Owners and hosts · 8 September 2026 · 6 min read
Key Handover for Alicante Holiday Lets: Where It Fails
Key boxes that jam, codes that never arrive, street doors guests cannot open. Setting up check-in so one failure does not become a night on the landing.
Alicante has around 4,108 registered tourist dwellings and, since 13 January 2025, a two-year suspension on new holiday-let licences. If you hold one, your listing is worth protecting, and nothing damages it faster than a guest who spends their first hour in the city on a doorstep.
Most check-in failures are not dramatic. They are a small thing going wrong at the worst possible time.
Where handovers fail
| What fails | Why | What prevents it |
|---|---|---|
| Key box will not open | Code mistyped, dial seized by salt and dust, box forced | Test it on every changeover; replace boxes that stick |
| Guest never receives the code | Message sent to an old number, spam folder, no roaming | Send it twice, in two channels, the day before |
| Street door beats the guest | Different key or code, unclear which is which | Label keys; send a photo of each lock with its key |
| Guest finds the wrong gate | Urbanisations with several entrances | Send a location pin to the exact gate |
| Door locked from inside by previous guest | Thumb-turn left engaged, cleaner left by another exit | Checklist for cleaners, signed off in photos |
Alicante details worth putting in your welcome message
- Urbanova is made up of eight separate private phases, each with its own perimeter. Guests arriving by taxi need the phase and the gate, not just the street.
- Santa Cruz has no vehicle access. Tell guests where to be dropped off and how many steps to expect with luggage.
- Blocks in the centre usually have a street door, sometimes a second internal door, then the flat. Say so.
When the key does not come back
Guests leave with keys more often than they lose them. If a key has not been returned and you cannot confirm it has been destroyed, change the cylinder before the next arrival. Many hosts keep a spare cylinder on hand so the change takes minutes between cleans.
Who to authorise, and how
Decide in advance who can authorise a locksmith at night: you, your manager or a co-host. Put the number in your listing’s house manual. When a guest calls us, we will ring that number to confirm the booking before opening, and send photos once the door is open.
If something does go wrong, our page for hosts and managers explains how a guest lockout is handled from start to finish.