Hi, All!
I have a little bit of a missing key situation from a guest that is currently staying with me, and I'm looking for advice. For reference, I rent a single bedroom in my apartment, which is part of a 2 apartment building. The enterence to the apartment is an indoor foyer, and the main door locks (think of it as one house with 2 apartments inside).
My old policy was that when I had a guest over, they were given an outdoor key for the main building, and I would keep the inner door to the apartment unlocked. That way, the only people that would have access to my apartment would be myself, the guest, the downstairs neighbor (I've never had a problem, we get along well) and maintenence for the building. This has worked great for people who are just staying the night and don't need a key.
My current guest is slated to stay until December 20th. However, he is currently staying somewhere else but is holding onto the key until the end of his stay (this seems weird to me, but I'm working with AirBnb directly on this) However, I, naively, gave him keys to my apartment as well as the main door.
A month is a long time to hold onto keys and not use them, so I'm assuming they won't be returned. My question is, should I go back to my original policy and just leave the door open? That way, I had control of who could lock the door? I always encouraged guests to lock up at night and showed them how to unlock the door in the morning using the deadbolt, and I would never be locked out. Is this a reasonable accomodation?
Love to get your thoughts. Been AirBnbing since the beginning of the year and love it so far.
Light and Love