Common Issue - Guest Taking Room Keys

[Sidney140]

Hi everyone, my listing in Perth, Australia is having a bit of a common problem where guests are taking room keys and not returning them. It also takes a long time to fix the issue as we need to change the locks and things. Time and money we don't need to waste. When looking on Airbnb, we are not meant to take a deposit from the guest. Airbnb support has been great for one case - however they need quite a bit of evidence. I'm wondering if there might be an exception we can do with Airbnb to take a key deposit or the like?

Has anyone come into a similar situation? Unfortunately changing to smart door locks isn't an option at this stage.

[Shelley159]

Hi @Sidney140 , there's no breakage deposit option on Airbnb. If you let us know why smart locks are not an option, there may be hosts who can suggest a type of smart lock that overcomes the problem.

To get rid of keys, I've also seen hotel-type systems advertised, where you attach a card reader and issue the guest with a plastic card instead of the key. These are programmed to be valid for the period of the booking only (which is a great plus) and if the card (which is a cheap white piece of plastic) gets lost, you just issue a new one. Not sure if this will help, it depends on your situation.

[Sidney140]

Thank you @Shelley159 , our listing is apart of an Apartment Hotel so changes like this are not possible.

[Shelley159]

You could perhaps look into external software that allows for a breakage deposit and that you can connect to Airbnb @Sidney140 

[Helen3]

I've been hosting for ten years and only had this happen twice . @Sidney140 

why do you have to change the locks? Just get them to drop or post the keys back. 

Or install keypad locks . 

presumably you're reminding guests as part of the  check out notes in the rooms to leave their keys ? 

Quite honestly as a large scale STR management company I would much more worried about your reviews and ratings.

Airbnb sees any ratings of 4.6 as poorly performing listing.  It can and does suspend and sometimes ban hosts in this situation.

Your ratings across 93 listings average 4.33 with many guests mentioning cleaning and checking in issues - which are easily within your gift to improve.

[Emilie]

Hi @Sidney140, 

I can understand that is frustrating, have you tried different ways of communicating the reminder to leave the keys to guests perhaps?

Helne has added a few more suggestions on top of Shelley's, it would be super if you could tell us what you think 🙂

Thanks, 

Emilie