Vetting guests

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Aspiring Martha

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When I ran my vacation rental - I had a questionnaire on my website asking potential guests how they planned to use the home during their stay, stating that I wanted to make sure that my home was a good fit for their needs. I would ask for a phone number to contact them and then would confirm (or not) via telephone before sending them their rental agreement. If it turned to be the high school football team from 2012 getting together for a superbowl party, I might politely decline. It seems a vetting-type process would be all-the-more important when allowing people into your home - especially considering all the "junk" that seems to be going on these days.
Any thoughts or strategies on this?
Martha
 
My thought is it is nearly impossible to take the time to question or get to know each potential guest prior to their staying for a night or two in 4 - 8 rooms.
Our prices do most of the vetting for us. We have a deadbolt lock between us and our guests and each of our guest room has a deadbolt as well, so we feel safe.
 
None whatsoever.
It is not our job to pre approve our guests, in any way.
If they provide a credit card and contact info, agree to our policies like any lodging choice, they are welcome to sleep at the inn.
This is the hospitality business, all are welcome. (Legal age)
 
Here is a thread that ran not too long ago that might be helpful to you - if you run a b&b/inn, folks stay short term in individual rooms - it's not the same as a vacation rental where they are on their own in your property. Unless you're taking (or not accepting) a group reservation.
https://www.innspiring.com/node/16216
 
If you want to vet, you are best using Air. But generally this won't work. Instead, you have policies in place to protect you. But there will always be those that violate them.
Some vetting is illegal and violates state statues. Some vetting immediate turns off clientele. For example, asking marital status is almost completely illegal in most states.
 
Don't do it. I mean don't expect to grill your guests before they arrive. Be perfectly clear on your website what your place is all about. The guests will self select themselves out if they are looking to throw a party if they know you'll be sitting there with them.
Sure, you'll get a bozo now and again, but most of your guests will be lovely people.
BTW, you may want to put the valuable Monet behind locked doors and stash the Lalique out of harm's way.
Your website is key here. Guests will look at the photos and picture themselves there. Or not. They may think it's not the right fit for them.
 
No vetting done for guests in a B & B. Unless all you want to do is go with Air??? Don't think so. We accept anyone who wants to book a room....unless underage.
Set up your policies properly and guests must agree to them before confirmation is sent. IE: no children under 18. And in some states you can't even say that. So beware of discrimination.
 
It is VERY rare to get someone who does not appreciate what a B & B has to offer. Vetting goes both ways - YOU re a stranger to them. I have had some non-B & B who converted here I am proud to say - some back in the day when we were 3 w/shared even.
I have no desire to vet my guests. In almost 20 years I have never felt uncomfortable with any of the guests.
 
Good feedback. I definitely don't want to do airbnb -- those horror stories are what planted the heebie jeebie seeds in my mind. Well -- that and a personal experience in Miami. Funny story (if you're up for a little levity...)
My husband and I and another couple rented hotel rooms in an upscale hotel in Miami for a medical conference my husband was attending. Unbeknownst to us - the weekend we were there was Urban Beach Week - a huge annual hip-hop festival. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_Beach_Week). OMG! There was no controlling the crowd. Though the hotel was non-smoking -- the cigarette smoke throughout all the floors was THICK. The woman we were traveling with was pregnant and was nauseous from the smoke. Management just shook their head when we asked if there was ANYPLACE they could put us where we could get away from the smoke. Many businesses -- restaurants, bars, hotels close down for that week to prevent damage to their businesses.
The funny part of this story is that we were still clueless as to the festival going on when we went out to dinner the first night (at South Beach). We certainly saw all the Hip-Hop crowd. In fact, we saw nothing but the hip-hop crowd. We took a cab to South Beach to go to a particular restaurant and the cab driver told us he would only take us to a particular intersection and we would have to walk the rest of the way. We thought that was odd but said ok. When we got out of the cab, we noticed two busloads of police officers de-boarding. So, here we are - 4 very middle-aged, very conservative obviously NON hip-hoppers surrounded by a mass of rowdy hip-hoppers (who didn't seem to want us there intruding on their good time). One policeman who was helping crowds cross the street looked at us and said, "What are YOU doing here? When we told him we were just going to dinner at Mango's, he said, "Why?". Then he asked my husband what his name was. We later laughed about that question - saying the cop wanted to know what to put on his toe tag if we didn't make it out alive. But I digress...
I guess that what it comes down to -- if you're going to be open to the public -- you have to take the bad with the good - not that I have to worry about urban beach week in Tulsa.
and short of Urban beach week -- its' price, policy, photo's to weed out the riff raff. Got it.
Sea - thanks for the thread on this subject. I will read it...
 
Good feedback. I definitely don't want to do airbnb -- those horror stories are what planted the heebie jeebie seeds in my mind. Well -- that and a personal experience in Miami. Funny story (if you're up for a little levity...)
My husband and I and another couple rented hotel rooms in an upscale hotel in Miami for a medical conference my husband was attending. Unbeknownst to us - the weekend we were there was Urban Beach Week - a huge annual hip-hop festival. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_Beach_Week). OMG! There was no controlling the crowd. Though the hotel was non-smoking -- the cigarette smoke throughout all the floors was THICK. The woman we were traveling with was pregnant and was nauseous from the smoke. Management just shook their head when we asked if there was ANYPLACE they could put us where we could get away from the smoke. Many businesses -- restaurants, bars, hotels close down for that week to prevent damage to their businesses.
The funny part of this story is that we were still clueless as to the festival going on when we went out to dinner the first night (at South Beach). We certainly saw all the Hip-Hop crowd. In fact, we saw nothing but the hip-hop crowd. We took a cab to South Beach to go to a particular restaurant and the cab driver told us he would only take us to a particular intersection and we would have to walk the rest of the way. We thought that was odd but said ok. When we got out of the cab, we noticed two busloads of police officers de-boarding. So, here we are - 4 very middle-aged, very conservative obviously NON hip-hoppers surrounded by a mass of rowdy hip-hoppers (who didn't seem to want us there intruding on their good time). One policeman who was helping crowds cross the street looked at us and said, "What are YOU doing here? When we told him we were just going to dinner at Mango's, he said, "Why?". Then he asked my husband what his name was. We later laughed about that question - saying the cop wanted to know what to put on his toe tag if we didn't make it out alive. But I digress...
I guess that what it comes down to -- if you're going to be open to the public -- you have to take the bad with the good - not that I have to worry about urban beach week in Tulsa.
and short of Urban beach week -- its' price, policy, photo's to weed out the riff raff. Got it.
Sea - thanks for the thread on this subject. I will read it....
Nice story. Made me chuckle. We have had a few things like that come up in our travels and we wonder later what the heck we were thinking.
 
I like others don't vet guests at all. Don't care if you are married or not. Don't care about the sex of the guest. As long as they are consenting adults, listed on my books as having registered, all is good. Never had a problem with this except twice, where people snuck people in. Never had any other major problems, except for a few "weird" guests... like Mr. and Mrs. bathrobe for breakfast.
 
Here is a thread that ran not too long ago that might be helpful to you - if you run a b&b/inn, folks stay short term in individual rooms - it's not the same as a vacation rental where they are on their own in your property. Unless you're taking (or not accepting) a group reservation.
https://www.innspiring.com/node/16216.
Ha, ha, reading the Q re vetting, I said to myself: Here we go Under the Sea again! Can you believe this was almost a year ago? Wonder where he is now....
 
Here is a thread that ran not too long ago that might be helpful to you - if you run a b&b/inn, folks stay short term in individual rooms - it's not the same as a vacation rental where they are on their own in your property. Unless you're taking (or not accepting) a group reservation.
https://www.innspiring.com/node/16216.
Ha, ha, reading the Q re vetting, I said to myself: Here we go Under the Sea again! Can you believe this was almost a year ago? Wonder where he is now....
.
Haha - I just finished reading that thread. Yikes. Hopefully - he won't be back to capsize the boat this time.
 
Here is a thread that ran not too long ago that might be helpful to you - if you run a b&b/inn, folks stay short term in individual rooms - it's not the same as a vacation rental where they are on their own in your property. Unless you're taking (or not accepting) a group reservation.
https://www.innspiring.com/node/16216.
Ha, ha, reading the Q re vetting, I said to myself: Here we go Under the Sea again! Can you believe this was almost a year ago? Wonder where he is now....
.
Haha - I just finished reading that thread. Yikes. Hopefully - he won't be back to capsize the boat this time.
.
He won't be back... was eventually thrown overboard!
 
Here is a thread that ran not too long ago that might be helpful to you - if you run a b&b/inn, folks stay short term in individual rooms - it's not the same as a vacation rental where they are on their own in your property. Unless you're taking (or not accepting) a group reservation.
https://www.innspiring.com/node/16216.
Ha, ha, reading the Q re vetting, I said to myself: Here we go Under the Sea again! Can you believe this was almost a year ago? Wonder where he is now....
.
Haha - I just finished reading that thread. Yikes. Hopefully - he won't be back to capsize the boat this time.
.
He won't be back... was eventually thrown overboard!
.
<<snicker>>
teeth_smile.gif

 
Good feedback. I definitely don't want to do airbnb -- those horror stories are what planted the heebie jeebie seeds in my mind. Well -- that and a personal experience in Miami. Funny story (if you're up for a little levity...)
My husband and I and another couple rented hotel rooms in an upscale hotel in Miami for a medical conference my husband was attending. Unbeknownst to us - the weekend we were there was Urban Beach Week - a huge annual hip-hop festival. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_Beach_Week). OMG! There was no controlling the crowd. Though the hotel was non-smoking -- the cigarette smoke throughout all the floors was THICK. The woman we were traveling with was pregnant and was nauseous from the smoke. Management just shook their head when we asked if there was ANYPLACE they could put us where we could get away from the smoke. Many businesses -- restaurants, bars, hotels close down for that week to prevent damage to their businesses.
The funny part of this story is that we were still clueless as to the festival going on when we went out to dinner the first night (at South Beach). We certainly saw all the Hip-Hop crowd. In fact, we saw nothing but the hip-hop crowd. We took a cab to South Beach to go to a particular restaurant and the cab driver told us he would only take us to a particular intersection and we would have to walk the rest of the way. We thought that was odd but said ok. When we got out of the cab, we noticed two busloads of police officers de-boarding. So, here we are - 4 very middle-aged, very conservative obviously NON hip-hoppers surrounded by a mass of rowdy hip-hoppers (who didn't seem to want us there intruding on their good time). One policeman who was helping crowds cross the street looked at us and said, "What are YOU doing here? When we told him we were just going to dinner at Mango's, he said, "Why?". Then he asked my husband what his name was. We later laughed about that question - saying the cop wanted to know what to put on his toe tag if we didn't make it out alive. But I digress...
I guess that what it comes down to -- if you're going to be open to the public -- you have to take the bad with the good - not that I have to worry about urban beach week in Tulsa.
and short of Urban beach week -- its' price, policy, photo's to weed out the riff raff. Got it.
Sea - thanks for the thread on this subject. I will read it....
It wasn't too many years ago that hotels asked for Drivers license and tag numbers. Is that still standard operating procedure?
 
Good feedback. I definitely don't want to do airbnb -- those horror stories are what planted the heebie jeebie seeds in my mind. Well -- that and a personal experience in Miami. Funny story (if you're up for a little levity...)
My husband and I and another couple rented hotel rooms in an upscale hotel in Miami for a medical conference my husband was attending. Unbeknownst to us - the weekend we were there was Urban Beach Week - a huge annual hip-hop festival. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_Beach_Week). OMG! There was no controlling the crowd. Though the hotel was non-smoking -- the cigarette smoke throughout all the floors was THICK. The woman we were traveling with was pregnant and was nauseous from the smoke. Management just shook their head when we asked if there was ANYPLACE they could put us where we could get away from the smoke. Many businesses -- restaurants, bars, hotels close down for that week to prevent damage to their businesses.
The funny part of this story is that we were still clueless as to the festival going on when we went out to dinner the first night (at South Beach). We certainly saw all the Hip-Hop crowd. In fact, we saw nothing but the hip-hop crowd. We took a cab to South Beach to go to a particular restaurant and the cab driver told us he would only take us to a particular intersection and we would have to walk the rest of the way. We thought that was odd but said ok. When we got out of the cab, we noticed two busloads of police officers de-boarding. So, here we are - 4 very middle-aged, very conservative obviously NON hip-hoppers surrounded by a mass of rowdy hip-hoppers (who didn't seem to want us there intruding on their good time). One policeman who was helping crowds cross the street looked at us and said, "What are YOU doing here? When we told him we were just going to dinner at Mango's, he said, "Why?". Then he asked my husband what his name was. We later laughed about that question - saying the cop wanted to know what to put on his toe tag if we didn't make it out alive. But I digress...
I guess that what it comes down to -- if you're going to be open to the public -- you have to take the bad with the good - not that I have to worry about urban beach week in Tulsa.
and short of Urban beach week -- its' price, policy, photo's to weed out the riff raff. Got it.
Sea - thanks for the thread on this subject. I will read it....
It wasn't too many years ago that hotels asked for Drivers license and tag numbers. Is that still standard operating procedure?
.
Aspiring Martha said:
It wasn't too many years ago that hotels asked for Drivers license and tag numbers. Is that still standard operating procedure?
You'll need to check with your state and local authorities. I'm always asked for id in NY, NV, CA, OR and WA.
We are required to get a signature, but I haven't heard I have to check id and get a plate number. (There, now you know I'm from one of those states that calls them 'plates' instead of 'tags'.)
 
Good feedback. I definitely don't want to do airbnb -- those horror stories are what planted the heebie jeebie seeds in my mind. Well -- that and a personal experience in Miami. Funny story (if you're up for a little levity...)
My husband and I and another couple rented hotel rooms in an upscale hotel in Miami for a medical conference my husband was attending. Unbeknownst to us - the weekend we were there was Urban Beach Week - a huge annual hip-hop festival. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_Beach_Week). OMG! There was no controlling the crowd. Though the hotel was non-smoking -- the cigarette smoke throughout all the floors was THICK. The woman we were traveling with was pregnant and was nauseous from the smoke. Management just shook their head when we asked if there was ANYPLACE they could put us where we could get away from the smoke. Many businesses -- restaurants, bars, hotels close down for that week to prevent damage to their businesses.
The funny part of this story is that we were still clueless as to the festival going on when we went out to dinner the first night (at South Beach). We certainly saw all the Hip-Hop crowd. In fact, we saw nothing but the hip-hop crowd. We took a cab to South Beach to go to a particular restaurant and the cab driver told us he would only take us to a particular intersection and we would have to walk the rest of the way. We thought that was odd but said ok. When we got out of the cab, we noticed two busloads of police officers de-boarding. So, here we are - 4 very middle-aged, very conservative obviously NON hip-hoppers surrounded by a mass of rowdy hip-hoppers (who didn't seem to want us there intruding on their good time). One policeman who was helping crowds cross the street looked at us and said, "What are YOU doing here? When we told him we were just going to dinner at Mango's, he said, "Why?". Then he asked my husband what his name was. We later laughed about that question - saying the cop wanted to know what to put on his toe tag if we didn't make it out alive. But I digress...
I guess that what it comes down to -- if you're going to be open to the public -- you have to take the bad with the good - not that I have to worry about urban beach week in Tulsa.
and short of Urban beach week -- its' price, policy, photo's to weed out the riff raff. Got it.
Sea - thanks for the thread on this subject. I will read it....
It wasn't too many years ago that hotels asked for Drivers license and tag numbers. Is that still standard operating procedure?
.
Aspiring Martha said:
It wasn't too many years ago that hotels asked for Drivers license and tag numbers. Is that still standard operating procedure?
You'll need to check with your state and local authorities. I'm always asked for id in NY, NV, CA, OR and WA.
We are required to get a signature, but I haven't heard I have to check id and get a plate number. (There, now you know I'm from one of those states that calls them 'plates' instead of 'tags'.)
.
Hmmm - around here it depends on the context I think.
'I need to go get my license plate renewed' BUT "my tag number is xxxxx".
wink_smile.gif

 
We speak to the guest before booking but rarely decline a reservation due to the conversation. If the prospective guest is an adult, understands our policies and will be alone or with another adult while here, we take their money.
I would have no idea how to vett a guest. If they were planning on being up to no good while here they would be sneaky enough to hide that fact from us before arriving.
 
We speak to the guest before booking but rarely decline a reservation due to the conversation. If the prospective guest is an adult, understands our policies and will be alone or with another adult while here, we take their money.
I would have no idea how to vett a guest. If they were planning on being up to no good while here they would be sneaky enough to hide that fact from us before arriving..
Agreed. They most likely won't tell us if they are planning on coming in to steal all the gold, silver, precious jewels, and priceless art we have laying around.
I DID have a family take our playstation game controllers from our vacation rental. I didn't say anything to them because it wasn't worth getting a bad review over.
 
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