Locked Out!

[Heather158]

I arrived home tonight to discover my guest had put the inside latch across, meaning I could not access my property
even though I had keys. He was completely unresponsive to knocking, yelling, Phone calls...I had to take a taxi across town to stay with a friend as I couldn't get into to my own home. I no longer want the guest to stay and want him to reimburse me for the taxi fare. 

[Heather158]

Has anyone else had an experience like this, and if so, were Airbnb helpful in resolving the dispute? 

[Jamie69]

I guess I don't see the "dispute" here. You have a latch on your door and your guest used it.

My first thought is that you don't have any standing trying to get the guest to reimburse you for anything, and I don't see any reason why you'd want that guest out. Do you think the guest intentionally tried to lock you out? Or purposely ignored your knocking?

I actually kind of have the same situation. I have an electronic door lock that my guests use to access the home. I also have a traditional deadbolt lock, which I rarely use. In any case, when I'm out and about, I have both the keys to my house as well as the garage door opener which gives me access to my home. A few days ago I went out with friends and didn't drive. So I had neither my own keys with me nor my garage door opener. I planned to simply use my electronic lock to let myself in. It occurred to me midway through the evening that if my guest locked the deadbolt (and some of them do lock it) then I wouldn't be able to get in. When my friends dropped me off at home that evening, I asked them to wait around to make sure I could get in.

Fortunately, the deadbolt was unlocked so it wasn't an issue. I wouldn't have blamed my guest if she had locked the deadbolt.

The next day I bought a double-cylinder deadbolt which requires a key to lock or unlock it, even from the inside.

The lesson to be learned here is to either remove or modify your lock so that guests won't be able to inadvertently lock you out.This isn't the guest's fault.

Jamie

[Jamie69]

And don't you have Uber there? So much cheaper than a taxi in my experience. 😛

[Robin4]

@Jamie69

Just a minor point of courtesy Jamie, if you have a general comment to add to a thread 'Join the Conversation' where your comments will be displayed after those that have gone before rather than 'highjack' the thread and make previously made comments somewhat irrelevant.  The only time you would jump into a thread is to answer a specific item about an individual post in that thread.

Just a matter of courtesy Jamie, if we all adhere to it the forum does work better.

Cheers....Rob

[Robin4]

@Heather158

Well I have seen some different slants on hosting but this is a first. I would lay a bet nobody else could speak from experience here!

You say Heather that he is un-responsive, what do you mean by that? Do you mean he can't hear you, has maybe gone to sleep..... or do you mean he is aware that you are there but will not respond?

In any case I think I would call the Police first and immediately. You don't know if something may have happened, he may have had an accident inside your house and require help. He may have a medical condition.

If he will simply not respond you have no idea what he may be up to in your property and he needs to be aware that police intervention may not end up well for him!

Contacting Airbnb will not prove any more fruitfull for you....if you can't get his acknowledgement and you are there, Airbnb certainly are not going to able to!

First you need access to your property and if you explain your predicament to Police (particularly the medical angle) they will probably assist. Do this first, then report to Airbnb and have this person dealt with as far as reimburement is concerned.

Just one point of interest Heather! Why are you hosting in your personal home when the situation exists where you cannot gain access? I understand that you would perhaps have had a deadlatch for your personal security if you are there by yourself, but surely you must have thought strangers in your house would utilise that larch without thinking that it would compromise your access.

If you are going to host you must make sure you always have a way of entering your property!

Cheers....Rob

[Linda108]

@Heather158  Thank you for your posting.  I am sure there are other hosts realizing that the same thing could happen to them. If I have learned anything about hosting it is that sometimes my learning curve about this business costs me real money.  @Robin4 is correct about being aware of all sorts of thing that could go wrong when a stranger is in your home and we all try to be aware.  Still sometimes we are surprised.  I am not sure it is wise to penalize your guest, though.  Don't think there is anyway you would get back up from Air BNB.

[Marit-Anne0]

@Heather158

Maybe your guest simply tried to be a good guest by locking the door properly ? We hear enough stories about irresponsible guests not locking doors or leaving them wide open on departure. Luckily, I have only had one of those and I pinned it down to absentmindedness on departure or the classic one - "did you lock the door ? No, I thoguht you were supposed to do that" 🙂

Did the guest actually know that you were out and about - the story says nothing about this fact.