What age would you refuse a booking

From the moment they step through the door your bookings become guests, and their experiences determine whether they ever come back.
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annafern
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What age would you refuse a booking

Post by annafern »

I have a 4 bed house which sleeps 8 and in the past i have had one issue where guests wrecked the place!! Awful experience which i don't want to repeat as had to take them to small claims court.

Since then i have introduced a refundable damage deposit of £300 which has worked very well.

My booking forms are quite thorough but it doesn't ask age, only only adult, child, infant.

I got a booking for a 3 night stay for 8 adults but when the booking form got returned it said that they were celebrating a friend who had just finished his exams. Could mean A levels or degrees!!

Alarms bells rang!!!!! I nearly canceled it but thought i was being paranoid, so rather than cancel the booking I increased the damage deposit up to £500.

Now they are barking about the increase!!

Do i cancel the booking or just hold out for the full damage deposit?

Anna :roll:
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bornintheuk
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Post by bornintheuk »

Hold out ! It concentrates the mind of the renter if there is more to loose.
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joddle
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Post by joddle »

If you have already quoted or advertised a lower security deposit price which they accepted then increasing the deposit now may be difficult to justify - you are changing the terms of the agreement and so I think they would be justified in complaining. However, if you have not already indicated the deposit price then your rate seems reasonable for what you are taking on - (I would be pretty worried as well!) and of course you can always assure them that if nothing is damaged then of course they will get it back in full - so I would be inclined to stick it out if possible. Some youngsters are actually quite responsible - alas many others are not!
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greenbarn
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Post by greenbarn »

Just hope they're not law students......... AIUI it's unlawful under the Equality Act to refuse a booking, or impose different terms (increased damage deposit), on the grounds of age (as well as gender, disability, race, religion, sexual orientation etc etc etc etc).

PS - I don't think the act says anything about not allowing parties.....
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Post by russellt »

You have already increased the damage deposit, so going back on that may lack credibility. So, I'd accept the booking, but enforce the increased damage deposit. If they cancel, you will lose a booking but save a few heartbeats. :wink:

Have you tried speaking to them, perhaps on the pretext of ensuring that the accommodation will meet their requirements? Some properties simply do not work for large numbers of adults. You will learn a lot by speaking to them directly. And most mature adults will understand/empathise with your concerns.

Finally, for the future, I would advise doing more to understand the profile of any party/group that may be renting your accommodation, before accepting a booking. I ask for the names of all members of the group, and the ages of any under 18. You can learn a lot about the profile of the group from this. I also require that the person booking, and taking responsibility, is over the age of 21 years.
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Nemo
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Post by Nemo »

Patrick is right, changing the terms could really get you in hot water should they choose to pursue it, as it breaks current UK law. I would ring them up. Nothing like a discussion to get to know the lead booker better, their intentions, a bit about them etc. You could be upfront and explain about previous problems you've had and why you need to ensure that the property is the "right fit" for them.

After that discussion you may feel happier, or you may be able to say this really isn't the right place for you (area, noise, neighbours - whatever reasons seem valid).
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Post by zebedee »

A person under 18 cannot enter a contract (well they can appear to, but you would be in some difficulty if they did not comply with the contract and you wanted to take action).

My TCs start by saying that the lead guest must be 18 or over.
With regard to the deposit, you could say in your TCs that your deposit is usually £300 but that you reserve the right to ask for more in certain situatuations (without actually defining what those situations are). Eg if someone was bringing a dog, you might want your standard £300 plus something extra for accepting the dog.

All a bit water under the bridge for you, though. It's also too late to try and come up with some other excuse for declining the booking as they already know you are unhappy. Nemo is offering the best advice in trying to explain about your previous bad experience and try and gain some sympathy. People do exams for all different sorts of jobs at different ages as adults - even Open University degrees which tend to be the more mature student. You may be worrying unnecessarily, so try and have an amicable conversation and see if you can reach something of a compromise. Perhaps even ask them if they can suggest a compromise. I would try hard not to inflame the situation any further though.
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Post by rammy100 »

I have been in this situation twice although I was aware how old the guests were in advance. One group explained how difficult it was to find accommodation.

I increased the security deposit but explained this was because of trouble with previous groups and in both cases it was accepted. Communication and explaining my point of view was crucial.

I agree with Nemo and think your best approach now is to phone them up, explain your reasoning and to set some ground rules - no partying, noise etc. And think about their response. If they can discuss the situation with you sensibly then they will probably be OK (not all teens are bad) but if they "bark" at you and are awkward, well I would reconsider whether I wanted 8 partying teens there for the weekend.
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Post by Sam V »

Some of you may have read my recent experience with a gay couple staying at my villa, not a problem for me but their ages 22 and 23 was more my concern, and right I was after they managed to lock themselves out twice in exactly the same way during a 6 night stay, costing a total of €630/£498 to break in and damages in doing so. They had no travel insurance and my deposit is £300. I've just emailed them today for the balance. In future I think I'll be asking a larger deposit for under 25's.
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Ben McNevis
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Post by Ben McNevis »

If it were me (and thankfully it isn't) I would give them a ring and ask about ages, on the grounds that if any minors (under 18s, not Arthur Scargill) are included, you doubt that your insurance would cover them if there were no over-25s in the party.

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Post by Essar »

I have had one experience of youngsters staying in my apartment.
One of the fathers called and made the booking as the lead guest, offered to pay double the security deposit if I would accept them; he informed me they were all well behaved 18-year olds, 2 boys & 2 girls, they had been friends from infant school. I took a chance and accepted the booking.
They duly arrived and all sat down in the lounge and waited to be read the Riot Act - which is not my style :o - I just did the normal meet and greet.
They were no trouble, the neighbours said they were all "sweet" and "lovely kids", apartment was left absolutely................perfect.
They are very welcome to come again - not all youngsters are idiots, I do suspect that the parents had a awful lot to do with their excellent behaviour - they were a credit to their parents.
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rammy100
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Post by rammy100 »

Sam V wrote:Some of you may have read my recent experience with a gay couple staying at my villa, not a problem for me .
I'm curious Sam - and apologies for going off-thread but it's bugging me - if their being gay wasn't a problem for you, then why did you feel the need to mention it?

I mean, it hardly seems relevant to your problem unless you are suggesting that locking oneself out is something of a gay trait. I'm always doing it and am now wondering if that's why.

The last time I managed to lock myself inside a hallway of some flats (I needed an electronic fob to get out but the door slammed behind me) with an elderly incontinent dog who hadn't been out for a few hours. Well there was a lot of pee and a very unhappy Slovakian caretaker so it taught me a lesson but I never put it down to my sexuality.

I don't mean to offend you but, like I said, it's bugging me a little.
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AngloDutch
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Post by AngloDutch »

rammy100 wrote:
Sam V wrote:Some of you may have read my recent experience with a gay couple staying at my villa, not a problem for me .
I'm curious Sam - and apologies for going off-thread but it's bugging me - if their being gay wasn't a problem for you, then why did you feel the need to mention it?

I mean, it hardly seems relevant to your problem unless you are suggesting that locking oneself out is something of a gay trait. I'm always doing it and am now wondering if that's why......

I think alot of us try to give more information than maybe is needed when describing something or someone. It was a German family, a French group, a gay couple. If you then go on to state something negative about the family, group, couple, etc. it can be misinterpreted as though you are stating that what has occurred is a typical attribute of the (group of) people you have just mentioned.

Having been almost lynched on one of the recent 'Guest' threads where I was accused of instigating a whole page of Cloggy-bashing posts, I personally will from now on try to refrain from posting the nationality of the guests in case it offends anyone on here.

Almost 20 years ago now I did get myself in quite a bit of trouble when, as a team-leader in a call centre, I pulled over a young guy (who also happened to be gay) for joining in on chat rooms instead of being on the phone. I wrote in the report that he was 'perusing gay chat rooms' and got in a lot of trouble with the HR department for that. I thought at the time that I was just describing what he had been doing, as I innocently thought that it was important to show that he was breaking company rules by not using internet for something work-related...
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