Guests left the front door wide open AGAIN !!!!

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

Guys, I need your advice and experience because I am not smart enough to beat the holiday brains.

We are off-site hosts and we rent one apartment divided into 2 smaller apartments in a residential building in the center of the Croatian capital. So it is not a little house on the prairie. A lot of neighbors, workers, postmen, etc... enter our building on a daily bases and all of them pass by our apartment's door.

So, from the building staircase, you have to go through our front door with a digital lock to enter in our apartment's HALL ( with large closets full of our linens, towels, and stuff) and from there you have 2 doors to our 2 smaller apartments.

Basically, our guests have to open and close 2 doors behind them (our front door to the hall and then their apartment's door ) and it's obviously too much.

At first, we had an ordinary old school lock on our front door. Guests had to unlock and lock it with a key.
They often forgot to lock it and just closed the door.
So we invested in smart, a digital lock which locks itself automatically. But of course, the door still has to be closed manually.

Now we have an even bigger problem - guests do not CLOSE the door at all. It happened 3x in 3 months already and my neighbor called me when he saw the door is open for hours.

To prevent it from happened again we:

- check-in our guests personally and tell them at least 3x (three times!) to always close the door behind them. We even show them how to close the door, like they are preschool kids.

- we printed 3 notes in A4 paper format and put them on both sides of the door and on the wall. Notes are written in 5 languages and have a picture of a thief on it. In color! We point the finger on the note and tell them they should close the door.

But no avail 😞

Now all I can think of are two solutions:

- install the door pump to close the door automatically. But it will need an adjustment at least 2x / year depending on the outside temperature. And, of course, if something blocks the door (a small rock, the carpet, etc..) it will not close properly. We have it on the building entrance and it is not reliable at all. So I don't like the idea.

- to install the surveillance camera in our hallway and monitor our door 24/7. Of course, it doesn't help if I am sleeping or if my guests are unreachable have their phones switched off or are out or asleep.

I called my locksmith and he said our door lock doesn't have an alarm and can't send us notifications if the door is left open. The only application available is the one where I can lock the door remotely via WIFI. But of course, I can't close the door from the distance.

Do you have any other solution or advice to offer?

[Cormac0]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 

Put a swing bar on the door and unless they wedge the door open it will close, or put an alarm on the door that beeps while it remains open

https://www.google.com/search?q=swing+bar+door+closer&safe=active&rlz=1C1GGRV_enPL751PL751&tbm=isch&...

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

 @Cormac0  that's what we call "a door pump" and as I've said - we have it on the building entrance and it is not reliable at all 😞

but yes I've been thinking about some beeping door alarm as well. I should research about it.

[Kenneth12]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 :

My front door is at least 125 years old,   the return may be as old,  and I've adjusted it and added noise-absorbing rubber spacers such that it almost always closes to where the auto-lock will put the bolt into the frame.    I think you can find something.

Quite annoying that the Lockstate lock won't send a notification that it's been left open,   but I get emails for all events on the door,  and who caused them-- so can tell if there is no "locked" event";  a Ring Doorbell in the entrance foyer as well as another camera on the porch (as well as on every possible entry point) provides a good sense of who is in and out and doing what,  as well as security and the ability to monitor squirrels passing through the yard.

[Cormac0]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 

Are your guest leaving the door open to your hallway only or both hallway and Apartments?

If it only the hallway essentially the guest are putting you supplies at risk, and in that case you may reconsider redesigning the hallway so guest only have one door to enter and you have a separate compartment for you supplies.

out of the box thinking, now tell me to shut up Cormac

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

,

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Cormac0 

I like out of the box thinking, doing it all the time :)))) Tnx for thinking with me.

Yes, they sometimes leave all the doors unlocked and wide open.

1-st time a group of young guys left all the doors open so my neighbor called me, I arrived and enter in the hall, in the apartment, all the way to their bedrooms and found them sleeping like babies. All 5 of them. With all the doors wide open!

2-nd time the same thing... but they were awake and staring in their iPhones. They didn't even notice Silvia entered and standing next to them.

Today one group checked out, they left the keys in the apartment, their door closed but unlocked and the front door wide open. So anyone could enter inside, steal the keys, tv, etc... 

(we  give them keys from the building door, the staircase entrance and the apartment door + digital keychain/card for the digital lock.)

So, to remove the closets from my hallway wouldn't resolve anything.

[J-Renato0]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 

I suggest buying a type of metalic wardrobe or cabinet with a lock and store supplies in it. Put the metal wardrobe in the hallway.  If someone forget the front door (to the hallway open), the supplies will be safe anyway.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@J-Renato0 

yes, we have high closets with locks in the hallway. We keep sheets and towels there so nothing really worth stealing. I don't believe used sheets are interesting to the thieves.  I am more worried if someone enters into the apartment and steal the keys, TVs or guest's belongings and make damage.

[Mark116]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 Are the doors 'open open' like wide open, open so that a person walking by could see for a fact the door ajar, or is there something with the door where it is more than normally difficult to shut and they close it, has to be pulled tight, and they don't, they think they have closed it?  

I guess you could add a message on the day of their departure to please make sure the door is locked when you leave...and reiterate any directions or quirks with the door.  A camera might be more trouble than  it is worth, but a door alarm seems like a good idea if not too expensive. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Mark116 

open open. WIDE open and clearly visible to anyone passing by.

The door closes very smoothly and easy to shut down.

 I even spoke on the phone with the group checking out today, they called to ask where to leave the keys (even though we have check out instructions hanging near the door) and I told them 4 TIMES to make sure they close both doors.

The other group in the other apartment was sleeping and just the daughter went out. She claims she saw the other group checking out and speaking with me on the phone but she said she went out before them.

So, it's a mistery who went the last and didn't close it. All of them deny it.

[Ann489]

@Branka-and-Silvia0     how heavy is the door? Is it wood? Metal?   Here in the US they sell these cool Butterfly wing spring door closers (Amazon) that I have used for years.  They're cheap, last forever and, most importantly, work.

I like these better than those expensive hydraulic arms that require constant adjustment.

https://www.amazon.com/Spring-Closer-Butterfly-Closed-Sleeves/dp/B0124ZAYRW/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=aps&ie=U...

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Ann489

this is interestihg, I've never seen it before 🙂 I suppose it's great for light weight room doors.

Our door is old wooden door with 2 wings and small windows with crafted bars on each side. They are  beautifull, about 130 years old, same as the building ( built arround 1890 ) I am affraid they might be too heavy for this solution.

[Ann489]

@Branka-and-Silvia0    Yes, I was wondering about that.  Our doors are solid wood as well, but they are interior doors and not quite as heavy.   I wonder if they make heavy duty springs...let me do a little research.   😉

[Mark116]

@Branka-and-Silvia0   That's really weird, I could see if people closed it but didn't lock it or if it was somehow hard to manage it might not fully close...but leaving the door wide open, I don't really have a solution.  Never tried one of those door hinge things, we are old school, using keys, as I have a fear that a smart lock tech type solution might cause more problems than it would solve.