Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Guest Rooms

[cynthia . e . carpenter (cynthia.e.carpenter]

Sarah of Cohousing 2000 asked about guest room use.

I really appreciate our two guest rooms and have used them quite a bit in
our short time here.  It's been wonderful to be able to put up our
relatives *near* us, but not actually in our unit.  Our kids can reach the
guest rooms easily and safely, yet our visitors can retreat to their own
space any time they want and we get a little more privacy, too.  (I think
Liz's reason for not having guest rooms is actually a good reason to have
them :-)

We charge $25/night for the use of the guest rooms and hosts are
responsible for cleaning and changing linens in between guests.  We made
these arrangements to put the burden of their maintenance on the folks who
actually use them, and there does indeed seem to be fairly lopsided use of
them.  My family uses the guest rooms, and other common spaces, fairly
heavily because our own unit is on the small side (3 bedrooms/5 people).
Most of the units here, though, have more bedrooms than residents, so there
are many people for whom the guest rooms just aren't needed.  We have 41
units in all, with 2 guest rooms that share one bathroom.

Guest rooms do require some administrative work: one of our members keeps a
calendar for reservations, distributes keys and collects the fees, etc.
She and a few others also did a lot of upfront work into making the rooms
cozy and inviting; we furnished them largely with donations from our
members.

> - Do they have other uses?
My husband and I rented one for New Year's Eve for a retreat from our three
small children :-).  I've also used them for a small private meeting.  The
standards for cleanliness are higher than in other areas, though, so it's
hard for them to be truly multi-use.  I could imagine them being used in
the future for special situations, perhaps for friends and family in
transition between housing (not that cohousing wannabes would know anything
about that...), or for a teenager or nanny who needed a room nearby, etc.

- Cindy
Cambridge Cohousing

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