What is with guests never locking my front door?

I provide guests with the front door key to my house. And for some reason, it seems to happen a lot with men they leave and just leave the front door unlocked. I live in a big city which stpaul. It’s a nice treat but rapes and burglaries happen. It seems pretty straightforward that they wouldn’t leave their own home or a hotel room unlocked. They wouldn’t just walk out and leave it. if I’m home and sitting in the backyard, I lock the front door so no one can come in and steal from me while I’m sitting blissfully in my backyard.
Why do they do this with my house? I was politely ask them to lock it but it seems like it should be just common sense. Am I missing something?

Well…maybe you’re missing the leaflet ‘How daft are patients, customers, guests and people in general’!

Tell me about your door? On my properties, I’ve had to remove the deadlocks, the very secure 5 lever Chubb locks. I was disappointed from a security point of view, but in a fire, if you haven’t got that key on you, you can only escape as far as the inside of that door. Now all I have on each door is the Yale lock, which from the inside can always be opened from the inside with a twist of the knob. So now my doors just pull shut from the outside. Maybe some of your guests assume the same?
One more ‘door’ story. At the pub we had a phone call from a friend who was locked inside her flat. The lodger from upstairs had locked the door as he left, and she couldn’t unlock it to get out, so her boyfriend had to go back with his keys, because she was thirsty,
Some doors become nice and safe if you close it behind you, then lift the handle.

So it’s tricky, you’ll just have to tell them.

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The front door is not complicated. It is a single deadbolt lock that you open with a key. It doesnt get any easier than that.

Thanks. I politely reminded my current guest via air bnb message. He leaves early in the morning before anyone else is up and its unlikely but always possible that an intruder could come in and rob and rape myself or my daughter. This guest has lived in Minneapolis for years so he knows the possibility of crime and he is studying to be a doctor so he’s not stupid. I am just irritated that it’s happened 3 times with male guests all of whom are from major US citiies so culture or anything like that is not a valid reason in my opinion. I could put a note by the door saying “please lock behind you when you leave” and maybe that is my next step.

Both. We were both out most of Saturday and he left before us with the door unlocked. I locked it and my daughter and I were gone most of the day. We come in through the back door where the garage is and I saw the front door was unlocked while my guest was in his room. Anyone could have walked right in, stolen whatever they wanted, and left without anyone knowing. I was very irritated.

Yes, we had this topic before.
Most people are used to have front doors that cannot be opened without key, they “lock” themselves.

It his hard for people to understand that you have such an old fashioned system, where the door has to be locked manually.

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Have you tried installing a self locking door?

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so once locked, can it be opened from inside, without a key?

Are you familiar with how a standard deadbolt lock works? It really is not complicated. You use a key to open it from the outside. To open it from the inside, you dont use a key - you use your fingers to turn the large knob or handle to open the door.

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After this, definitely. I am probably giving too much credit to the average person apparently.

I’m pretty sure we don’t use the word deadbolt in UK, thanks for explaining it to me.

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if you can make a note for me, so that I don’t leave it unlocked.

We installed a Schlage Connect Wifi enabled lock (plus Wink2 hub)… it cost a bit, but the peace of mind of being able to check and see if it’s locked… or lock or unlock from anywhere is awesome. I set up some notifications so I can know when guests are coming and going… plus I can tell how long the cleaning crew are actually there. It’s been worth every penny to us!

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So you are actually overreacting, and being a bit paranoid.
When someone needs a key to get in, then they cannot “walk righ in”.

If you are that paranoid, you should invest in a new front door with an automatic multi-point lock system.
Or maybe stop hosting, because every guest can be a potential robber or rapist too.

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Oh yeah! There she was putting me in my place about an unlocked door that can only be opened with a key!

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Put it in your house rules and demonstrate it when they arrive. Message them on the app if they don’t do it. Put a sign by the door - lock the door when you come in or go out. Give them a low score for house rules.

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@cindiksherman We’re using a similar system, Yale Doorman. If a guest doesn’t lock the door properly, I get a notification on my phone.

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I installed a keypad lock. It is amazing, as I NEVER have to worry about the key. I didn’t get the auto locking Wi-Fi enabled as I’m not tech savvy, and just wanted simplicity. The battery seems to last forever. You can easily change the door code. Guests do sometimes forget to lock the door. The only way to prevent this is the wi-fi lock that locks itself after the door has been shut for a few seconds.

@Lisa_Alishio actually there are non WiFi locks that lock automatically when you close them. I have one in my barn tack room. It’s a Turbolock and cost about $40-50. They also have a Bluetooth version that does link with WiFi I think. It is about $75-85.

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@lauras0323 I’m sure you have corrected the issue by now?? But if not o recommend not only putting it in your House Rules but adding a fine for when they do not. That’s what I did after my very first Airbnb Guest did the same thing. I collected on it once from Airbnb because the guest denied doing it but I had proof from the August smart lock app and the WiFi network app because he left about 7 hours past checkout…he was still connected to my WiFi.

Another guest I got nothing because guest said the August smart lock wouldn’t let her close it. She was right because she checked out late as well. Airbnb denied my claims for both the unlocked house fine (because when she left late she no longer had access to the smart lock) and denied my claim for the 2x fee for the guest staying beyond checkout with no justification. What pisses me off is she still could have locked the door knob manually. The smart lock is only for the deadbolt.

So my fine has been $50 but I just upped it to $75 when learning if the $200 direct loss limit for case managers.