Locked out at night due to a known lock problemDuring my stay, I stepped out to my car. When I came back, the keypad on the main door would not accept the code, leaving me locked out. It was dark, cold and raining, and my phone was inside.The area is rural, with little lighting and long distances between homes. I could only reach neighbours because my car key was luckily in my pocket. Without it, I would have been stranded outside.No one was home at the first houses I tried. A kind neighbour several doors down let me use his computer to reach VRBO, then lent me his own cell phone to take back to the property so the owner could walk me through unlocking the door. Without him, I could not have contacted anyone.The owner said the lock had probably jammed and that she knew about the problem. She told me to find an object in the dark and force the lock. The backup lockbox keys didn’t fit, so I kept at it until it opened. She was 1.5 hours away and never offered to come. A different key appeared in the lockbox the next day, but the lock was never repaired during my stay.The day before I arrived, I was told about a spa installation, but not that much of the yard was dug up. Apart from a small path to the driveway, the ground around the house was mud.On my last day, the owner’s email didn’t mention the lockout and asked unhappy guests to send a private message rather than leave a public review.Future guests: confirm the lock is repaired and the lockbox keys work.