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Here’s a fun one. I rent a room on the second floor of the house. Most guests leave the room door closed when they are in the room and when they are out. But, now and then a guest will leave the door open while out (I’ve only had one who insisted on leaving the door open at night while he was sleeping…long story).
Does anyone know what might account for this?
It really doesn’t matter to me. My curiosity just gets the best of me sometimes.
Hi @jackulas,
I insist (make a point of it, actually) that guests lock the door of their room (it’s a padlock) when leaving. This is in everyone’s interest. And practically all my guests have done so.
I realise this doesn’t answer your question, but it seems relevant.
I don’t know the answer to your question, but some people are more relaxed than others. Maybe they come from a very safe place. And as far as leaving the door open when sleeping, that might be claustrophobia?
You mean why someone would insist on sleeping with the door open at night? My guess is they feel safer if they need to scream out to you after someone has climbed through the second story window?
I think he meant the
Most guests leave the room door closed when they are in the room and when they are out.
bit. The sleeping with the door open at night was parenthetical.
Well in that case, the closed door just may be a signal that they don’t need anyone to go in and straighten up…esp. if they have clothing items strewn about the place, etc.
Or another reason is, due to being a shared home the hosts always have the right to have their own friends over to visit, etc. And you never know if a “friend” will venture upstairs, etc. I’ve read stories of a guest being in the bedroom and random people opening the door saying “oops I didn’t realize there was someone here, etc.” So a lot of it just the unknown of not knowing who will be coming in and out of the host’s home.
I can offer no insight, really, other than different folks are comfortable with different things I guess.
Our situation is same as yours; rooms in our home. And like you, the vast majority of our guests leave their door closed pretty much at all times. Which I think is fairly normal behavior. Or at least that’s what I would probably do if I were a guest in someone else’s home.
I personally am more comfortable when guests keep their door closed while they are here. It affords me privacy as well as them. As for the ones that don’t, I guess they just have different boundaries.
If guests are out of the house, have left the door closed, and I’m confident they will be away for several hours, I will sometimes open the door to their room for a few hours for the sole purpose of letting the “inexpensive” heat or cooling from the heat pump warm or cool their room. Otherwise, if the door remains closed, the more expensive furnace heat or window A/C unit will kick on in just that room.
Side comment - my guest room door has a closer. It’s the only closer in the house, but it makes sense for an A/C room being used by people who probably don’t care if the door is open while the A/C is on. If you do it carefully, you can leave the door in an open position - right at the end of the swing it will stay put. I’m not sure if that’s by design. Anyway, we don’t tell guests that the door will stay open if you put it here, obviously.
I would expect closers to be standard. Don’t most people use one for rental rooms, especially for those with a room A/C? But perhaps room A/Cs are not standard internationally.
Yeah…who knows? This is really just more of an academic exercise for me than anything else. I don’t care either way whether they leave their door open or closed when in the room or out. I am just dying to know why some guests leave the door open and others don’t.
One quick point though…I have found i like when they leave the room open when they are out, mainly because I don’t have to guess whether they are home and can make extra noise if I want. 
Most of my guests keep their door closed when in residence, and when out.
I myself keep my door open (I’m at the opposite end of the house) when I’m home or out. But I did leave overnight for a trip and closed my bedroom door and office door while I was gone.
I hate sleeping with the door shut, but if staying at a strangers I would probably shut it in case they watched you sleep lol
Guests also sleep with their door open so they can make a quick escape when the gremlins and other things that-go-bump-in-the-night crawl out from under the bed.
How funny - I have often asked that question myself. I ask the guests to please close their bedroom doors … always, otherwise my dogs will go in their room. And when that happens, the dogs will very likely will dig around in their garbage can, look for snacks or anything edible on their desks or in their suitcases and perhaps even jump on their bed and have a nap. I really try very hard to keep the guest rooms pet-less. It’s funny how most guests do keep the door closed when in the room, yet leave the door open when they leave (I always close the door as soon as I notice). I have changed all my bedroom doorknobs to exterior locking doorknobs so that the guest can lock the door and take the key with them, but I wonder if any even bother?
You forgot the Monster in the Closet, a la Stephen King. C.f. the bit at the beginning of Cujo featuring a version of the Monster in the Closet. (Which doesn’t have anything to do with the rest of the book.)
I’m also reminded of Susan Sto Helit beating monsters with a poker. (Go Susan!)
I guess today is my day for popular cultural references.
Thankfully, I got over the Stephen King phase after about 6-8 novels and didn’t read Cujo or any of the rest of his stuff.
(It’s just as well because I didn’t need to know there was a Monster in the Closet in addition to the Boogieman…I have a vivid-enough imagination as it is!)
Ha ha! Oh, those dogs. I am really proud to say that I have trained my two chihuahuas never to go in the guest room, and they don’t. Such good dogs! So, I needn’t worry about their going in and bothering the guests’ things. #justbragging
Me too but not before I read The Revenge of Lard Ass Hogan. I have read many great works of literature were less memorable.
@KKC:
That reminds me of a Car Talk show I heard recently where a guy was complaining that whenever he got into the front seat of his car, there would be a beeping sound. He didn’t know where it came from but his wife said it was a “lard butt alert.”
@CatskillsGrrl - The program is on re-run on weekends. I understand they play the best of the ‘classics’. Funny stuff.
I knew the show ended when one of the brothers (the older one?) developed dementia or some such but I didn’t know he passed. Sad.