Can I Prevent my keys being copied?

[Maggie137]

Hi there. I was wondering if any of you meet the guest that is staying in your place, and provide them with house keys. If so, how to you make sure that they don’t make copies of those keys and has anyone had a bad experience with this? I’m renting out my apartment so therefore I can’t change the locks or keys. 

[Victoria567]

My guests do NOT get keys?

Personally I don’t think it is normal to a perfect stranger the keys to my home?

[Victoria567]

Typo ....I do not think it is normal to give a perfect stranger the keys to my home.

[Lisa1485]

We've have this issue too. We have security keys, that can only be duplicated by registered lock Smiths. As we only have 3 sets (all in use by family members), we are reluctant to hand one over to essentially a stranger.  Its not so much the duplication issue, (they should need to provide the correct security code, which they won't have). It's more  the lost keys issue. Which would involve a lot of hassle and changing of locks. 

Plus, as we are only renting a room in our family home,  we stipulate in our house rules, that guests are requested to return by 11pm Sun-Thurs & 12pm Fri-Sat. So hopefully the key issue shouldn't pose too many problems. (We live in a rural area, so not a lot going on round us later than this anyway)! 

I have however, considered a smart lock,  mostly in case I'm delayed and can't get back in time for check-in, but the type we'd need to replace our current lock, has very, mixed reviews! 

[Madhura0]

I completely agree, in today's world with just a little effort you can get digital locks which are not only safer since the keys are unique to EVERY guest and are disabled as soon as they leave (assuming you create unique keys for each guest, otherwise it defeats the purpose of security) but with a little work you can even get the entire process automated for you. There a few solution out there but we've had the best experience with Rental Lock Automater (RLA) from Rboy Apps. You need a SmartThings hub but for the money you can also build a smarthome around it including turning on/off your hvac remotely so you can pretty much recoup the cost of the hub within a month or two depending on your A/C usage.

We've been using Schalge and Yale z-wave locks for years now with the SmartThings hub. RLA automatically schedule our renters. It's an amazing app which automatically creates user codes, send them a personalized SMS with their code, activates the codes before they arrive and deletes it after they leave. There's a lot more that RLA does for us including handing our HVAC system when renters arrive/leave and much more, but those are features unique to SmartThings. You don't have to but if already have a smartthings hub it's pretty easy to add them.

I've written a more detailed review of our experience here: https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Electronic-Door-Locks/m-p/697961/highlight/true#M159188

[Jesse339]

I use this.  I can program the entry code and delete it when they leave. 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081FYNZ7N?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

[Sarah977]

@Jesse339  That's interesting- you don't have any Airbnb listing, are you really a host? Or did you just post this because you sell  them? Advertising isn't allowed on this forum.