Minimum rental age?

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notAgrandma

notAgrandma

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A guest called a few weeks ago inquiring how old a person needs to be to reserve a room at our B&B. I replied that the guest would need to have a valid credit card in their name and be 18 or older. My understanding is that in the US, at 18 a person is considered a legal adult and therefore can enter legally binding contracts such as renting a hotel room.
The young gals renting the room are very nice, polite, and I have zero concerns about them damaging anything (or at least not any more than any other guest!). So my question to fellow innkeepers is, do you have a minimum age policy for placing reservations? What influences your decision for your age limit?
 
I need to have at least one person over the age of 18. Legally, if no one is over 18 then I am legally responsible for them and that isn't happening. We have made exception once for a boy about to turn 18 who's parents sent him to see a hockey game for his birthday. He was 18 on the second day. Parents had to send me quite a bit in legal documentation, but understood why I was doing it.
 
Like the car rental places, my policy is that someone in the group must be at least 24. My decision is based on maturity. Though there are always exceptions, older generally = more likely to respect my place, vs. younger = more likely to do college student foolish stuff, like drinking too much and damaging my property.
 
I really REALLY dislike renting to 'at least one person' being 18 ... because I worry they've got younger folks with them. Not at my place, thank you. Be 21, please. 25 is even better but I had my first child at 21, so I get it. And they must have their own credit card. There are loads of other places they can get a room if that's what they are looking for. If you aren't 25 in Massachusetts it's really hard to rent a car!
 
We prefer and only allow 21 and older, due to the fact our state law for drinking is 21 and we are in the middle of a small county that has over 28 wineries (with enough annual events to drive the tourism biz off the charts). However, to avoid any discrimination issues, we do not state an actual age requirement in our policy, but do list our B&B as an "adult destination" and that our place is "not suitable for children".
When folks contact us to reserve as a family, (...we're traveling with our three children...) we tell them we are an adult only B&B and that we cannot accommodate children...we also add in that other guests book here and arrive expecting to not be surprised to find out other guests have brought little ones! (Nobody wants to have a romantic get-away, or couple's weekend with the Brady Bunch in the next room!)
 
I woud think 18, but good or bad behavior isn't respective of age. When we first married and headed off for our first weekend Maxine was 17 and I had recently turned 19, I find it hard to fault young people that ask about age, however I do make the speech that I'm the grumpy old guy that would knock on the door and ask them to leave if they were not acting like ladies or gentlemen
 
Northern Dreamer said:
We prefer and only allow 21 and older, due to the fact our state law for drinking is 21 and we are in the middle of a small county that has over 28 wineries (with enough annual events to drive the tourism biz off the charts). However, to avoid any discrimination issues, we do not state an actual age requirement in our policy, but do list our B&B as an "adult destination" and that our place is "not suitable for children".
When folks contact us to reserve as a family, (...we're traveling with our three children...) we tell them we are an adult only B&B and that we cannot accommodate children...we also add in that other guests book here and arrive expecting to not be surprised to find out other guests have brought little ones! (Nobody wants to have a romantic get-away, or couple's weekend with the Brady Bunch in the next room!).
Click to expand...
Right now we have a very pregnant couple and another couple with a baby. We'll see how that goes in the morning.
 

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