asia so I didn’t see the message until several hours later. He therefore called a locksmith, gained access to the flat (by removing a window, then replacing it afterwards - I didn’t know you could do that but anyway…). He wants compensation for the $170 he incurred.
I’m not sure if I should refund or not. On the one hand, it was a guest error, it’s a pretty basic thing not to lock yourself out. On the other hand perhaps Airbnb expects us to be on hand 24/7 in case of a guest doing something like this. I’ve had 1,100 bookings in 22 years and this hasn’t happened before, so not sure how to deal with it. Perhaps I could ask him to claim through the Airbnb insurance policy, since it was his mistake? He has already sent the invoice to Airbnb asking for payment, so I’m waiting to see what they say. I’m fine to pay it if it’s judged to be my error. If I was the guest in this scenario I think I would swallow the cost of my own mistake, a bit cheeky to ask the host to pay.
Any idea how this would be resolved?
You never locked yourself out of the house? Personally I think YOU should compensate the guest. It’s not HIS fault you aren’t even on the same continent as your rental. It’s not HIS fault you don’t have a night manager or back-up manager. It’s not HIS fault that your rental uses a physical key rather than an electronic door lock.
Yes – AirBnb pretty much expects there to be someone available to read emails, and handle issues with fairly short notice.
IMHO this is the problem with ownership and management of a rental property not even in the same local region, not to mention country! Over the years we’ve seen any number of issues like this arise because you the owner aren’t within a reasonable distance and you do not have a full time resudent manager.
I don’t agree. As you’ve been in the STR business for 22 years, you are no doubt aware that an important part of the hospitality industry is that when guests are in residence, someone must be on hand to help out in the case of an emergency.
What if there had been a major flood in the property? Or simply a bunged up loo in the middle of the night? Or a major power outage? Or if a local gas main had burst? Or hundreds of other possibilities?
It’s not a case of what Airbnb expects - it’s your business, not theirs. It’s to your advantage and, one could say, your duty, to ensure that guests have a comfortable and pleasant stay.
As you have been in this business for 22 years, you are not one of those fly-by-night, let’s-give-Airbnb-a-go type hosts. If you were, then repeat business and recommendations wouldn’t matter to you but I’m assuming that you’re much more conscientious than that. So yes, I’d compensate the guest. He had a reasonable expectation that there would be someone locally with a simple spare key.
Why are you still working with keys? Years ago, pre-keypads, I had guests losing keys every few months. It happens and hosts should really be prepared for that eventuality - it’s not rare.
That would be pretty disconcerting as a guest, not able to get back inside, no response from you for a few hours. It’s night, it’s dark and what are the options? This person did the only thing that was possible which was to contact a locksmith.
Leaving a key inside is not unusual and there needs to be a backup plan for the person to have access.
A refund is in order.
I agree with the others here- this is the host’s responsibility. There always needs to be a back-up plan for emergencies.
In my case, I live where I host, and am never out of town when I have guests, so that’s not an issue. But even then, as I do use physical keys, I have a set of “emergency keys” that are hidden outside, and I show guests where they are.
I think you should consider yourself lucky that this guest called a locksmith, paid out of pocket, and that the window was replaced without any damage. As opposed to him damaging the door trying to get it open.
I have a friend who had just built a brand new casita to Airbnb next to his house. His very first guests were a young couple who went out to the bar their first night, somehow lost the keys, and instead of knocking on his door, as he had told them to do if they needed anything, smashed the window to get in.
I would also advise you to accept the payment request ASAP before Airbnb suspends your listing for having no emergency back-up to help a guest if needed. IMO you should have offered the guest the reimbursement before he had to ask.
I agree. About six years ago, the apartment above one of our rentals was sold to a new owner. Our HOA rules specified that if noisy work was to be done on any apartment it was to be between specific hours and that other owners should be informed at least 24 hours in advance.
The guests in our apartment, below the one with the new owner, were checking out on the Sunday. On the Saturday, the new owners upstairs started extensive noisy work.
They had not informed other owners, plus the HOA specified noisy work only 9-5, Monday to Friday.
So on our guests’ last full day, they had noisy construction that went on all day and until about 8 pm. Awful.
I immediately told the guests that I was going to arrange for a refund for the Saturday / Sunday morning.
Those lovely guests said ‘no. no really, it’s okay’ but I insisted.
Anyone who has read my opinions about refunds know that giving refunds is NOT something I’m easily persuaded to do.
But sometimes, it’s simply good for business. The guests left a great review and have been back to stay with us at least once a year since. A one night refund was well worth the business.
Giving a voluntary refund can work wonders. 
I have a hidden spare key at every property….
7 hours before you saw the message…?
Guests see STR as an alternative to hotels, so expect similar services
There are properties where there is nowhere to hide a spare key outside the unit, as we can. An apartment or condo unit isn’t going to have a yard or anything to hide a key.
Thanks for all the replies. As it was a 4-0 verdict against me, I have already made the payment in full to the guest. I definitely need to look into smart locks as well.
I found Airbnb’s reply interesting. Their first email said “we have received the claim, do you agree with the guest?”. Then when I replied that I would refund they responded “thank you so much for your kindness”. I am surprised they were so understanding and polite. It makes me think that if I hadn’t paid, they wouldn’t have forced me too, since there was blame on both sides (him for locking himself out, me for not having a back up plan). They have been far stricter with me in the past (e.g. if a review is 3*, or if a guest complains about something).
Yes, it’s quite remarkable that the internet allows someone in Asia to host an apartment in Prague, for over 20 years with only occasional problems. And my communications rating is 4.9, so I do respond very quickly normally, and occupancy is 80-85% so it’s highly popular with travellers.
Like I told the guest, it was an unfortunate rare series of events, I refunded him, and he said thank you. I appreciate the constructive advice from this forum and aim to make the necessary adjustments to avoid a repeat of this 1 in 1000 event (it’s happened once in 1100 bookings).
No, no, no, no, no… They are happy when hosts give money to guests. That keeps guests coming back to AirBnB - refunds.
They might not have forced you into a refund, but they certainly would have pushed you to give one if you hadn’t done it already. if you didn’t give one and the guest left you a bad review, AirBnB certainly would not take down the bad review.
It’s not “understanding and polite”. It’s calculated corporate rhetoric.
Just like their cut and paste lengthy “Thank you so much for being such a great Superhost, we appreciate all you do, blah blah blah” prefacing to a message telling you the 1* full of lies obviously retaliatory review left by a newbie guest for a long time 5* host after asking a guest to pay for the damages they caused, doesn’t meet their review removal policy.
No, you should not compensate the guest at all IMO. This is a guest error, and you would not compensate them if they caused $170 worth of damage - this is no different. If they incur costs outside of the agreed accommodation contract, this should be borne by them - and also, the AirCover should cover you for guest incurred expenses as a backstop, but I would tell them to take it up with Airbnb themselves. I can’t imagine Airbnb refunding them either. People need to take ‘reasonable care’ and it is not reasonable to assume you are close at hand 24/7, or even contactable 27/7 - if they want that, they can go pay for a fancy hotel, not a short term rental. For any rental at all, the renter should be liable for lockout expenses - the term doesn’t matter.
If you refund them, you teach that careless behaviour is normal, and mum will pay for your new phone you dropped and smashed, so they don’t care if they drop the next one. We don’t pay kidnappers for a good reason lol… it just encourages more.
I also host properties from other countries, and have done for many years now - also well over 1000 guests like you, according to my Airbnb review count alone. It isn’t a big deal, and should not require you or anyone is ‘right there’. Adults need to take responsibility, and this wasn’t anything you could reasonably prevent otherwise.
Hiding a key nearby is always an option to anyone. I had a London flat and Austrian flat with a keybox located on a fence and public chair leg in a park respectfully, and never had any issues at all. So this can be a backup solution for lockouts, or a primary key delivery method. Not all buildings allow residents to install smart locks, and how do you get to it through the locked foyer door in the first place.
My Australian property is booked pretty much every day, and I have not had any keys there for a decade. I just leave the house open always, and do when I live there myself. It’s a quiet area, and despite 1000 guests through this property alone, nobody has bothered to steal the TV or cause drama. It’s not near a train station, and is in a nice area - but I am not the only one who always leaves the house open.
Makes it extremely easy for guests, and surprisingly it is barely two or three times a year that guests ask ‘Where is the key’, or worry about keys. They can latch the door inside, but not lock. Works for me, and I presume would many others too. It certainly solves the guest lockout problem in the best possible way IMO. No keys = No lockouts EVER. Might not work for all, but more should consider that approach I think.
But you could also consider - A larger item attached to the key to make it harder to lose. Airtag keytag to help find it… and a notice on your listing that states:
Guests who lose or leave their key inside are responsible for all costs incurred by locksmiths etc, and if key is lost must pay a $100 fee to get the key replaced ($10 for a replacement key and $90 for your hassle to go get it cut, and maybe you have to miss bookings if you have no key to hand to the next guest that day etc)
You could also replace your lock with one that REQUIRES the key to lock, as this means it is impossible to lock the key inside the flat. Doesn’t prevent loss, but does solve the lockout problem.
So… a whole bunch of ideas here - hope it helps. I’m sad to hear you paid $170 for someone else’s mistake, that you should not be responsible for - my advice is not make ‘this’ mistake again lol. Make it their responsibility to pay!
It’s completely different.
I disagree - what is a reasonable reply time for your STRs? For me, I can’t imagine a guest trying to contact me at night telling me of a plumbing issue and not being able to respond quickly, if only to protect my facilities.
Thanks for responding, yes I was thinking along those lines too. In particular 1) I should have tried to at least ask if AirCover could have been used to cover it and 2) I’m pretty sure that if I had refused to pay AirBNB would not have forced me to, because it was clearly the guest’s fault. I could tell by the tone of their emails. I’ve seen the emails for things that were the host’s fault and the tone is a LOT different.
In the end I paid just to avoid a long drawn out saga, because the guy was relatively polite, because no damage was done, and because it wasn’t too much compared to what he paid me for the rental.
I think a good response time is maybe within a 6hr window or so, though of course often it would be fast… just that guests have no right to expect immediate responses when renting a home that specifically doesn’t have any manager on-site like a hotel.
I can’t see how renting a home for a weekend is that different to 6 months, in terms of who is responsible for the guest losing a key for example. If they lose your remote control they should pay for it, why not the key? And if they have not lost the key, but it dropped into a drain and they can’t get it, or it was left in the taxi with their bag, and they will get it tomorrow… they are responsible. If they lock themselves in, it is no different. They caused a problem, and they should pay.
As for a plumbing issue, this is not a guest caused problem. But it should be no different in terms of contact. Any contact with a renter in STR should usually be reasonably prompt, but guests should not have any expectation on response time being immediate, or that any manager or tradesman is immediate either. We have to be realistic, and the host of the property might be off on a hike for hours. STR is guests renting your home, not guests renting your time to be ‘on call’ 24/7 with rapid response to anything… and especially anything they have caused themselves lol.
Do we agree that a renter on a 6mth lease should be 100% responsible for costs if they lock their key inside on Saturday night (when the estate agent is closed), and need a locksmith? I presume this can’t be contested as a baseline.
Now we can reduce the example rental term from 6 months to 3 months - or perhaps a two week house sit even. Now What about a 3 days rental? Why should the rental term include some sort of ‘rapid response’ guarantee, or a ‘If you lose your key we will come replace it for you’ mindset?
Renting a property is not like a hotel. There are no staff on-site unless advertised as so, and contact with a host could be expected to take sometimes up to several hours for a response sometimes. On a Saturday late night - I would think up to 6 hours or even more is probably not unreasonable. Hosts are not ‘on call’ like emergency services. They should be available but certainly not instantly IMO. If guests want that peace of mind, they should be paying a premium (Hotel or Serviced appartment), not cheap STR rates.
It would be interesting to know what the average host response time is across the board. The average may be 1hr, but I assume a Saturday night would be way longer.
Bottom line though - by including it in the listing details, that if guests lock themselves out, they are responsible for locksmith expenses - you can’t go wrong I think.
Preventing the problem in the first place is the smartest solution though.
Why would you think that STRs are a cheap option to hotels? My apartments are just pennies cheaper than the local best hotel at their average rate. At premium times, my apartments are more expensive.
I think that you are denigrating STRs if you are writing publicly that they are all a cheap alternative to hotels.
An alternative, yes, but hardly based on price. STRs offer a different lifestyle - something different, but certainly not inferior to the traditional hotel accommodation. To suggest otherwise is either ill-formed or rather naive.
You admit that you have only been hosting since 2014 (in your profile) so I would hate readers of this forum to take your post too seriously.
Thank you, however, for your input.
In the case of my rental it is definitely a much cheaper option than hotels. In fact that used to be how I marketed it, back in the times before Airbnb. I think I need to change my introductory email to state that there may be a delay in responding at weekends, unless there is an emergency. Maybe also telling guests to make sure they don’t lock the key inside.
Very good point about who would be responsible for such a cost in a long term rental - definitely not the landlord (although possibly in that case the renter would have two keys, and it would be their responsibility to have a back-up location for the second key).
The ‘airbnb is a cheap alternative to a hotel room’ is pretty obsolete these days. And in my airbnb, our cleanliness and quality of amenitites and service never goes as low as a hotel’s.