Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Guest Rooms

[PattyMara (PattyMara]

In a message dated 3/10/99 12:35:26 PM Pacific Standard Time,
Yorick [at] tatudrums.abel.co.uk writes:

<< - Are they a useful addition to the CH?

Yes.  At Tierra Nueva we have two guest rooms.  They are used heavily.  During
the month of January (the last time I counted the reservations) out of 31
days,  the rooms were used 25 of the days.   18 days of both rooms booked, 7
days of just one room booked. 
 
<< - What ratio of guest rooms to size of community?

we have 27 households.  One of the rooms is handicap/wheelchair accessible,
one is not.  The common house is 3500 sq. feet.  
 
 - Do they have other uses? >>

We have had small committee meetings, private conversations, and occasionally
find a couple ot the five year olds together under the covers of the beds,
giggling.  

Mostly they are bedrooms, used by guests of the household members (family and
friends) and sometimes by the households themselves when they needed to be out
of their homes for flooring installation etc.  I suspect they have been used
by married folks needing a retreat from one another as well.  And most
recently by a breast feeding mom trying to wean her toddler from nursing at
night.  

I would suggest that you consider a guest room policy.   We crafted  ours over
the past 6 months regarding who can reserved the rooms, how long the stays can
be, who does the cleanup.  Be forewarned that you will receive lots of
interest from "strangers" (non friends or relatives of members) who want to
come and stay to explore cohousing.  We set a $25 per night use fee on our
rooms for these folk, and are considering raising it.  Our priority is to have
the rooms available for members, not run a hotel. 

Good Luck!

Patty Mara Gourley
Tierra Nueva Cohousing
Central California Coast