Re: Guest room or cheap hotel? <– Date –> <– Thread –>

[Melanie Mindlin (sassetta]

As a cohousing member who occasionally travels on a tight budget, I am very 
grateful to the communities that have allowed me to use their guest room as a 
"hotel".  I think there is a difference between my category of visitor and 
those who are using the IC directory to couch surf under false pretenses.  
There are not so many people who are actually living in cohousing that it will 
put pressure on our guest rooms, and when there are lots more in the distant 
future, there will also be lots more cohousing guest rooms to accommodate them. 
 When a cohousing member comes to visit, there is no need to uphold a pretense 
that they are investigating your community which wastes everyone's time and 
energy.  There is however a delightful camaraderie of shared experiences and 
shared expectations about respectful use of the premises.  

I hope to be able to visit your town and stay in your guest room sometime, come 
to a common meal and chat about cohousing, and help clean up afterwards.  We 
have offered our common house guest room likewise, and our visitors that live 
in other cohousing communities have been easy to accommodate and fun to meet.  
We usually refrain from signing up these kind of visitors a long time in 
advance so as to make sure that no community member needs the room for a 
visiting family member which would take precedence.

Melanie Mindlin