Using a guest’s room for storage is just fine if the guest knows about the arrangement BEFORE booking. I’ve seen a couple of hosts in my area who mention that they will need access to a closet or whatever. These are budget places near the university catering to students on a budget.
2 Likes
Just giving a cultural perspective, generally Asian guests would prefer that the room be lockable for security, and that the host does not enter during their stay for privacy. If one knew the host was coming in, one might feel obligated to keep it tidy and valuables stored away at all times, which can be an unwanted hassle when on vacation.
3 Likes
Yes basic amount of trust is all you can expect. That being that they won’t invade your space and you won’t invade there’s and I think that needing to go into there room for something during their stay is invading their space. Yes you are opening up your home to them but not for free. You are charging them and providing a service. They are paying you for that room. At the end of the day it’s a business. These people are strangers and you are a stranger to them. They trust that they have a clean place to sleep & wash but paying for the room they deserve to have that room completely to themselves and have the right to lock the room I feel.
2 Likes
I agree with Maggy. Get your luggage stored at some commerical self storage service. Avoid the clutter and gift a hassle-free environment for your guests. I am sure you would definitely want guests at home. A inviting home should be easy to move around. Try with ultrastor storage solutions. They might help you in this (http://www.ultrastor.ca/storage-solutions/specialty-storage/). Only heard of it no prior experience availin gtheir service. best wishes.
1 Like
I did a search on Locked Rooms and have decided to add to this old post. This past weekend, we had Air guests. We rent out our entire home and frequently stay downstairs (think like a basement) that is fully furnished for us with a kitchenette. As far as I’m aware for the first time, one of this weekend’s guest was bound and determined to get downstairs.
There is a locked door next to the kitchen. There clearly is a third bottom floor. He/She went thru our key drawer and tried every single key on that locked door. Then that person opened up the two kitchen desk drawers, ruffled thru them, looking for more keys. I stood at the bottom of the stairs in the dark, just incredulous. I was so weirded out, that I double locked the exterior door to our downstairs abode at all times.
There is only one other locked door in our home and that’s my walk in closet.
Maybe this has happened before when we stayed elsewhere, but guests!!! If a door is locked, there is a reason and no amount of sleuthing thru keys should give you permission to even try to see whats down there!! Sheesh…
2 Likes
I would definitely call them out on it in the private feedback part of the review. In fact, I would have crept up the stairs, thrown open the door and yelled “what the hell do you think you’re doing!” Scaring the holy crap out of them is the least you could do to these jerks.
3 Likes
Unless you’re storing sheets for the guest bed or other items needed to service the guest room and the guest’s experience, I don’t think storing anything that you need otherwise is an acceptable way to go. The guest rents the room wholly and solely for their use and unless you let them know beforehand that it is somehow shared because you have things you use in there and they have agreed to that arrangement, or that it’s understood you need intermittent access to air the room, clean it etc., then I don’t think you should be going into the room at all UNLESS of course as a matter of emergency - for example if a fire breaks out or you hear sounds coming from the room and you know they are gone or out at the time.
The best thing is to do is always keep the master key to the room for emergencies (the guest may get so ill and not be able to wake up or call out and you need to check if they are okay and everything is alright if you haven’t seen them after a time that you know is expected). Even to turn off the AC unit that they may have left on.
I provide my guests with a personal safe which they can store their passports and important items, money etc. We don’t enter the space until they are gone but we hold the master key just in case anything happens or even if they lose their own key. We also have a phone in the room to call them in case we get worried about them or to inform them of anything they need to know. We think it’s a good strategy for disasters for example, like increment weather they need to prepare for etc etc. If the room is in your house and you see about cleaning it or making up the beds as part of the cost, then obviously it’s acceptable to enter when you need to and only while they are away. Knocking on the door to make sure you are not invading their space.
My take.
1 Like
I’ve booked entire houses many times and this is the first time I’m booking a room, so before booking I decided to ask hosts if the room had a key and said I was worried about valuable personal belongs. I REALLY expected most of them say it had keys. My surprise? None responded it had keys.
If the host is worried about not being able to reach his stuff on the room, don’t say “private room”, because it’s just not!
In any case, I made my decision: I’m booking the room and I’m going to carry this device: amazon.com/Rishon-Enterprises-Inc-Addalock-Piece/dp/B00186URTY
For the ones that just want an alarm: amazon.com/SABRE-Wedge-Security-Alarm-Siren/dp/B00M30SQGA
We don’t have locks on our doors but not because we want to go in there. Instead it’s because it’s our HOME and we choose not to put locks on our bedroom doors. For one thing, it’s not necessary. For another, it would ruin the look of our home. I want to keep it looking like my home, not some kind of halfway house.
When hosts rent out rooms in our homes there is a degree of mutual trust. We trust you guests not to go snooping around our private belongings and likewise we expect the same trust in return. If you can’t grasp that concept then maybe booking this type of accommodation isn’t for you.
If you attached one of those devices to my door I’d find it odd behaviour and would mention in the review that you’re not a suitable fit. I’d definitely be questioning why you had chosen my space and not another type of accommodation (a hotel, motel or an entire place)
7 Likes
I don’t have a lock on the guest room door but if someone put something like this I wouldn’t know unless I tried to get in and couldn’t. But there are two doors to the room because the room has a private entrance door as well. So you’d need two. LOL. I don’t mind if the the guest locks the door but I don’t have it set up that way at this time.
@Gardenhost I get what you’re saying but there are a lot of wierdos out there, some are guests, some are hosts. I actually have guests locked out of my space so it’s okay if they lock me (temporarily) out of theirs.
I agree with @Gardenhost that you are not a good fit for hosts who don’t have locks on their doors. You wouldn’t be welcome in my place with your paranoid gadgets, I’m afraid. Hosts take the biggest risk by far when they welcome strangers into their home. A bit of respect for that wouldn’t go amiss. Why not just use the filter for ‘locks on door’ when searching for places?
1 Like
I only started making this question because I saw a guest complaining on reviews that his room door didn’t have a lock.
I always assumed it would always have.
About the filter: I never saw a listing explicitly mentioning that it had or not a door lock, but I do think Airbnb should make it an official filter.
If the reason for not having a door lock is aesthetic, I think it’s perfectly acceptable.
If the reason is that the guest needs to trust other guests and host, then I don’t think it’s a good reason.
I booked an entire house once where was looking for an iron and couldn’t find - I looked in all places of the house - two closets on the house were locked with key - why? the host didn’t trust me?
No host would hide an iron. Many people (at least in the U.S.) don’t have irons. An iron is an amenity that you can filter for if you want a listing that has one.
I understand why the guest bedrooms should have doors that lock if there are more than one group of Airbnb guests. However, if it’s just the host and one party of guests; why should the hosts be obligated to trust the guests with the key to the front door of the house and the guest not trust the host with access to the guest room? Also, I can’t imagine that any host would give a guest the only copy of the key to the guest room. Ours locks as several guests have indicated that they want a lock, but we have a copy of the key.
I advertise as whole place – efficiency is attached to house but separate entry – so my guests’ expectation is that they have locks.In addition to the separate entry door, there used to be a pocket door between the efficiency and the rest of the house. Now there’s a pocket door locked on their side, a gap that I’ve stuffed with a sound curtain and sound absorbent foam, and a second steel exterior door locked on my (house) side. The separate entry door is a keypad lock, but they have a deadbolt on that. So it just occurred to me I literally CANNOT get in there when they are “in residence” and have locked the deadbolt. If they were murdering each other in there, me and the police would have to unlock my house side steel door, yank out the soundproofing, and break down the pocket door. This thread has me rethinking this arrangement; a landlord or super would be able to to get into a rental house or an apartment in an emergency.
Why don’t you have a key for the deadbolt? If it’s not a keyed deadbolt replace it with one that is.
Of course a guest should be able to lock the room they’re paying for.
And of course a host should be able to have a locked supply cabinet.
Just as all of us recognize that AirBnB’s “sharing economy” rhetoric is really a marketing tool, we have to acknowledge that hosts opening a room to guests aren’t doing so to “share their home and culture with strangers” but rather… to make money. Giving a key to guests to safeguard their own stuff is a perfectly reasonable expectation when it comes to this transaction.
2 Likes
That is simply not a statement that all hosts think is accurate. One guest, one host, there is no reason for locking doors. Heck, I don’t lock my own doors when these random strangers enter my house.
The OP wants a lock on his/her door and doesn’t want any locks on a storage closet door. They wouldn’t be a good fit for my AirBNB. One of the checkboxes for amenities is a locked door. They should search for AirBNB’s that have this feature.
2 Likes
I agree with GardenHost. Our guests have their on space on the third floor and I do not go up there ever, when there are guests.
Our century home would look awful with locks on bedroom doors. Furthermore in our municipality locks on the doors are a measure by which accommodation is treated as a “rooming house” with lots of pesky regulation!
1 Like
Not locking room can be very dangerous sometimes… 
It already is! It’s under Amenities: “Lock on bedroom door” between “Iron” and “Shampoo”.