Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Guest room or cheap hotel?

[fergyb2 (fergyb2]

        I have found that guests from other Cohousing communities usually work 
out fine, they are Cohousing "trained" as it were and usually not a problem.  
We have sometimes in the past had guests who were neither cohousers from other 
communities nor connected to community residents by friendship or relatives and 
they have been more problematic.  So much so that we no longer accept non 
cohousers as guests unless they are friends or relatives of residents.  And all 
guests must have a resident host who is responsible for orienting them to our 
rules and expectations.  I am comfortable with our current guest policies.  I 
like having the guest room used and like meeting cohousers from other 
communities.  I have in the past felt taken advantage of by  previous 
"unconnected" guests who didn't always respect our boundaries. We considered 
allowing ONLY friend's and relative's of residents to use the guest room but 
many of us have stayed in the guest rooms of other Cohousing communities when 
traveling and wanted to maintain that connection to other cohousers.  Since 
they are not usually the guests who have caused drama or bad feelings here in 
the past we decided to continue to host traveling cohousers from other 
communities. So far it's working out for us.
                     Bonnie Fergusson
                     Swan's Market Cohousing
                      Oakland, CA


Sent from my iPad

On Jan 27, 2014, at 2:39 PM, Diana Carroll <dianaecarroll [at] gmail.com> wrote:

> 
> Hey I'm curious to hear how people feel about the use of their community's
> guest space by non-community members.
> 
> Our guest rooms are mostly used by friends and family of our members but we
> do sometimes get requests to stay by travelers who are barely or not at all
> affiliated with our community: acquaintances and friends-of-friends, folks
> from other cohousing communities, people who are cohousing-curious, people
> who came to one of our open houses or intro meetings a million years ago,
> etc.
> 
> I would imagine other groups get the same...especially if they are located
> in a popular travel destination (big cities, beautiful places...)
> 
> So, not so much wondering about policies on this, but your feeling as an
> individual...you your feel like these requests are appropriate?  Do you
> feel good sharing your space?  Do you feel taken advantage of?  Do you ever
> feel like outsiders think it's a cheap, friendly hotel?
> 
> Diana, with mixed personal feelings
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