Lay My Hat

Hi
I need your help on this one and I d appreciate your advice. I m offsite.
We have a group due tomorrow and one of the member of the party just sent me a cheerful email. She says in her email that she has a friend whol lives 1h30 drive from our property and she is going to visit her on wed and she has the full address of the property already. So her question is:
Does the property has a phone her friend can ring just in case she gets lost on wed.

Booking Form and T&C stipulates "only member of personns stated on the booking form may use the property unless otherwise agreed by us"(but I guess not being the lead guest, this lady did not see these documents)
We are at max occupancy with this group.

I don't wish to kill her happy mood for tomorrow by reminding her my T&C but at the same time I don't want to be taken advantage. I experienced situations like that in the past and guests of our guest extended their stay and I learnt my lessons the hard way.

I could hide behind insurance reasons and ask more details (name of guest..or guests coming.) but the problem will remain the same.

So what would you do plse? And do you think I should get in touch with the lead guest who made the booking?

TIA
Isy

Our clients' guests often have friends visiting when they are here, I don't see what your problem is.
Your phrase "only member of persons stated on the booking form may use the property unless otherwise agreed by us" won't protect you in court, the definition of 'use' if she's just visiting is wide open to interpretation.
Loosen up! is my advice.

I think it means that her friend is just coming to visit her on Wednesday - not stay overnight - and I see no harm in that. If the friend is planning to move in, then that would be a different matter and you would have to take it up with them in that circumstance. It looks like a case of "wait and see". You are off-site, so maybe there is someone close at hand who could keep an eye out for you.

As Circé says, the word "use" is too broad in definition. Perhaps "occupy" would be a better word.

I agree with Circe, relax. You can't reasonably ban people from the premises and it's difficult to "police" it.

I'd say something friendly, like

" I hope your friend enjoys her visit...should he/she need to stay overnight there will be a small fee of €x per night...."

They may still smuggle someone in and out but at least you're sending the message that you don't wish to be taken advantage of.

I agree with the others - I wouldn't worry about it. If she lives 1 hr 30 mins away I would say it's unlikely she's going to stay over if it's at max occupancy. Personally I'd rather sleep in my own bed rather than on the floor/squash up!

All she's said is that her friend is visiting - not that she intends to stay over - so I wouldn't say anything.

I would say "Thank you for letting me know that you will have your friend visiting for the day" and give her the relevant info. An extra car overnight will give her away if she stays so perhaps you have someone who can count cars for you?!

And then what should the owner do, FelicityA?
It would be really embarrassing if something was said and then it turned out the friend had stayed locally in a chambre d'hote and just left her car at the property to avoid driving after a few glasses of wine.
Or if one of the guests had hired a second car and heaven forbid! not told the property owner and wrong assumptions were made.
Jeez, we currently have a 4-person gite let to a couple of Aussies for 6 weeks, and they are having several sets of visitors stay over no problem. They are paying the same as for a 4-bed occupancy anyway, and aren't asking for laundry to be done (there's a perfectly good washer-drier at the house). I've just taken them an extra pot of freshly made apricot jam as they enjoyed the last one so much. (The property gets the N°1 spot in Trip Advisor reviews for that popular town so we & the owner aren't doing too much wrong.)

You could mention that you hope they have a very enjoyable day together, catching up on each other's news - and add that it is a shame the house is fully occupied already and insurance requirements forbid over-occupancy, otherwise the friend could have been booked in and stayed longer.

Our guests often have friends and family to visit for the day. They don't generally tell me about this in advance and I wouldn't dream of asking! The cottages only sleep 2 so I wouldn't worry about people staying overnight, but there is surely no problem with daytime visitors - it seems like the perfect opportunity to catch up with local friends, and holidaymakers will often want to show off their accommodation.

We had one tricky moment a few weeks ago when we showed new guests into the cottage (a retired couple) who brought with them a baby and a toddler. After cooing over the baby for a while, it transpired that they were just babysitting for an hour or so for nearby family (who incidentally came to visit them in the cottage as well).

I wouldn't lose any sleep over a friend visiting - who knows, it might bring extra business your way if the said friend likes the accommodation and recommends it to others!

Circé wrote:And then what should the owner do, FelicityA?

To be honest, I don't know, Circe. I thought by using the phrase 'for the day' was dropping a subtle hint it wasn't for the night. It is entirely up to Isy how she deals with an extra staying, if it is pretty certain she has. I have had this in the past and I did not confront as it was only for one night ( a motorbike parked outside) and I couldn't be sure, although I do hate to think of my sofas being used as beds with no sheets or anything ( thinking dribble on the cushions...) However I do now limit ( having had a large party use it during the day without consultation) the daytime visitors to twice the capacity of the cottage and this made very clear in the letting agreement, as is the total sleeping at any one time.

Hi everybody,
Thanks for all your replies. As always, you're full of advices and made some very good points.
A daytime visitor is never been an issue. If this person brings along her family/friends and stay for a couple of days or more, that is becoming a problem (hot water, septic tank...) since we re already at the max capacity. As I said earlier, I experienced in the past over-occupancy situations : "once bitten, twice shy".
Thanks again

FelicityA wrote:

Circé wrote:And then what should the owner do, FelicityA?

I have had this in the past and I did not confront as it was only for one night ( a motorbike parked outside) and I couldn't be sure, although I do hate to think of my sofas being used as beds with no sheets or anything ( thinking dribble on the cushions...) However I do now limit ( having had a large party use it during the day without consultation) the daytime visitors to twice the capacity of the cottage and this made very clear in the letting agreement, as is the total sleeping at any one time.

I'm the same. I have no problem with guests having visitors but it is certainly not open house. My T&Cs cover this scenario. If you do not limit numbers you are just asking for trouble IMO. In my old sleeps 2 cottages, I once had extended family turn up to stay for weekend - 9 in total!

I would just reply with the required information. After all, I expect they will just sit in the garden. They may even go out for a walk for most of the time.

Mind you, it is so much easier to police when you are on site, so you have my sympathies with the worry that they may stay the night.

In all the debate about what should be done should the visitor stay overnight, no one has mentioned that the initial request asked about a phone at the house....

Really????!!! In this day and age when 99.9% of the population travel with mobile phones and even if they are abroad an normally keep their data roaming switched off to avoid excessive charges they could turn it on a few hours if there was a possibility of someone trying to contact them.

YOu don't need to leave data roaming switched on to receive or make calls or SMS, so even that shouldn't be a problem, but making calls to foreign mobiles can be expensive too.