Discount for Cash

[One Day]

Interesting.....how you would think that "Innkeeping" is anything other than a "service" industry. Some how different than all other businesses.
The business aspect of any venture is all the same......investment, working capitol and profit. All have the tax, insurance and reporting issues.
Naturaly there are details that would be regional / industry specific. Regardless....it's all the same.
This business that I have been doing now for 33 years is but one venture for me.....I have spun off businesses started from scratch and some that were bought and sold.....and still have a couple things in the cooker.
there is nothing I do that is different than what you do with your B&B.....you call them guests.....I call them customers / clients

 

[EmptyNest]

I know you cannot charge more for a credit card transaction.

That is what I initially thought too. Imagine my surprise when I went to pay my taxes online and discovered my state charges a 4% 'convenience fee' if you want to use a credit card..

Of course..you don't think they are going to eat the credit card fees do you???
However, in VA, for example...the dept of motor vehicles charges you more if you pay in person or by mail. They want us to do it all on line.

 

[Morticia]

I know you cannot charge more for a credit card transaction, is this their way of getting around that?

I've seen a lot of 'credit card convenience fees' lately. Surprised that people are doing this but the processor is not stopping them.

 

[One Day]

are you sure it states "credit card convenience fee"?...if so that is a violation of the merchant agreement.
If it is stated as a "convenience fee" or "online convenience fee"......that is skirting the merchant agreement

 

[One Day]

Apparently the only thing I do differently is report all of my income? Good luck with your audit!.

curious....
This was discussed recently.....leaving tip envelopes.
A guests leaves you $20 cash on the night stand.......are you reporting it?

 

[swirt]

Interesting.....how you would think that "Innkeeping" is anything other than a "service" industry. Some how different than all other businesses.
The business aspect of any venture is all the same......investment, working capitol and profit. All have the tax, insurance and reporting issues.
Naturaly there are details that would be regional / industry specific. Regardless....it's all the same.
This business that I have been doing now for 33 years is but one venture for me.....I have spun off businesses started from scratch and some that were bought and sold.....and still have a couple things in the cooker.
there is nothing I do that is different than what you do with your B&B.....you call them guests.....I call them customers / clients.

Interesting.....how you would think that "Innkeeping" is anything other than a "service" industry. Some how different than all other businesses.
Probably no more interesting than you who has done lots of things but never innkeeping would think it is the same as any other business. I know of no innkeeper on this forum that started out in innkeeping as their first job out of high school. We have all had other jobs, businesses, etc. Some more difficult than innkeeping, some less so. There are no innkeepers here who started out in innkeeping and have no other experience to compare it to. I haven't run into any yet who have said, oh innkeeping is just like any other job/business I had before.
If you want to invest several hundred thousand in a home and get it up and running the way you want and then put it all at risk to save a couple of hundred dollars by playing loose with the taxes, have at it.

 

[gillumhouse]

Interesting.....how you would think that "Innkeeping" is anything other than a "service" industry. Some how different than all other businesses.
The business aspect of any venture is all the same......investment, working capitol and profit. All have the tax, insurance and reporting issues.
Naturaly there are details that would be regional / industry specific. Regardless....it's all the same.
This business that I have been doing now for 33 years is but one venture for me.....I have spun off businesses started from scratch and some that were bought and sold.....and still have a couple things in the cooker.
there is nothing I do that is different than what you do with your B&B.....you call them guests.....I call them customers / clients.

there is nothing I do that is different than what you do with your B&B.....you call them guests.....I call them customers / clients
OK, let me see if I can explain the difference between guests and customers. You are correct in that the paperwork side is similar regardless of the type of business, however...
Customers show up during YOUR prescribed business hours and do not expect you to be open 3 hours early and still be open 4 hours after closing time. If you do not get all the plants planted or sold that day, you just put them on the shelf, water them and they are there tomorrow. You will rarely have to totally refund the sale.
In your business, you will not have to tell someone to STOP taking a shower because there is water all over the dining room floor an hour before breakfast is going to be served and the one guest who had a PRIOR RESERVATION was the ONLY guest who did not get a shower and have to comp the room (I got lucky and she insisted on paying half-rate). You will not be scrambling to find a plumber on a weekend to connect a drain pipe to a shower drain.
Or have a water line break or hydrant flushing (turns water a yucky brown) when you are trying to do the laundry and get the rooms ready for the next guests.
Customers come in, make selections, go to the register, pay, and leave.
Guests can be needy, standoffish, talk to me, or leave me alone and the innkeeper is supposed to know which one is in front of them now. The guest checks in and may be there for hours or days - needing things donw for them - never mind that there are 5 ot 6 other rooms of guests needing the same.
We are not throwing crap at you - we just want you to go to a freaking B & B to see what it is all REALLY about before you comment on what we should be doing as innkeepers. It is like me who can kill a plant in the blink of an eye telling you how to run a landscaping business - what to plant where and when.

 

[wendydk]

Apparently the only thing I do differently is report all of my income? Good luck with your audit!.

curious....
This was discussed recently.....leaving tip envelopes.
A guests leaves you $20 cash on the night stand.......are you reporting it?
.

All cash tips left here are donated to our favorite animal charity in the name of the guest that leaves it. Since I don't keep it, it is not cash income for me.

 

[Morticia]

Apparently the only thing I do differently is report all of my income? Good luck with your audit!.

curious....
This was discussed recently.....leaving tip envelopes.
A guests leaves you $20 cash on the night stand.......are you reporting it?
.

All cash tips left here are donated to our favorite animal charity in the name of the guest that leaves it. Since I don't keep it, it is not cash income for me.
.

All cash tips left here are donated to our favorite animal charity in the name of the guest that leaves it. Since I don't keep it, it is not cash income for me.

Now that's a novel idea! Do you provide the charity with any info about the guest? (Here's why I ask...when my dog died the vet donated money to a charity in my dog's name, totally out of their own pocket, maybe the euthanasia fee? Anyway, for YEARS after that I got mail from the organization asking for more donations. Good idea gone bad.)

 

[gillumhouse]

Apparently the only thing I do differently is report all of my income? Good luck with your audit!.

curious....
This was discussed recently.....leaving tip envelopes.
A guests leaves you $20 cash on the night stand.......are you reporting it?
.

All cash tips left here are donated to our favorite animal charity in the name of the guest that leaves it. Since I don't keep it, it is not cash income for me.
.

All cash tips left here are donated to our favorite animal charity in the name of the guest that leaves it. Since I don't keep it, it is not cash income for me.

Now that's a novel idea! Do you provide the charity with any info about the guest? (Here's why I ask...when my dog died the vet donated money to a charity in my dog's name, totally out of their own pocket, maybe the euthanasia fee? Anyway, for YEARS after that I got mail from the organization asking for more donations. Good idea gone bad.)
.

I tell guests and it is posted on my web site that I suggest a donation to the Lord's Pantry Food Bank for use of our bicycles. I have gotten some "sure you do" looks when guests hand me cash. I would like to be able to see their faces when they receive the thank you note from the Pantry. The cash is paper clipped to a 3x5 card with the name and address when I give it to the Pantry.

 

[Morticia]

Apparently the only thing I do differently is report all of my income? Good luck with your audit!.

curious....
This was discussed recently.....leaving tip envelopes.
A guests leaves you $20 cash on the night stand.......are you reporting it?
.

All cash tips left here are donated to our favorite animal charity in the name of the guest that leaves it. Since I don't keep it, it is not cash income for me.
.

All cash tips left here are donated to our favorite animal charity in the name of the guest that leaves it. Since I don't keep it, it is not cash income for me.

Now that's a novel idea! Do you provide the charity with any info about the guest? (Here's why I ask...when my dog died the vet donated money to a charity in my dog's name, totally out of their own pocket, maybe the euthanasia fee? Anyway, for YEARS after that I got mail from the organization asking for more donations. Good idea gone bad.)
.

I tell guests and it is posted on my web site that I suggest a donation to the Lord's Pantry Food Bank for use of our bicycles. I have gotten some "sure you do" looks when guests hand me cash. I would like to be able to see their faces when they receive the thank you note from the Pantry. The cash is paper clipped to a 3x5 card with the name and address when I give it to the Pantry.
.

We do a yearly fund raiser for Habitat and the deal is the guest writes a check to Habitat for a discounted room rate. I STRESS that the guest MUST show up WITH the check made out to Habitat or NO discount. I don't want any funny looks. Well, sure enough, I got one guest who forgot her checkbook.
I told her I was going to get my checkbook, she was going to give me the money and I was going to write the check out in front of her. Not that I had to mail it, mind you, but I wanted to stress AGAIN that SHE was supposed to have done this on her own.

 

[wendydk]

Apparently the only thing I do differently is report all of my income? Good luck with your audit!.

curious....
This was discussed recently.....leaving tip envelopes.
A guests leaves you $20 cash on the night stand.......are you reporting it?
.

All cash tips left here are donated to our favorite animal charity in the name of the guest that leaves it. Since I don't keep it, it is not cash income for me.
.

All cash tips left here are donated to our favorite animal charity in the name of the guest that leaves it. Since I don't keep it, it is not cash income for me.

Now that's a novel idea! Do you provide the charity with any info about the guest? (Here's why I ask...when my dog died the vet donated money to a charity in my dog's name, totally out of their own pocket, maybe the euthanasia fee? Anyway, for YEARS after that I got mail from the organization asking for more donations. Good idea gone bad.)
.

I do...just their name and address.

 

[Morticia]

Apparently the only thing I do differently is report all of my income? Good luck with your audit!.

curious....
This was discussed recently.....leaving tip envelopes.
A guests leaves you $20 cash on the night stand.......are you reporting it?
.

All cash tips left here are donated to our favorite animal charity in the name of the guest that leaves it. Since I don't keep it, it is not cash income for me.
.

All cash tips left here are donated to our favorite animal charity in the name of the guest that leaves it. Since I don't keep it, it is not cash income for me.

Now that's a novel idea! Do you provide the charity with any info about the guest? (Here's why I ask...when my dog died the vet donated money to a charity in my dog's name, totally out of their own pocket, maybe the euthanasia fee? Anyway, for YEARS after that I got mail from the organization asking for more donations. Good idea gone bad.)
.

I do...just their name and address.
.

Has it ever come back to bite you? ie- guest suddenly gets mailing from charity thanking them for their donation. Guest doesn't have a clue, but does some research and finds out you gave their name & address out? Or guest keeps getting solicitations? I'm just wondering because it IS a nice thing to do with the tips, I just wonder if it causes grief down the line?

 

[wendydk]

Apparently the only thing I do differently is report all of my income? Good luck with your audit!.

curious....
This was discussed recently.....leaving tip envelopes.
A guests leaves you $20 cash on the night stand.......are you reporting it?
.

All cash tips left here are donated to our favorite animal charity in the name of the guest that leaves it. Since I don't keep it, it is not cash income for me.
.

All cash tips left here are donated to our favorite animal charity in the name of the guest that leaves it. Since I don't keep it, it is not cash income for me.

Now that's a novel idea! Do you provide the charity with any info about the guest? (Here's why I ask...when my dog died the vet donated money to a charity in my dog's name, totally out of their own pocket, maybe the euthanasia fee? Anyway, for YEARS after that I got mail from the organization asking for more donations. Good idea gone bad.)
.

I do...just their name and address.
.

Has it ever come back to bite you? ie- guest suddenly gets mailing from charity thanking them for their donation. Guest doesn't have a clue, but does some research and finds out you gave their name & address out? Or guest keeps getting solicitations? I'm just wondering because it IS a nice thing to do with the tips, I just wonder if it causes grief down the line?
.

Hasn't yet! But then, I only request that the charity send a thank you when the guest actually leaves us donations intended for the rescue (which happens often).

 

[Samster]

Apparently the only thing I do differently is report all of my income? Good luck with your audit!.

curious....
This was discussed recently.....leaving tip envelopes.
A guests leaves you $20 cash on the night stand.......are you reporting it?
.

All cash tips left here are donated to our favorite animal charity in the name of the guest that leaves it. Since I don't keep it, it is not cash income for me.
.

All cash tips left here are donated to our favorite animal charity in the name of the guest that leaves it. Since I don't keep it, it is not cash income for me.

Now that's a novel idea! Do you provide the charity with any info about the guest? (Here's why I ask...when my dog died the vet donated money to a charity in my dog's name, totally out of their own pocket, maybe the euthanasia fee? Anyway, for YEARS after that I got mail from the organization asking for more donations. Good idea gone bad.)
.

Side track alert....our vet did the same thing! Jez, I hope I don't get junk mail out of what I thought was a nice gesture. ugh.

 

[gillumhouse]

Apparently the only thing I do differently is report all of my income? Good luck with your audit!.

curious....
This was discussed recently.....leaving tip envelopes.
A guests leaves you $20 cash on the night stand.......are you reporting it?
.

All cash tips left here are donated to our favorite animal charity in the name of the guest that leaves it. Since I don't keep it, it is not cash income for me.
.

All cash tips left here are donated to our favorite animal charity in the name of the guest that leaves it. Since I don't keep it, it is not cash income for me.

Now that's a novel idea! Do you provide the charity with any info about the guest? (Here's why I ask...when my dog died the vet donated money to a charity in my dog's name, totally out of their own pocket, maybe the euthanasia fee? Anyway, for YEARS after that I got mail from the organization asking for more donations. Good idea gone bad.)
.

The Pantry sends a thank you for tax records but that is it.