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On holiday and they’ve taken the key and won’t answer their phone

286 replies

User8182737484849 · 29/08/2025 12:50

On holiday with a family member. We don’t always see eye to eye, but I thought this trip might be a chance for a bit of a reset.

Today we decided to do different things.

Normally I’ve had the apartment key when we’ve gone out together, but I asked them to pop it in the key safe this time. For whatever reason, they didn’t — and with their phone switched off I can’t get hold of them.

I’m making the best of it with a quiet day to myself, but I can’t help feeling a bit upset. It’s left me feeling quite stuck, literally and figuratively. I can’t leave the apartment! I’d never want to make someone else feel like that.

Any advice on how to handle the rest of the trip without letting this sour everything?

OP posts:
BernardButlersBra · 29/08/2025 15:50

KnickerlessParsons · 29/08/2025 12:59

I'd stop being a martyr and I'd go out and leave the apartment unlocked - take your money, phone, passport etc. What's the worse that can happen? Someone nicks your dirty underwear?

It's hardly being a martyr

Instinct tells me the family member will be unhappy about them doing this (undermines their control) and if something did happen then they would blame OP

murasaki · 29/08/2025 15:48

How completely ridiculous. Did you get the key from the keysafe when you arrived?

When I went away with my sister, there was one key. If one of us was doing something without the other the last one out left it in the keysafe as we are not asshats.

DisforDarkChocolate · 29/08/2025 15:46

Take the key off them when they get back and don't let them have it back. This is abusive behaviour.

wuminty · 29/08/2025 15:41

LTK

Namechangerage · 29/08/2025 15:32

I’d go home! That’s how I’d handle it. Leaving the apartment door wide open as I left…

FastIser · 29/08/2025 15:29

Bathingforest · 29/08/2025 14:14

When women will stop fucking go on holidays with men who hate them or they do hate.

No men were harmed in the making of this thread.

Rosscameasdoody · 29/08/2025 15:26

I would be reading them the riot act on their return and insisting on them either using the key safe or leaving the key with me. Then forget the ‘reset’ and never go on holiday with them again.

And to answer your question unless they agree to use the key safe it will ‘sour’ the rest of the holiday because it means you won’t be able to go out. It’s mean, controlling, batshit behaviour and you need to call them out on it.

FastIser · 29/08/2025 15:26

MissScarletInTheBallroom · 29/08/2025 14:28

Also, why would you put your luggage on the conveyor belt when you're still faffing about putting stuff inside and attaching a luggage label? Wouldn't it make sense to find somewhere out of the way to sort your bag out and then put it on the conveyor belt when it is actually ready?

I wonder if there was a queue of people behind you looking on, thinking, "Take your time, love, it's not as if any of us have got a plane to catch."

It will be the machines in the airport where you have to put them on the conveyor belt to weigh them and then it prints out the tag for you to attach, then it tells you to press the button to activate the belt. You can’t take it off the belt in the middle and nobody else can use it during the process. So nobody would be thinking that.

poppy2021 · 29/08/2025 15:17

Have you paid your share of the holiday?

CatchTheWind1920 · 29/08/2025 15:17

You're on holiday with a controlling arse

diddl · 29/08/2025 15:15

Well if that other poster really is your sister Op she sounds a nightmare.

Hope you get away asap!

The obvious thing to do would have been leave the key with you & you use the keysafe if necessary.

Izzywizzy85 · 29/08/2025 15:13

They sound like an absolute arsehole. I wouldn’t go away with them again. Go out and leave the door wedged open, that’ll teach them.

Movinghouseatlast · 29/08/2025 15:13

Just go out and have a nice time doing whatever is available? Surely they will let you in when they come back?

Or phone the emergency number and say you need another key. You must have a number to call or someone to email? I see they only have one key, just insist you get it. Ask them to get one cut.

Vaxtable · 29/08/2025 15:13

I would make the best of it. Then get up early tomorrow, take the key and go out for the day, leave a note saying you have gone out as you couldn’t yesterday

godmum56 · 29/08/2025 15:12

HerecomesMargo · 29/08/2025 12:56

Didn’t you post this recently?

yup I have seen this recently too

BabyCatFace · 29/08/2025 15:09

Who is this? Let me guess is it your parent?
I would go home. This is shitty behaviour and deliberate to put you in your place. This holiday was a mistake - never go on holiday with someone you don't get on well with, especially a family member!

sittingonabeach · 29/08/2025 15:03

Do they not trust key safes? Is there a reason you always looked after the key previously, did you not trust them? Is there a reason there aren't 2 keys?

SatOnaHotTinRoof · 29/08/2025 15:03

This is so mean. I'm sorry you have had to experience this.

Uricon2 · 29/08/2025 15:02

VoltaireMittyDream · 29/08/2025 14:47

I was imagining them as spiteful old ladies! This is totally the sort of thing my great aunt Molly would have done to her browbeaten sister when circumstances compelled them to live together in old age.

"Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" ('s Key)?

PiggingBastardPigs · 29/08/2025 15:01

RimTimTagiDim · 29/08/2025 14:54

I'm the key and I want to be tucked up nicely in the key safe. Nobody ever considers my feelings.

It’s abuse. I’d leave both bastards if I were you.

Pluvia · 29/08/2025 15:00

EasySqueezy · 29/08/2025 13:36

Seriously I would pack my bags, leave the apartment and go home. Let them return to an empty place and wonder where you are. Then don’t answer your phone.

This is passive-aggressive game-playing and would make the OP as bad as the person who has walked off with the key and switched off their phone. Go home or find a hotel or an alternative if you wish, OP, but behave like a responsible adult and leave a note saying that you've left and won't be back.

Or, as it seems the door is self-locking, just gather some stuff that you might need for a day out and go out for the day yourself.

Mrsknowitall · 29/08/2025 14:58

I would go to a hotel and enjoy the rest of my holiday alone

Bobnobob · 29/08/2025 14:55

Who is they OP? They are abusing you and you absolutely need to stop this toxic relationship.

RimTimTagiDim · 29/08/2025 14:54

I'm the key and I want to be tucked up nicely in the key safe. Nobody ever considers my feelings.

MissMoneyFairy · 29/08/2025 14:50

This reply has been deleted

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Agree