Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Accommodating strangers

[Ann Zabaldo (zabaldo]

While I agree w/ Sharon on most of her email … I’m not sure people at TV are 
volunteering less to host.  I host “strangers” quite a bit.  The cleaning of 
the room and the laundry I delegate to the guests.  I don’t do laundry or clean 
rooms.  Some hosts will do the cleaning and laundry for their relatives or 
friends.  But they don’t have to do it.  They can delegate it.

Generally, the “strangers” who want to stay here are other cohousers or folks 
from intentional communities.  But we’ve had a couple of singer/songwriter 
types on tour stay here who were not connected to cohousing or intentional 
communities.  Plus just this year,  I signed up to host a poet working his way 
up the East coast to Rhode Island. His stay has been rescheduled for later in 
the year.   And for many years I hosted a profoundly disabled man and his 
attendant who came to DC a couple of times a year for a meeting on 
accessibility.

We do ask for a $25.00 per room per nite donation.  We receive about $6,000 per 
year in donations from our guest rooms.  That’s a chunk of change for our 
budget.  


Best --

Ann Zabaldo
Takoma Village Cohousing
Washington, DC
Principal, Cohousing Collaborative, LLC
Falls Church, VA
202.546.4654

As long as you have two or fewer … your ducks are always in a row.  The Covert 
Comic



> On Aug 25, 2018, at 11:28 AM, Sharon Villines via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l 
> [at] cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
>> On Aug 23, 2018, at 2:20 PM, Cheron Dudley <cherondudley [at] gmail.com> 
>> wrote:
>> 
>> If it’s a total stranger - who plays host? Are there any safety or security 
>> issues to consider?
> 
> Like Cornerstone we require a host on site for each guest. I don’t think we 
> receive many if any requests from total strangers. Usually it is someone from 
> another cohousing community.
> 
> We defined host as “on-site” because a host might reserve the guest room for 
> a friend or relative then go to Chicago on business. The guest needs someone 
> who can answer questions and notice if they need to know something they don’t 
> know they need to know. Or if  unexpected events occur — like they are 
> reserved for the wrong days or the wrong room.
> 
> We have a team that is responsible for the cleaning and functioning of the 
> guestrooms but not hosting guests. We have a person whose email address is 
> published as the general contact the community and people from outside the 
> community usually contact him. He has often hosted people himself. Otherwise 
> he puts out a message asking if there is anyone who would like to host them. 
> No host, no reservation.
> 
> Over time, fewer people volunteer to host because it means washing linens and 
> cleaning the room, checking guests in and out (getting keys and linens, 
> filling out a form, etc,). At first it is exciting to share this wonderful 
> thing called cohousing but over time the new wears off and it’s work.
> 
> Sharon
> ----
> Sharon Villines
> Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
> http://www.takomavillage.org
> 
> 
> 
> 
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