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Everyone: thank you for your opinions, they really helped me make a decision.
I’m going to-
Thanks again!
Sure it is about trust. I don’t disagree with that. And I doubt a host would want to try to steal from me ever.
But in my example above, I wrote about a “friend” who I trusted in my home, and the person stole from me. I had no reason (at the time) to believe this person was untrustworthy. Let’s say I was hosting at the time. Let’s say my guest left for the day, and my “friend” came over to visit for an hour. And let’s say I went to take a quick shower while this “friend” went and snooped through my guest’s room. I would be absolutely mortified.
Thieves amongst us do visit friends and family members. It’s too bad they all don’t have a sticker on their forehead saying they are a thief. Just take a look at the people who have trusted their financial advisor/CPA and they were stealing their life savings.
Shit happens and there aren’t always warning signs beforehand. On the other hand I would only need to have a lock on the inside of the door if I was just staying with a single host or a couple. As long as no other guests were staying in other rooms…I wouldn’t worry about it.
I was only trying to provide a perspective of why a guest locking their door may have nothing to do with how they personally feel about the host.
I used to work in entertainment business management. Most of the celebrities who blame their financial advisors for their financial problems blew through their money all by themselves despite repeated warnings from their financial advisors. When they are no longer able to buy what they want they blame their financial advisors.
Not talking about celebrities blowing all their money.
I am referring to people in charge of others’ money who go to prison for scamming them.
This seems like a case of you “feeling” a certain way about it. You don’t care if the guest “feels” a different way about it because it’s your house. You will never lose a booking because you allowed guests to lock the room but you might lose a booking because you don’t. No one should have someone in their house that makes them uncomfortable and no guest should be uncomfortable either.
Yes but the perspective goes both ways, don’t you see? Trust is ALWAYS a mutual thing. So if simone suddenly starts locking the door, the other starts feeling reasons for distrust aswell, and so on and so on.
The thing that is upsetting me, is that it makes me feel uncomfortable in my own house. And it makes me doubt whether I world even enlist because of it.
That is true. But in a way, I feel like some guests lose the perspective that you are inviting them into your own house, your private place. I feel the same when someone breaks something and doesn’t tell me…
I think my solution is good enough: take the key out, and clarifying that in the enlisting. Thank you for your response
As I said, at first when guests wanted to lock the guest room door, I thought that they didn’t trust me. Once it was explained that they might be afraid that I could inadvertently walk in on them when they were undressed or when they were praying I realized that the issue is privacy, not trust. I don’t pray and I really don’t care if someone sees me naked so hearing from others made me see it as they saw it.
Yes I get that. I think i need to specify here that in this case is about locking the room while the guest is gone.
I understand it makes you feel like the guest doesn’t trust you. But I have provided reasons as to why a guest may feel more comfortable locking their room when they leave for the day. If I were a guest, I would assume that the host may have their own friends, family member, a new co-worker, housekeeper, pet sitter, plumber…really just anybody at all stopping by at any time. So if someone gave me a key to lock the door…why not use it?
You may know that no one is going to come by, but the guest does not know this. And really it may have nothing at all to even do with taking precaution against theft. The guest could just have a bunch of sex toys and dirty underwear strewn all over the room, and just doesn’t want you to see it. Maybe she didn’t have enough time to tidy up before she left, and decided to just lock the door. There could be so many reasons…
I don’t mind if guests lock the door to their room when they leave; although I do have a key. It does, however, show distrust of the host and of the hosts’ guests. All the scenarios you outlined: valuables, sex toys, mess, etc. could be in the hosts’ bedroom. I don’t lock my bedroom because I believe that if I trust my guests with a key to the front door; I should trust them not to snoop in my bedroom.
Of course you do what you feel is right but you will loose bookings if you say you dont allow room to be locked.
Anyone else here think that its weird to not allow your guests to lock room or its just me?
It has nothing to do with our guests trusting us host or not. A certain amount of trust IS there. A stranger trusts you to not do any harm to him/her while staying in your house. The trust here is enormous. You could be anyone, some phsyco or rapist or thief. And still people trust you with their lives to sleep in your house.
Locking a room is such a minor issue.
I am considered to be a trusting person, but i am not insane or stupid. When in hotels i always lock my passport, Ipad and even charger in safe, along with my credit cards. This gives me a piece of mind when i leave my room and i dont even want to think once about a possibility that maids can take any of these items.
I have 2 guests staying with me long term. One always locks his room, another never. One that locks his room has a very expensive electronics there that he uses for his job. It is worth thousands of dollars. When its time to clean his room, he always packs it away in boxes and asks me to be very careful with it as its very expensive. WHy would expect him to trust me with my friends visiting, and another guest in a house with something that its not easy and very costly to replace in case it gets damaged or stollen.
Since when does it take snooping to be embarrassed about not wanting your host to see something? The host can walk by the bedroom and never even enter.
If the host wants to leave a mess in their room, or their sex toys, purse, wallet, money, laying everywhere then that is their choice.
Honestly, if you and the OP believe that the guest wanting privacy shows distrust, then that’s what you believe. I am not trying to change anyone’s beliefs. I was merely trying to help the OP understand that locking a bedroom door (when you leave the for the day) does not imply that the guest believes the host is untrustworthy.
And to say that the guest should trust all of the host’s guests is just plain silly.
And if you had a BBQ and invited over 10 friends to cook out…you may not even know a few friends that they may bring along. Plenty of hosts have friendly gatherings in their own home. But it doesn’t mean they have known all these people since they were born, and can vouch for their character.
I think it is fine if guests locks the room - I think that is normal when traveling, and a habit. I am debating on putting nice digital locks on the room I rent to give guests a FALSE since of security. I put a digital lock on my bedroom door to lock up when I leave (I frequently go out of town when guests are in my home).
I’m baffled that a host would even notice if a guest locked the room, or care if they did. I don’t understand Estrerol’s logic at all. If I’m traveling I’ve got money, electronics, forms of ID that I don’t want to carry around, I’d like to leave it behind a locked door. Also, when I’m sleeping I would always want to have the door locked.
Can guests lock the entrance to their sleeping quarters in your airbnb? 
[quote=“J_Wang, post:36, topic:6760”]
I don’t understand Estrerol’s logic at all
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I agree. I think it’s much stranger to be offended than it is to want to lock a door.
I don’t think using a guest room for storage is practical. You can’t be sure when and if you get to your stuff.
And incidentally, my guest room has a deadbolt on the inside and the outside. And there’s a padlock to put on the outside. Guests could use their own, if they wanted to, I suppose. A guest did, recently, but that’s because I forgot to tell her about the padlock. But if/when a guest uses his/her own padlock, it would make it difficult to get in, if I needed to.
And I’ve said so elsewhere, but I think a guest wanting to be able to lock his/her door is totally reasonable. Both from the inside and the outside.
It’s crazy. And I would never stay in any accommodation that couldn’t be locked. I’m not up to anything odd, I don’t have sex toys, I’m not walking around naked. But I want a lock on my bedroom door.
Tee hee 
I think you know the answer to that question. :)) No they absolutely can’t, but they know that before they even get here. When I first started offering my bed in the living room I thought no females would want to stay here, just guys. How wrong I was, I get about equal numbers.
I don’t think locking a door has any reflection on the host like Estrelol feels it is. So many of the Airbnbs in my neck of the woods have multiple Air guests staying in various rooms of their homes, so I think it’s perfectly fine to want to lock your door.