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The house I live in was built in 1935 and has the original hardware throughout. All the interior doors have lovely vintage glass door knobs and the doors were originally locked with skeleton keys. When we bought the house 12 years ago, we were not given any keys for interior door locks.
I am getting ready to open up a listing on Airbnb for a private room in this house. I do not want to replace the gorgeous vintage hardware, nor do I want to alter the original wood door to accommodate a modern lock on the bedroom that will be rented out. So Iâve been searching for options. I found something I think may work, but Iâve never seen it before. Iâm wondering if some of you have used this type of device and could give me your opinion.
Also, those of you who rent out a single room in your home, could you share with me what worked as far as securing the guest bedroom?
I would appreciate input from other hosts who have dealt with this kind of situation where they are renting out a single bedroom in their private home. How did you deal with the door to the guest bedroom? Was there an option for the guest to be able to lock the door when they left the room?
When I rented a room in my home I only put a lock that they could lock from the inside. If I were doing it now I might put a traditional lock that opens with a key; of course I would have the key. Since I have so many one night guests I donât know that the guests would use a lock if they left.
We have a home share with one bedroom. It does not have a lock on the door. In Non of the 350+ guessts have ever complained or accused us of entering their space.
We donât host when we are not going to be home, greet each guest and offer to sit down over tea in the evenings. All the personal interaction seems to build trust, especially those who stay more than one night. The one-nighters are usually here the whole time - arriving late in the evening and leaving early in the morning so I donât think they even notice.
As a now-former in-home host (LTRs in place), I have 1985 style brass door knobs that lock from the inside while guests are here. As @Terryathome mentioned, it never raised any concerns or mentions with the 1 night people and the longer term guests also seemed fine. They may have locked their doors at night, but I donât know that!!! Also, they closed the pocket door leading to the great room for added privacy as the bathroom is a jack and jill in a hallway between the 2 bedrooms on that side. My office is the other bedroom and that locks with a key that doesnât fit any other door in my home.
No one has raised any concerns. Longer term guests are told Iâll be doing weekly linen changes, dusting, vacuuming, and bathroom cleaning and theyâre OK with that.
This looks like it might be quite clunky and cumbersome and loud to operate. Iâd also worry it would damage the antique doorknobs but maybe it could be padded inside to reduce that? Iâd make sure you kept spares in case the guest accidentally forgot the key inside.
I have had great success with guests with these locks but I understand if you are not wanting to remove the nice old ones.
Assuming they are mortised locks and not the locks pictured above, you might be able to use this replacement lock set and then have additional keys cut; when I had those locks on my old doors I used the interiors of these $28 locks.
Like Terry, I rent out one bedroom in my small two bedroom house. The door only locks from the inside. I have rented many Airbnb spaces myself, and the bedroom often has a key or keycode, but I havenât gotten any feedback that my one-sided lock arrangement is unacceptable or problematic to my single or multi night guests.
Although I rent a bedroom in my home, it has an outside entrance, so my lock info wouldnât apply to your situation.
I really donât understand why a guest in a private bedroom in oneâs home would need to lock their door from the outside- it makes no sense, unless you rent multiple bedrooms to unrelated guests, as of course the host is going to have a key or code to the door.
And the guest has access to the rest of the hostâs home, even if all the spaces arenât shared. They are being trusted, so not to trust the host is weird.
As for an inside lock, I donât see why it needs to be anything special- a simple hook and eye would secure the door, without messing with the original heritage hardware, and would only require a couple of screw holes, which could be easily filled so they were almost unnoticeable if you ever wanted to remove the latch.
We host in our own home.
I would be appalled if any guest asked for a lock on their door! Itâs our house, why would we need to invade their space!
When you advertise on Airbnb you always state there is no lock & therefore they wouldnât book with you if thatâs what they wanted.
We have three private rooms and when we added smart locks for each room, not only did bookings increase, but the quality of guests became better. We host businesspeople, and when they saw they can lock their room when they are out for the day, they brought in their computers and business things into the room. Most are repeat guests, and our reviews are awesome.
Being able to lock the door from the outside is definitely important if you host unrelated guests in more than one bedroom.
It just doesnât make sense when the guest is only sharing the home with the host.
It does if the guest is another gender than the host (for example).
In our airbnb we worked so hard to make everyone welcome. An unlocked door to a room is a potential source of anxiety to a guest, and we found that the lock relives both us and the guest of any issues.
I wasnât referring to an inside lock on a bedroom door- I clearly said an outside lock.
I definitely think all private room guests should be able to lock their door from the inside. Itâs not any different from a lock on a bathroom door. People should be able to feel secure about their privacy when they are in the room.
Iâm talking about Allowing the guest to lock their room when they leave. As I said, guests are not your friends, theyâre not your relatives, and as much as you hope that you share some commonalities since youâre living under the same roof, I cannot think of one guest, who would ever be comfortable with allowing unlimited access to their possessions when they are not there.
You donât seem to understand, Rolf. A host would be foolish to have a a door in their home that they couldnât open in case of emergency. Therefore whatever outside lock is on a bedroom door, the host would also have a key or code to.
So an outside lock would be pointless in terms of âunlimited accessâ to a guestâs possessions, if the only other people in the home are the hosts.
A guest who doesnât trust their hosts to respect their privacy shouldnât book a private room. And hosts who violate that privacy to âtake a peekâ or empty garbage, etc., without the guestâs permission are definitely in the wrong. However, that doesnât mean their intent is to steal the guestâs laptop.
Your situation is quite different- you rent out three rooms. In that case, of course you wouldnât want a guest to be able to enter another guestâs room when they were out and guests would quite reasonably expect to be able to lock their room if they go out.
My guest door has an outside lock because it is an outside door that opens onto the balcony. But of course I also have a key to that door. The only time I have ever entered when the guest was out was to close the windows when it suddenly started raining hard, so she didnât come home to a wet bed, and I texted her to let her know I was doing that.
I donât use the ones with the backup key. I place the emergency battery back up charger packs with their micro USB plugs in their bathroom (and I have others where guests cannot access them) should the need arise. In all the years Iâve had them I have never once had an issue when a guest was there. Only once when I had stopped hosting guests for a while had I needed it.
The very first one that actually installed on my barn tack room door (exposed to the elements under a shadow roof) still has NEVER had to even replace the batteries that came with it and we are working on about 7 years now. For years now I have wondered when it will die. Itâs been giving me the âlow battery chirpâ for over probably 5 years now but I am intentionally leaving it to die (currently no one but me ever uses it and I am no longer housing animals in the barn so am only in it when I need big tools or am doing yard work and the like).
Interestingly, the first time I ever saw this lock was at my equine veterinarianâs barn. She was renting it at the time and so installed that on the drug room.
You might think that but sometimes non Airbnb guests, kids, service providers, etc. are in the house and it is all too easy for the door to be even accidentally opened, disturbing their privacy.
I actually had one guest who booked when she saw the door lock I pictured above on her bedroom because she had had an incident and just felt safer knowing that her former significant other would not be able to gain access. (Yes, I know that he would have also had to have access to the front door, which had its own smart lock, but her mind was much more at ease, none-the-less.)
Iâm not listed on Airbnb yet. I have the room rented out this summer to a law student who is in the area on an internship. She hasnât had any concerns about the door locking.
But I want the guests, especially the ones coming from AirBnB, to be able to lock it for OUR protection. We sometimes have people in the house who may be doing repairs or cleaning. If the guest canât lock the room and something comes up missing I donât want them to be able to think that my cleaner or plumber or whoever might have taken it. Also, I want to have a lock on my door. It does not seem fair for me to be able to lock my door if the guest canât also lock theirs.
Iâve never had a situation with guests going somewhere theyâre not allowed to, but I have heard many stories from other hosts about guests breaking into locked closets or going into the hostâs private bedroom. I want to be able to lock my study where I keep personal and business records and financial information. I also want to be able to lock my bedroom door from the outside so that guests canât access my private quarters when Iâm not home.
By and large, I think 99% of guests are trustworthy. But there are always those people who are not, and you donât always know who you can trust and who you canât. I found out the hard way when one of my cleaners stole over $300 out of my handbag while the two of us were cleaning the house so I know there are people who will go where theyâre not supposed to and take what doesnât belong to them. I would like to head that off.
We are a homeshare, also. When setting up the 2nd floor suite that we rent, one of the first things I did was put a keyed lock on the bedroom door. I think it gives guests a feeling of security. Kind of strange to me, as we donât lock our house! I donât even know that we have keys for itđ
As to your comment about stating in your listing that you donât have locks, wellâŚ. Câmon, we all know guests donât read!
