Innkeeper Contracts

Hi all,
After two successful seasons of running the B&B, the property owners and ourselves have decided that it is time to get our agreement in writing and sign a contract.
I was wondering if anyone has a copy of their contract that I could look at? Obviously, please black out any personal information, I just want to get a feel for what is included in other contracts and make sure that we have everything covered for ourselves. We will be talking with a lawyer eventually, but I like to be well informed when going into things like this.
I really would appreciate any examples that you all might have, they are surprisingly hard for me to find online.
Best,
MikeMontana

I can't believe you didn't have some sort of contract for 2 years? Most here I guess don't have such a thing because most are the owner/ innkeeper themselves.

EmptyNest said:

I can't believe you didn't have some sort of contract for 2 years? Most here I guess don't have such a thing because most are the owner/ innkeeper themselves..

Click to expand...

I know! Definitely not the smartest move, but we all generally get along and there haven't been any issues. The time flew by and here we are trying to fix it before it DOES become an issue.

HaHa, we started managing our place with a contract for the first two years, but have been working without a contract since then (now in our fifth season). As far as I know, none of the previous managers here had a written contract, it was all just verbal agreements (this for over 2 decades). Of course, one of the main reasons for having a contract originally was to help clearly establish our relationship as that of independent contractors rather than employees, so as to reduce the worker's comp insurance premium. But we switched to employee status rather than independent contractors because of some taxation issues, and since we were named as officers of the corporation (in title only) we had to be treated as employees anyway. One of us is the child of the sole shareholder in the corporation so she was able to get a waiver from the worker's comp board, thus addressing that issue. All this to say that our situation might not be representative, but that perhaps our original contract might give you some things to think about as you draft yours -- I have sent you an e-mail through the forum contact page.

The legal aspect of the contract needs to deal with the employment relationship and liability.
The heart of the contract is a clear statement of expectations -- compensation, frequency of payment, notice for cancellation, ... basically what you are doing now, just on paper. Write it down: who does what.