Guests NOT shutting or locking exterior doors

[Kathleen1131]

I would  like to know what AirBnB does to a guest that does shut exterior doors or lock exterior doors in a busy city in a downtown neighborhood. How is the guest held accountable? I have signage on both doors, it is in my RULES, and it is common sense. Everyone would shut the door to their own house. 

However, I found myself dealing with this situation repeatedly over the 24 hours a guest stayed at our AirBnB rental. I even messaged the guest and told him he needed to not only shut, but lock the door. He proceeded to leave the exterior door to my building not only unlocked, but open to the city streets for the entire night.

AirBnB offered no help, no assistance, and also allowed the vindictive guest to file a counter claim stating the "space was not clean" in retaliation - all without any proof or photos. The burden of proof fell on my end - I had to spend additional time to explain to AirBnB that the place was clean and is thoroughly cleaned before each guest arrives and then provide proof through photos. 

My experience with AirBnB's protection is that it's useless. The "Rules" you make are also useless. I have a son Smoking and Vaping Policy in my rental. The guest smoked and left and extinguished Vape device on the window sill with the window left open when they checked out. I had photographs of the vape and the signage in the rental...AirBnB DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING>>>

[Mike3102]

Hi @Kathleen1131 , 

What kind of lock do you have? I have Kwikset Halo lock on most of my properties that have "auto lock after 10 mins", but you can customize and choose 3 mins. I know some Lockly and Yale locks also have sensors to sense if the door is shut before it locks it. Those are a little more expensive, so we went with Kwikset. 

This is not uncommon, but technology helped us overcome it. 

[Shelley159]

@Kathleen1131 you can fit a close arm on the door to make sure it closes by itself and cannot be left open. Then the lock suggested by @Mike3102 can take care of the rest. It's usually better to guest-proof your home so as little as possible can go wrong.