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

[Lyle Scheer (wonko]

On 1/28/14, 5:55 AM, Diana Carroll wrote:
> I was thinking about this question last night and realized that the
> distinguishing characteristic isn't whether the guests are friends, members
> or strangers; it's the purpose of the visit.  Are the guests staying in our
> guest room to visit US (either our community or someone in the community)
> or are they here for some other purpose and using our space as a "hotel"?
>  It's the latter that I have mixed feelings about.
>
We've actually had guests come who have claimed to be interested in
cohousing and wanting to check out our community in order to evaluate if
they wish to live here (when we have had property for sale), and then
have them reluctantly admit later when pressed that they had no
intention of that above reason and they were just couch surfing.

I've heard at least one member of my community suggest that this has
helped feel justified about a policy of demanding something close to a
hotel rate when approached by any folk who we don't personally know.

I don't think we've implemented such a policy yet, but it seems we may
be moving in that direction.  It's a bit challenging to us as we also
want to be open and welcoming for people who legitimately wish to check
our community out.

I've also seen multiple requests by people claiming to be students
researching cohousing traveling through and requesting to both stay and
interview us.  Enough repetition in this that something feels a bit
off... like there are folks out there that use the ic.org web site and
know the codewords to get them cheap or free lodging.

My community does happen to be on the I-5 corridor, conveniently about a
day's travel from both Portland to the north and San Francisco to the
south, and a high traffic tourist town to boot.

- Lyle