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?

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Mark116  yes, my daughter Silvia said the same. I didn't believe but it seems you two were right

[Linda108]

@Branka-and-Silvia0   While @Ann489  is checking out whether the butterfly wing spring is a possibility for you, perhaps you can also address a common problems with groups.  That is, everyone thinks the other person did it.  When I am dealing with a group of 4 young people, I always make sure the booking guest is the responsible member of the party.  I let him or her know I will communicate through him/her and I will reviewing him/her.  I think it sets up a mind set for most guests.  Just a thought 😄

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Linda108 

yes, you are right, the likelihood of problems is proportional to the size of the group. But this time we had a mother with two daughters in their 20es in one apartment and 2 guys in their 20es in another. So a group of 3 vs a group of 2. The daughter went out alone. 2 guys went out together. It's not that 6 of them went out at the same time and the last one thought there is someone behind him who will close the door.

The guys said they double checked both doors.

The girl said she went out before them.

I also use the word "responsible for the group" during the check-in. I take their photo IDs, the responsible one has to sign how many keys he got, etc...

The weird thing is, while we had an ordinary key they did close the door but sometimes they forgot to lock it. Now they don't close it. WHY? A human brain is a total mystery....

[Sarah977]

@Branka-and-Silvia0  Maybe a spring like this? https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/self-closing-gate-spring-0461605p.html  They are super heavy duty and should work to close the door.

And even though you have all those notes about locking the doors and even a picture of a thief, maybe if you word it "Hosts are not responsible for possible theft of guests' belongings due to failure to lock the doors", it might make more of an impression?

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Sarah977 

I'm not sure for the front door but this gate spring would be great for the gate at my house, good idea, tnx 🙂 

I don't believe mentioning my non-responsibility would help, especially once they check out.T hey don't have anything valuable. Their phone, ID and the credit card are always in their pockets anyway.

I am thinking about the security camera, at least I would see if the door is closed. .... I don't know..

.

[Ann489]

@Sarah977   Good thought,  but those things are downright dangerous....we had something like that on our gate and it was snapping shut like a bear trap!  Last I checked, the trapping of guests is illegal!    😉

@Branka-and-Silvia0   unfortunately,  I can't seem to find a heavy-duty version of that wing spring.  How about going to a local door supplier/installer and ask for advice?  Keep us posted! 🙂

[Emiel1]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 

Your guests show a lack of responsibility and should not book an Airbnb accommodation. Switch to "military hosting" : they should pay an amount of money for each time they don't close the doors properly.

[Kelly149]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 

yes!! get a camera, you absolutely need to know if the door is open/closed/locked...

also, my kids were constantly leaving the door to the backyard open so I installed a self-closing hinge. It doesn't "snap" shut, but it will close itself unless there is something physically blocking it. Even if it isn't 100% reliable, it may be better than how your guests are faring at this moment.

you might be able to find a pinging chime for when the door is open, but that will really only help your neighbor notice quicker, 'cause the guests have already walked away 

[Marie82]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 I had the same thought as @Emiel1  regardless any system u will put into place guests will still leave the door opened, my guess is to put a fee on House Rules and ur description and make sure if they do leave the door open after departure u charge them. And during check-in reminding them again about the fees they will have to pay in case u find the door open after them.

My only concern is u have 2 apartments and both can use the door so that makes thing little tricky

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@J-Renato0 @Marie82 @Kelly149 @Emiel1 @Ann489 @Sarah977 

The human brain is interesting and sometimes just one detail makes a difference. I intend to redesign my "Close the door" signs to make them more "visible" and "eye-catchy". I'll let you know the result 🙂

For example, we had a recycle bag in the hall where our guests should leave empty PET bottles. So, I draw and framed a picture of bottles, hung it on the wall in the eye level above the bag but my guests didn't notice it. Then I hung the picture lower,  at the knee level and since then, everyone noticed it and use it. I don't have to tell them anything.

A few years ago I watched a TV documentary series called "Brain games" where the psychologists tested human reactions in certain situations. I remember once they placed a wallet on the street. Most passengers noticed it and picked it up. Then they draw a red circle around the wallet and nobody noticed it 🙂

Or when they glued a yellow tape randomly on the floor of a museum. Visitors were following the yellow tape even though it led them to the empty corners and in circles without any sense :)))

Something should work, I just have to find out what. As I said - they closed the door when we had an old lock with a key. Now they don't and I have to find out why.

Oh, we will all graduate psychology on our guests 😄 😄

[Sarah977]

@Branka-and-Silvia0  Interesting observations, pretty strange. Have you ever asked your non-door-closing guests why they didn't close the door? When I asked a guest why she and many people her age send 6 text messages of a few words each one right after the other, instead of organizing their thoughts and sending it all in one message, she told me it was because they think of texting as an alternate form of talking, rather than an alternate from of writing, which was a revelation to me, as I consider it to be writing.

If they closed the door when you had a key, but not with the digital lock, maybe their brains go into "it's automatic" mode.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Sarah977 

it's interesting what you said about texting-talking... never crossed my mind 🙂 I thought they are doing it to keep the attention of the other side, so the other side doesn't have to wait too long until they write one long message. And because every message produces a sound it brings attention as well. If I heard one "bling" I'll not stop with what I'm doing to check the phone, but if it goes bling bling bling bling bling... then it's like an alarm and I will go and check what's happened.

Of course, I've asked why the door is open but I didn't get any answer. Mostly those are groups where not everyone was present on check-in so probably those who arrived later and were not warned by me about the importance of the closed door couldn't figure it out by themselves and didn't read the notes.

Or came home drunk.

Or both 😛

[Sarah977]

Duplicate, deleted.

[Jelena80]

I noticed the same thing happening to my neighbor on the second floor.  She has a big flat 4 rooms , and one of them has a separate entrance from the building hall. It is obviously that the building is not a Hotel,  (where you leave there the door open  so the maid knows she can enter!?) , but very often at the check out they leave all the door opened.

I  close the door, because my neighbor  doesn't live in the place.  She gave me a set of keys, too, and sometimes asks me to check if it is closed if she will not be there that day.

I know this doesn't help, but I wrote it to let you know that you are not alone in that problem!

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Jelena80  Yes, I've heard the same from other hosts as well and that's why I asked for advice and fresh ideas.

It's hard to believe but 10% of my guests have this problem. It's a lot. It's 1 in 10 days.