In June 2024 La Vila Joiosa had 1,782 registered tourist dwellings with 7,830 beds, and 122 of them had been added between January and May of that year. That spring the town hall said it was studying a pause on new licences for tourist flats in residential communities, to regulate the sector and head off excessive growth.
Whatever the rules end up being, a tourist flat in a block of flats is a flat whose doors are shared. This guide is about those doors.
The street door
Every guest who arrives needs to get through the street door, and every guest who leaves takes the memory of how. For neighbours, that is the heart of the matter: the street door is their security too.
- Do not prop it or tape the latch for late arrivals. Neighbours notice within a day.
- If the building has an entry code, do not hand it out in public listings. Send it with the booking confirmation, and ask the community how and when it is changed.
- If the street door works with a key, every set of keys you hand out includes one. Know how many sets exist and where each one is.
- If the latch has stopped holding, do not wait for the community’s next meeting to mention it: a street door that swings open affects everyone, and the cause is often a simple adjustment.
Your own front door
This one is yours alone, and it carries the risk of every lost set:
- Change the cylinder when keys go missing, and once a season anyway. The new cylinder comes with its own keys; the old set stops working.
- Key safes and smart locks fail, usually on a weekend, when the battery dies or a code is entered wrong too often. Have a plan for that day: who the guest rings, and who authorises a locksmith to open.
- Keep a written note of the lock: make, cylinder size, how many keys. It makes any repair faster.
Lift, bins and storerooms
Some buildings give each flat a key or fob for the lift, the bin room or a storeroom. Guests lose those too. Before the season, check which of them your flat holds and what the community does when one is lost. This business does not cut or copy keys, but it can change a storeroom cylinder that has been compromised.
The night it goes wrong
A guest shut out at midnight, with you in another country, is the moment a building’s patience is tested. Decide in advance:
- The guest rings the locksmith directly, or rings you first.
- You confirm in writing, by WhatsApp or email, the guest’s name and the address.
- The guest shows an identity document matching the booking.
- The door is opened, and you get photos and the invoice.
Write that down in your house guide, in the languages your guests speak.
Related
The seafront shutter that will not lift deals with the same salt and humidity that wear the cylinders of beachfront flats, and the door sticks after the façade is repainted applies when a community paints its façade or stairwell.
For cylinders and multipoint locks themselves, see changing a lock or cylinder, and for the whole service for hosts, the holiday rental locksmith page.