Airbnb host demands guest pay for locksmith services after they get locked outside their room in the middle of the night, guest refuses: ‘It wasn't my fault’

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Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
May 18, 2026 10:30 AM EDT

The age-old question of who is supposed to pay for a home repair: the person who lives in it, or the person who owns it?

When you live in a home you don't own, disputes are bound to follow every time something happens to the place. It could be an AC malfunction, a hole in the wall, or a clogged toilet; every single change drags a whole conversation about who is supposed to be the one paying for the repair.

Naturally, neither side wants to bear the cost of a repair. The owner never wants to pay for something in a home they don't live in, and the renter doesn't want to pay for something in a home they don't own. But usually, a simple clause in their contract determines which one of them must take out their wallet, and that usually settles the debate.

When it comes to Airbnbs, things tend to get a little blurry because these standard contracts are not a common thing between a host and a guest. Anyone who has ever stayed at an Airbnb knows that some hosts tend to look for ways they can squeeze more money out of their guests, and one must be careful whenever they're staying at an Airbnb for longer than a night.

The guest below is staying at an Airbnb long-term, which could be a risky deal, as they have just discovered themselves. For a while, they didn't have any problems with their stay, until one night at 2:00 AM, they got locked out of the bedroom because the electronic lock suddenly ran out of batteries.

Since they only left their room to go to the bathroom, the guest didn't have anything but their phone on them, so they decided to text the host and explain the situation. After a bit of back and forth, the host told the guest to wait until 7:00 AM, and the guest decided to spend the rest of the night in the communal kitchen. When morning came, the host called a locksmith who came to fix the lock. When the door was fixed, the host and guest got into a dispute about who should pay the locksmith for the job. The host claimed it was the guest's fault for leaving the room in the middle of the night, while the guest refused to take the blame for a malfunction that had nothing to do with them.

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  • Locksmith Man Repairing Woman's Door
    via AndreyPopov

    Locksmith Man Repairing Woman's Door.

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • AITAH for refusing to pay the locksmith for fixing the lock on my bedroom?

    I'm currently staying at an Airbnb. A longterm thing. It has one of those electronic locks with the code on it. I share my apartment with 3 other people, and have my bedroom to
    via Fine-Number-6210
  • myself. We share two bathrooms and a kitchen. They're all long term guests too, but we don't really talk unless we cross paths in common areas (which rarely happens).
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  • Last night, around 2 AM, I woke up to pee. I didn't lock my bedroom door, but just closed it. I had my phone with me, because I use my phone pretty much everywhere. When I got
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  • back from the bathroom, I couldn't get back into my bedroom. I didn't want to bug the owner so late at night, so I just left her a text. I got the "Read at timestamp" thing all
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  • the same, and I found her missed call (my phone was on DND because it was late). I called her back. She accused me of putting in the wrong code. Now, I've been staying at this Airbnb for 3+ months now,
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  • entering the same code day after day, so that was VERY unlikely. I still double-checked the code on the Airbnb app, and sent her a video of myself entering it and getting the error message.
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  • She said there was nothing she could do for me this late and suggested that I stay at a hotel. I told her I couldn't do that, because I didn't have my ID (plus I didn't want to shell out money, but I didn't tell her that).
    via Fine-Number-6210
  • My license/passport were all locked up in my bedroom, because I didn't anticipate needing an ID at 2 AM while getting up to use the bathroom.
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  • She said she could have me stay in another empty room, but I'd have to pay the cleaning fees. Now, money's tight for me because of some family emergencies, and I didn't want
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  • to do that either. So I refused. I think it's unfair that I'd have to pay extra cleaning fees when the lock gave me no indication that the battery is low. She said "I could just have ignored your text, you know". So instead of
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  • arguing with her, I asked her the proper time to call, and she said 7 AM when the locksmith/handyman would be available. I said it's fine, and decided to spend the night in a dining room chair.
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  • One of the next door guys, who is usually up late, walked in to help and loaned me his charger, and I spent the night sitting in the chair while doomscrolling and reading one of the books in
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  • the bookshelf. After 7 AM, I texted the owner again. She told me she would check with the locksmith/handyman (let's call him Kevin) and get back to me. I kept on just scrolling through my phone until 7:40 or so, when
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  • she texted me that Kevin was on his way. The guy that lent me his charger had told me that something similar had happened to him the previous year, but luckily it wasn't late at
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  • night, so Kevin had responded promptly. Anyway, Kevin showed up, fixed the lock, got my bedroom open, and left.
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  • Woman on the phone late at night
    via South_agency

    Woman on the phone late at night.

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Now, the owner is asking me to pay Kevin. The next door guy hadn't been asked to pay him when this happened to his door. She said it's because she had to force Kevin out of his normal
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  • business hours. I said it's not my fault the door got locked, I hadn't locked it. The battery had dod. And when she said it couldn't be fixed until the morning, I hadn't bothered her
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  • any further, but had spent the whole night in the kitchen. This led to an argument. She's saying "You're young, your body recovers quickly from a night out". We (herself and Kevin) aren't young, we cannot be up
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  • so late. I told her that all I did was send her one text. I was fully prepared to stay outside all night if she hadn't responded. It wasn't my fault that the lock malfunctioned. I hadn't locked
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  • the room from inside (Kevin confirmed this) or entered any wrong code. If his business hours were from 9, she should've told me and I'd have stayed outside till 9. She told me it was 7 so that's why I
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  • called him then. I said it's not sensitive to assume that just because I'm young I don't need my rest too, but I didn't complain and texted her (didn't even call unless she called first) at the office hours that she
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  • herself had told me. She called me cheap and just ended the discussion. I am planning to leave the Airbnb and find another accommodation because of this. AITAH?
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  • ChaoticCrashy You're NTA. Her locks, her responsibility to maintain. Don't pay for her maintenance.
    via ChaoticCrashy
  • empiricaltake NTA. Clearly her responsibility as a landlord, plus she is the one who picked Kevin. Her bringing up your youth suggests she knows she's out of good arguments.
    via empiricaltake
  • Glittering-Eye3591 NTA, and you need to document as much of the conversation as possible and address this with Airbnb.
    via Glittering-Eye3591

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locksmith landlord guests lock hosting Airbnb service host bedroom resident money apartment
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