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One amenity travelers can use in their search criteria is “Lock on Bedroom Door”. I am curious if anyone has a feel for how many travelers actually include this amenity in their search. I have locks on my bedroom doors but have never mentioned this in my listing. I am not sure of I should go to the trouble of mentioning this and offering a second set of keys to all groups for the bedroom doors.
Thanks,
Gary
Assuming this is for listings where you are renting out a room and not an entire apartment?
When we started hosting we didn’t have a lock on the guest bedroom door. Three or four guests mentioned that they would like to have a lock on the bedroom door we installed one. We have the front door key and the bedroom lock key in a small bowl on the desk in the guest bedroom.
Thank you fro your reply. I have a four bedroom home The group has exclusive use of the space. There is a lock on each bedroom door.
I think locks on bedroom doors might be considered a plus if your guests tend to be families. My parents used to lock their bedroom door for adult fun time.
This is a bit of a sore point with me. We let out the spare bedroom in our house and when we started my partner insisted that we put a lock on the bedroom door. This cost over £100, but since then, over 35 guests later, no guest has either used - or indeed mentioned - the bedroom door lock. Ah well!
We have a latch lock on the inside of the private bedroom in our shared home for guests who don’t to be disturbed by our nosy cat or kids.
But I haven’t listed it as an amenity, because you can’t lock it and leave. It’s for privacy, not security.
(Also, considering how many guests have accidentally walked off with our house keys, I don’t want to try and organize a second set of bedroom keys for them)
We have a similar setup at our place, though I do mention the latch in the listing. I haven’t checked the box for Lock on the Bedroom Door, though, because as you mention it’s for privacy, not security. I really like that line, actually. I might add it to my listing description, thanks!
I have locks on my doors, but I stopped giving out keys because guests kept locking the keys inside and causing all sorts of expensive trouble.
With the lock on our guest bedroom door, you need to use the key to lock it so guests can’t lock the key inside the bedroom. Also, we have a spare key.
considering how cheap doorlocks are (12euros/$15) we installed it right away , i would say 90% of the guest use it , it was a good investment. we have 3 rooms for rent
An old thread but i didn’t want to start a new one on the same topic.
For the first time a guest has left a “suggestion for improvement” in her public review. Namely locks on the bathroom (understandable) and bedroom doors. I’ll confess it galled me a little to see anything negative expressed publicly, but appreciate she was being genuinely helpful (just wish she’d written it privately!)
As its public I had to respond for fear it may put people off. Of course my response may have done a better job of that! I replied (accurately) that I’m in the process of getting most of the doors replaced but - while I’m happy to be guided by future feedback - im for the moment reluctant to put locks on bedrooms,and explained why. I said as its my home not a hotel or guest house, there are no staff, caretakers or security. If someone where to have an accident, medical emergency, or do damage behind a locked door how do I get in? Unless the lock is openable by me from the outside too…in which case its not much use as a lock!
I thought this a reasonable argument. But a friend and fellow host has made me doubt myself by repeating ad nauseum that I will stop getting bookings unless I respond (too late!) that all the rooms now have locks (which in the present tense would be a lie). I need to get locks on the bedrooms he keeps saying.
Well do i? Will people reading that stop booking? It occurred to me that the inclusion of bedrooms locks as an additional and searchable “extra” on airbnb would suggest that its not considered the expected norm to have them.
How many guests do you host at a time? How many guests have you hosted? How many of them have complained? Do you have any off-site people coming to your listing while guests are staying there? Do you live in this listing?
Was that to me or to the OP?
If to me, I’ve had about 40 bookings overall, no one else has ever mentioned the locks as a problem, I live here and am generally here all the time, and there are no “offsite” guests while guests are here.
The locks on the interior doors should be able to be opened by yourself. Hotels can unlock doors for the exact same reasons you mention.
If I were staying in a shared accommodation, whether or not there are other guests, I would expect to have a lock on both the bedroom and bathroom door. Not as much for security, because I know the owner will have a key, but for privacy - they should not be able to just open the door and walk in any time they please. A lock won’t stop them, but it at least slows them down enough that I can react that they are entering.
@Gattino12. It was to you, but the reply button on this site is random. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t
I have elected NOT to have door locks. I don’t want to ruin my original interior doors and there is no reason for locks. I don’t lock up my own rooms either. These people are sharing my home.
Others on this forum feel very differently and demand that everyone install locks.
Great thing about this line o’ work. We can what makes us comfortable and we are all right!
I got locks last year when I started on booking.com as people expect it. Some cultures use the lock a lot. I had an asian lady who locked her door just to fill up her kettle from the kitchen or have breakfast, her bathroom is about 7 steps away from her bedroom and it got locked every time she used the loo. She was going to stay with a host family and I had to tell her that with students, the doors would not be normally locked, she was shocked. It made her feel safe so did not have an issue with her using it.
I lock my bedroom door because I have loads of valuable jewellery and cash, nah only joking. I have put the slip of paper on the door and found it moved when returned, so people do snoop. I take strong meds and do voluntary work so keep it locked up in my bedroom now so lock it
Since it is a listed amenity and has been for months now it would be nice if guests would take responsibility for their own searches and booking decisions. If it’s that important to her she should book a place with locks. LOL.
I’ve had a lock and not had a lock and I prefer having the lock. Part of my problem is that I want to keep them out of my part of the house as well as keeping me out of their room. They have a separate entrance with four locks but I can get in all of them in an emergency.
Also there are temporary locks that travelers can put on their doors if the want to keep you out. If someone dies in there and they put one of those devices you’ll have to bust the door down anyway. Unless I had doors that would be compromised by locks I’d install them.
I rent out 1 or 2 rooms in my large house on occasion. My guests typically lock their room up. It seems silly to me but I guess this is just a habit.