Alan,
Prepare to be amazed: I have just seen 40m2 advertised on HR (under Agay, Var) which has 2 bedrooms & 2 bathrooms and sleeps 7. (This is the floor area we limit strictly to 2 persons.)
Guests of guests...
I'm resurrecting this thread as we are having some problems with our current guests inviting guests of their own.
They are here for 3 weeks and are a family of 6. So far we have had both sets of parents to stay for a few nights each. They were not mentioned on the booking form, but they did ask our permission on the morning that the first set of parents arrived and the parents only brought the level up to our maximum occupancy of 8 so we allowed this with no extra charge.
Today a carload of five has arrived, they have been here all day and look pretty settled in, they will exceed our occupancy by 3 if they stay. I am planning to go over and talk to them later but wanted to know before I go, how much to charge per additional adult should they be staying the night. As has been discussed previously it's very hard to tell them to leave so I wanted to be armed with a figure before I go.
Sarah
They are here for 3 weeks and are a family of 6. So far we have had both sets of parents to stay for a few nights each. They were not mentioned on the booking form, but they did ask our permission on the morning that the first set of parents arrived and the parents only brought the level up to our maximum occupancy of 8 so we allowed this with no extra charge.
Today a carload of five has arrived, they have been here all day and look pretty settled in, they will exceed our occupancy by 3 if they stay. I am planning to go over and talk to them later but wanted to know before I go, how much to charge per additional adult should they be staying the night. As has been discussed previously it's very hard to tell them to leave so I wanted to be armed with a figure before I go.
Sarah
-
Normandy Cow
- Posts: 2687
- Joined: Sun Nov 28, 2004 7:14 am
- Location: Normandy
- Contact:
That would be 11 people staying in a place for 8?
Non! What about your insurance? What about your septic tank? If it were me, I would definitely not allow it!!!
It is possible that they may be planning to leave later on this evening, and your fears are unfounded. Why not go over and ask them nicely, say that you noticed that they had extra people, and that just in case they were planning to stay you weren't sure whether they were aware that you cannot exceed the maximum for insurance purposes, and you thought you'd let them know now so that they still have time to check in to a hotel or B&B if necessary.
Good Luck!!!
Non! What about your insurance? What about your septic tank? If it were me, I would definitely not allow it!!!
It is possible that they may be planning to leave later on this evening, and your fears are unfounded. Why not go over and ask them nicely, say that you noticed that they had extra people, and that just in case they were planning to stay you weren't sure whether they were aware that you cannot exceed the maximum for insurance purposes, and you thought you'd let them know now so that they still have time to check in to a hotel or B&B if necessary.
Good Luck!!!
-
Hells Bells
- Posts: 13173
- Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2005 8:42 am
- Location: French Alps
- Contact:
-
Bellywobble
- Posts: 1262
- Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2006 7:40 pm
Sarah,
I wouldn't give the extra people the option to stay. If you do, they may tell all their friends that you're very amenable to having extra people provided they pay a small surcharge, but not to tell you at the time of booking, only after arrival.
We no longer discriminate between extra day guests or extra overnight guests because people are also using our facilities at our personal expense whatever time of day they are there. And the net effect of what they are doing is raising the rates for everyone else because costs have to be covered somehow. Our objective is not to have more than our maximum, so we're really not interested in extra money.
I think I would go over there just to confirm that there hasn't been a misunderstanding, and that they don't have plans to invite the extra people to stay overnight, and to invite any others during the day either. If they say they do plan to stay, well, you could always use the old insurance excuse (we are only insured for X people), and offer to book the extra people into a hotel for the night instead. Easier said than done I know!
post-edit: ooops, just seen that Catherine posted more or less the same thing above at the same time, so yes, I agree!!!
I wouldn't give the extra people the option to stay. If you do, they may tell all their friends that you're very amenable to having extra people provided they pay a small surcharge, but not to tell you at the time of booking, only after arrival.
We no longer discriminate between extra day guests or extra overnight guests because people are also using our facilities at our personal expense whatever time of day they are there. And the net effect of what they are doing is raising the rates for everyone else because costs have to be covered somehow. Our objective is not to have more than our maximum, so we're really not interested in extra money.
I think I would go over there just to confirm that there hasn't been a misunderstanding, and that they don't have plans to invite the extra people to stay overnight, and to invite any others during the day either. If they say they do plan to stay, well, you could always use the old insurance excuse (we are only insured for X people), and offer to book the extra people into a hotel for the night instead. Easier said than done I know!
post-edit: ooops, just seen that Catherine posted more or less the same thing above at the same time, so yes, I agree!!!
Thanks all, I have just been over and had a word. It appears that they were not intending to stay - phew. I very strongly stressed that the maximum occupancy is 8 which is included on our T&Cs which they signed so hopefully that will be the end of it. I had wondered what might be a fair per person per night charge so that I could be armed with it in case it came up.
I am tempted to use the insurance thing, but I have a feeling I'd be on shaky ground as these guests are French and rent gites each year. They probably know more about French insurance than I do!!
Ours certainly doesn't say anything about numbers.
I am not happy about their guests being there all day and we need to change our T&Cs pretty urgently to deal with day visitors. This is our second season and we had no problems last year so it just didn't occur to us that we would have hoards of extras descending on us and would need to include something to cover this. Time to get strict I think. Luckily the fosse is huge as there are two more buildings waiting to be connected to it so it shouldn't get too stressed.
Sarah
I am tempted to use the insurance thing, but I have a feeling I'd be on shaky ground as these guests are French and rent gites each year. They probably know more about French insurance than I do!!
Ours certainly doesn't say anything about numbers. I am not happy about their guests being there all day and we need to change our T&Cs pretty urgently to deal with day visitors. This is our second season and we had no problems last year so it just didn't occur to us that we would have hoards of extras descending on us and would need to include something to cover this. Time to get strict I think. Luckily the fosse is huge as there are two more buildings waiting to be connected to it so it shouldn't get too stressed.
Sarah
The rudeness of people who do this never ceases to amaze me. Surely it is common courtesy to ask if it is OK if extra guests stay! I don't know how much you should charge, but I charge around 7.50€ per person per night for the extra guests that stay, to cover utilites, wear and tear and insurance.
We have this clause on our T&C's
"Occupancy of the property is limited to the maximum indicated on the property description. The client agrees not to sublet or share the property except with persons nominated on the booking form (to a maximum of 9 persons), any over occupancy must be agreed with the owner prior to arrival. If there is over occupancy on arrival without the owners’ consent then the owner reserves the right to request the extra person(s) to vacate the property and the owner shall not be responsible for any costs that may incur, nor pay any compensation due to this action."
"Occupancy of the property is limited to the maximum indicated on the property description. The client agrees not to sublet or share the property except with persons nominated on the booking form (to a maximum of 9 persons), any over occupancy must be agreed with the owner prior to arrival. If there is over occupancy on arrival without the owners’ consent then the owner reserves the right to request the extra person(s) to vacate the property and the owner shall not be responsible for any costs that may incur, nor pay any compensation due to this action."
Well the 'extras' finally left at 1am. We couldn't sleep because they were very noisy so we were awake when they went. Hopefully that will be the end of it. The guests have been very good up until now and this is their third and final week so I'm keeping everything crossed that they won't do it again and we can part on good terms on Saturday. They have been really glowing about the house and I was hoping that they would do a review for us on the Homelidays site, so fingers crossed.
Crystal, we do have a clause in our T&Cs which forbids extra people staying without express permission from us. But I think we need to address the daytime issue. These extra people were there all day making loads of noise, using the pool, using the loos, using the showers. The pool was filthy this morning when my husband went to clean it and they had our inside dining chairs and table outside because the outside table seats 8 only.
Sarah
Crystal, we do have a clause in our T&Cs which forbids extra people staying without express permission from us. But I think we need to address the daytime issue. These extra people were there all day making loads of noise, using the pool, using the loos, using the showers. The pool was filthy this morning when my husband went to clean it and they had our inside dining chairs and table outside because the outside table seats 8 only.
Sarah
We have a big villa and quite a few of our guests who have booked the villa specifically booked it because they either have friends or family living in the area, who naturally want to visit them while on holiday. We tend to turn a blind eye on 'normal' daytime visitors as long as there is no abuse i.e. a daytime pool/BBQ party with lots of people and noise (and believe me we'd know if there was because of our nosey neighbour!).
It would be interesting to know if anyone has addressed the issue of daytime visitors in their T&C's.
It would be interesting to know if anyone has addressed the issue of daytime visitors in their T&C's.
No I haven't and until now hadn't really given it much thought. I am going to think about it now though !! Interestingly, my sis rented a place in the Dordogne a few years ago, they invited us over for a couple of nights.5 of us stayed with them for one night.The T and C's didn't allow this, I mentioned it, no validity quotes my bro- interesting cos he's a UK high court judge!! 