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Original poster

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:
Tiredofwhataboutery · 29/08/2025 14:25

I’d contact owner and ask for second key. Also assuming you are somewhere safe I’d just go out have a nice day, take a book in case you need to while away a bit of time before they return. I’d say going forward the person with most flex to their plans gets the key so if you are pottering you have it if out on a day trip then them.

CatHairEveryWhereNow · 29/08/2025 14:25

BeltaLodaLife · 29/08/2025 14:02

If there is only one key then you do not take it on a day trip. You leave it with the person staying closest to the apartment. Absolute dick move.

If there is a key safe then use it. If the owners don’t want that it be used then they need to provide two keys.

You had two good choices; key safe or leave the key. You picked the idiotic and most dickish choice of taking it and trapping her in the apartment. You owe her the cost of one day if the holiday that she has now missed out on.

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This.

Taking the key just a dick move.

OP I'd get money and stuff together and go out till evening.

PiggingBastardPigs · 29/08/2025 14:25

legsekeven · 29/08/2025 14:21

So threads on Mumsnet aren’t for entertainment! Ok silly me.

Back to reading war and peace for me

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Oh, ignore the party poopers. Carry on laughing.

mrswhiplington · 29/08/2025 14:22

soupyspoon · 29/08/2025 13:55

Well Im going to join in

Im the holiday let owner and Im not going to give this pair a spare key, they're lunatics.

Im waiting for the cleaner to join this thread as Ive been messaging them all morning and they havent replied.

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😂

Checkard · 29/08/2025 14:21

AugustSlippedAwayIntoAMomentInTime · 29/08/2025 13:52

Poor.

If you genuinely thought she'd be in the apartment all day, you wouldn't have needed the key yourself. She'd have been there to let you in.

Utter dick move on your part.

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What a horrible, controlling, totally fxxked up thing to do to someone.

In your place OP, i would pack a bag, book in somewhere else and never travel with such an arsehole again.

legsekeven · 29/08/2025 14:21

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So threads on Mumsnet aren’t for entertainment! Ok silly me.

Back to reading war and peace for me

Goody2ShoesAndTheFilthyBeast · 29/08/2025 14:20

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You'd get it from the key safe that she's happy to use.

MissScarletInTheBallroom · 29/08/2025 14:20

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You'd get the key out of the key safe where she left it.

InWalksBarberalla · 29/08/2025 14:20

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So you knew she might want to go out and took the key so she couldn't go out??

PiggingBastardPigs · 29/08/2025 14:20

SingingintheRadiator · 29/08/2025 14:15

We've already had this post a couple of weeks ago, no?

Slow news day.

MissScarletInTheBallroom · 29/08/2025 14:19

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So this is petty revenge then?

Thefastandthecurious5 · 29/08/2025 14:19

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MissScarletInTheBallroom · 29/08/2025 14:18

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In which case she could have let you in any time you wanted and you didn't need the key, did you?

You can't have it both ways.

Either you thought she'd stay in all day so you didn't need a key, or you knew there was a chance she might want to go out and that therefore you shouldn't take the only key.

If you were my sister I would not only leave the door open, I'd leave a note in a prominent place outside saying, "The door is open, please come and take my sister's passport and iPad which is on the table and fully charged. The pin is 3605."

Thefastandthecurious5 · 29/08/2025 14:18

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Thefastandthecurious5 · 29/08/2025 14:18

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Goody2ShoesAndTheFilthyBeast · 29/08/2025 14:18

Maybe you two should not going on holiday together again.
It doesn't sound like you enjoy it.

Goody2ShoesAndTheFilthyBeast · 29/08/2025 14:17

The owner has told you not to use the key safe that the owner has installed at the property for the key to be left in?

Why?

Ponoka7 · 29/08/2025 14:17

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So it was likely that she'd be around to let you in, you definitely wouldn't have been around, so she keeps the key, or it goes in the key safe.

InWalksBarberalla · 29/08/2025 14:17

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Well why did you take the key then when she'd be there to let you back in? Selfish and inconsiderate.

Irritatediron · 29/08/2025 14:16

Why cant you just go out now and plan your return for after they'd be back??? Don't message them, dont beg, just go make the most of the day there's fuck all reason to be stuck inside unless there's a drip feed.

SingingintheRadiator · 29/08/2025 14:15

We've already had this post a couple of weeks ago, no?

Thefastandthecurious5 · 29/08/2025 14:15

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Bathingforest · 29/08/2025 14:14

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

legsekeven · 29/08/2025 14:14

I still want to know what happened with the luggage tags

OfficerChurlish · 29/08/2025 14:13

This isn't adding up at all.

OP, you say I asked them to pop it in the key safe this time. For whatever reason, they didn’t ... and then There is a key safe that they have refused to use so it’s not an accident. It’s very much their way or the highway... They are on a day trip and have refused to come back early to let me out! I told them about the key safe repeatedly and they won’t use it.

If your sister has repeatedly said she won't use the key safe, why did you give her the key to put in the safe and expect that she would?

"Sister" says: I didn’t put the key in the lockbox today for safety reasons (because the apartment owner told us not too). I wanted to go out today and my sister didn’t want to come with me. I thought she wohkd probably spend all day in the apartment, so I thought it made sense for me to take the key.

This is, unbelievably, even more idiotic. You should have left the key in the lockbox or left it with your sister. If she was not going out she could have let you in when you returned.

The owner should either get a secure key safe (I have no idea why the one that's there would not be secure; presumably it has a changeable combo that only the owner and the current guests know) or be prepared to lend a key to each guest that requests one.

Case closed; throw the book at ALL of them!!