They do - they work so well to allow them normal behaviours. Most of my hamsters have used one of the chambers to pack out with nesting material and make a nest - like a burrow inside the house. Raffy has always been a digger so tunnels under his to make a burrow, but still uses the rooms in the house. It makes sense really - the house entrance is the entrance to the multi room burrow and we've just helped them keep some of the rooms in tact by providing the house!
When I first started keeping hamsters there weren't many multiroom houses - not in the Uk anyway. There was just the Leif labyrinth house, which was ok for dwarf hamsters, but the rooms weren't laid out quite right - it really didn't fit Syrians well at all but some people used to knock the centre panel out so a Syrian could fit in.
Rodipet and Getzoo did sell labyrinth houses (as they were called then) in Germany, but it wasn't common practice to use them in the Uk and US and they were expensive. I switched over to them after trial and error and our first hamster teaching me a few things.
He basically wouldn't use the small house I provided. So I tried having deeper substrate (at a time it wasn't the norm) and he made two tunnel entrances down to a burrow, but didn't seem too happy coming up from them. His ears were flat and it kept getting smelly and collapsing. The substrate probably wasn't quite deep enough or packed enough. One exit came up under a small hay house and it became clear he wanted some overhead cover when he emerged from his tunnel. So I put a larger, guinea pig sized house over that exit and in fact over the whole burrow in that corner, which doubled up as a shelf/platform. Well he loved that - he moved in straight away, abandoned the burrow and made a huge nest at one end. But then he stopped using his litter tray (which was in a corner of the cage and which he had used previously) and started peeing in a corner of the house at the opposite end to his nest.
I thought - he wants an ensuite toilet - so moved his litter tray inside the house in that corner and he carried on using it
This worked reasonably well except it was open inside. His nest was at the far end, his hoard in the middle and his toilet beyond that. And over time, his nest and hoard kept collapsing into his toilet and he'd have to try and push everything back again. He also built a nice little igloo over the toilet - a kind of extension to the nest, so he could walk through a hole into the covered toilet - but that kept collapsing as well.
I had seen the multiroom houses from Germany (and I believe Elusive used them for dwarf hamsters) and really wanted to try one - but it wouldn't fit in the 80 x 50 cage I had. At the time that was the minimum recommended size for hamsters, but I was already aware that with a huge syrian, who needed rat sized items, a 12" wheel and a large house, it really wasn't quite big enough - there was hardly any floor area left.
So I bought a 100cm cage, and a larger rabbit sized large house - which was about the same size as one of the Rodipet labyrinth houses. I got this Ferplast Sin Rabbit house because it had a lift off roof and meant I could empty the toilet without having to lift his house out and everything falling apart. He built an even bigger nest! But it still kept collapsing into the toilet.
Eventually I bought one of the Rodipet multiroom houses and swapped it out by just putting it over the nest where the other house had been.
This was a huge learning curve for me with hamsters. Charlie immediately used the rooms for different purposes. It became clear that a) They like to nest in the dark and have a bathroom near the nest, also under cover in the dark. b) that they are very organised with different rooms and would nest and toilet in different areas. And bury hoards under the nest. c) he was much happier and more relaxed as things didn't keep collapsing.
I continued to use that house for all of our Syrians since then - it had to be replaced before the next hamster, as it wasn't plastikoted. After that it managed to last a couple of hamsters then neededed replacing again.
I experimented with having it as a subterranean house at floor level, with our second hamster, that didn't work so well. He did use one of the rooms as a hoarding area as couldn't bury his hoard under his nest, but it just didn't work so well, so I went back to glueing legs on and having it sat on top of 6" of substrate. I have done that ever since but now have more than 6" of substrate.
I found all but one hamster (who was a 1 year old rescue) would use the darkest room, that was round two corners (light doesn't go round corners) for the nesting area and would avoid nesting in an area with a top hole, where light came in. Some would stuff that hole up anyway. And they preferred to have the toilet in the room adjoining the nest - ie nearby. If you put it somewhere else, they would still pee in the adjoining room.
Hamsters only seem to use a litter tray if you put it where they want it! Moo, the rescue hamster used the small back room furthest away from the nest (as Raffy is doing, and he's also a rescue) - I think some rescue hamsters have already developed different habits. So I put the litter tray under the house in that corner, and gradually moved it to the room in front and he eventually got the message and started using it.
Not all multiroom houses work - there is a fair bit of choice now but some don't have the same design and have the top door in the wrong place so there isn't one room that is dark enough inside the house.
Unfortunately Rodipet have now changed the design of the one that worked so well - the dwarf hamser version is good but I'm not keen on the layout of the new large Syrian one - I haven't tried it but can't see it would work as well. Which is why I got the Happy Henry Homes one for Raffy - because it has the same layout as the old Rodipet one (you can change the layout but I set it up the same). Only issue with that is the litter tray doesn't fit in the middle compartment!
But Raffy has done his own thing with it anyway. When he first came to me I used to call him a bit of a gypsy as he didn't really nest anywhere and his first house (a shoe box house - until I could get hold of a house) was a mess. He seemed scatty and disorganised and was out and about in the cage more than nesting. I suspect due to his past life.
I've often thought that if a hamster can't settle to nesting/having a burrow and have normal habits, it's probably because they came from a place where they were cleaned out every day, and everything thrown away.
It took until colder weather before Raffy got the habit of actually using a house, packing it full of nesting material and substrate and having a proper nest.
Originally he nested in the small back left compartment that he now uses as a toilet - in his old Rodipet house and also burrowed down under that.
After the moth outbreak, he had a different house temporarily (the smaller Happy Henry one which does work quite well and does fit a litter tray - Tino has that now) and his habits changed slightly.
Once back in the Plaza 120 with a new house, even though the same layout as his old house, he has opted to nest at the opposite end to before! It's handy for me though as the toilet end is now nearest the door
. And an update. After having his time out he finally pouched the treat off the carpet. Clearly has more important things to do first.