Entrusting a key to a loved one, someone coming to water the plants while you are on vacation, or someone who needs to stop by in your absence: the most common solution remains an outdoor hiding spot, under the doormat, in a flower pot, or tucked behind a shutter. It is also the first thing an experienced burglar checks when approaching a door.
What official prevention guidelines say
The Ma Sécurité website, managed by the Ministry of the Interior, is direct on this point: "Do not hide your keys outside, even to leave them for a friend." The wording makes no exception for hiding spots deemed original or inconspicuous; it targets the practice itself, regardless of the chosen location.
Why a hiding spot, even a clever one, eventually fails to protect
The number of plausible places to hide a key near a door is limited: a doormat, a pot, a mailbox, a fake rock, a window ledge. Someone used to searching knows where to look in a matter of seconds. And every time a spare key is entrusted to a new person—a cleaner, a tradesperson, a neighbor, a short-term tenant—the number of people who know of the existence and location of this hiding spot increases, with no way to turn back once the information has been shared.
A code can be changed
This is the practical difference compared to a physical key: a code can be modified in seconds as soon as it no longer needs to be shared, without changing the lock or making new copies. For a tradesperson visiting once, a loved one looking after the home for a weekend, or tenants rotating in a vacation rental, providing a temporary code avoids accumulating key copies, the number of which one eventually loses track of over the years.
What a lock box does not solve
It addresses a specific problem: the key that needs to remain accessible to someone other than yourself, not the security of the door itself. A lock box does not replace a quality lock, and its location should be chosen as carefully as a traditional hiding spot, out of direct view from the street and preferably under an awning or a porch. The code itself must remain confidential and be changed as soon as someone no longer needs it, just as you would take back a lent key.
Placement matters as much as the code
The common denominator with a hidden key remains the chosen spot to install the box: a wall visible from the street is as much of a risk as a poorly placed flower pot. The benefit is therefore not automatic; it depends on the location chosen and the discipline of changing the code once it has been used.
The corresponding product
The secure key lock box from SentinHome attaches to the wall and locks with a 4-digit code that can be changed at any time, with no battery or key required to open it. Find our entire selection on the home security page.
To go further
Smart locks: what they change and what they don't and Travel, Airbnb, student dorms: the latch that secures the door without touching it explore other ways to rethink home access.