Long-term guests...

Bed & Breakfast / Short Term Rental Host Forum

Help Support Bed & Breakfast / Short Term Rental Host Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Laura

New member
Joined
Aug 28, 2010
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
I’m not sure that most of you would see this as a problem...

When we started renovating our house, (I use the word house quite loosely – it’s an old hotel building from the 1800s that we are turning into a house,) I had the idea in mind of being a sort of “part time” B&B. We have 1 awful motel in town and a whole house that you can basically rent for as long as you want and someone comes in and cleans it for you. It mostly rents to scrapbooking groups for weekend getaways.

We always have a bunch of weddings and family reunions in town over the spring/summer/fall months and people don’t want to drive to the city for lodging. I was hoping to just tap into that and have occasional weekend guests or short term traveling through guests. However – North Dakota oil country is creeping closer and closer to our little town all the time and there is a wind farm going up just north of us about 1/2 hour...

Because we live in a small town, of course, word travels fast. The motel is booked constantly and the house has long-term renters, and now I am starting to have knocks on the door with people looking for rooms. Someone in town apparently thinks we are ready. Right now, I can honestly tell them, we aren’t ready. The guest rooms are bare studs right now, (as is the rest of the 2nd floor - I don't even have a bedroom myself right now,) and because we are doing most of the renovation ourselves they will be for quite some time yet! Anyway - these aren’t people that are looking for places to stay for the weekend. These are contractors and workers looking for long-term rooms and are willing to pay full hotel prices.

So now I’m afraid to go through with it. I don’t want to take on long-term guests. Heck - even my own family and friends start to stink when they have been here for a week! I guess my question is, do I scratch the whole idea of a B&B and just renovate it for us? Or is there a way to politely say thanks, but no thanks to long term guests?
 
In my opinion....Long term renters would be a lot easier than B & B. That is...if...you can have a separate entrance for them to get to their rooms so they won't bother trapsing through your house.
No food prep, no concierge service, just give them a room and bath and be done with them. If they want you to provide sheets, towels, that's fine, but charge for cleaning and changing them.
 
Laura, I get a LOT of calls for the long term due to Marcellus Shale now and when the power plant has an "outage" (maintenance) I get the calls for weekly rates. I do NOT want to rent to them. Mine do not want to pay full rate thankfully because then I would have to find another reason to say no. I do not want the dirt these workers wi bring in. I do not want to deal with anyone thinking this is like a hotel and he can bring in a "guest" or go boozing.
I want to be able to tell DH to go pound salt in any tone of voice (or volume) I care to use every now and then - with someone in house I cannot do that no matter how badly I want to. I do not want to get up every morning to fix breakfast (which i would have to do at full rate).
I had an e-mail today looking for temp housing for a person in my area for a medical assignment - no, Folks, it was not the 6 Greek priests as this one had a phone number and contact info in the USA. It is a temp housing service. I quoted (on the phone) full-price on my budget room so do not expect to hear back. It would be nice dollars, but I do not want every day - I need down time.
 
Realizing you are not ready I do have to say we have an uncle and a cousin who are working in the oil sands in Alberta. They are telling us that the workers are living in basements and attics just to be indoors! And paying outrageous prices to share one bedroom with 2 other guys.
If you can get a room done and you don't offer anything other than the room you might have some extra money coming in for those renos! Once/week housekeeping and be done with it. I would do a background check as they will be in your house.
 
Best way to deal is to tell them a price they don't want to hear. I tell them 155 x 7. That stops them in their tracks. I don't like long terms at all.
 
Best way to deal is to tell them a price they don't want to hear. I tell them 155 x 7. That stops them in their tracks. I don't like long terms at all.
 
We don't mind long terms - but we haven't had to deal with them since taking over 4 months ago. We've quoted a few times but had no takers. I always give them a price break option for no breakfast included and expect them to take that. My only concern has been kitchen & laundry use. I simply cannot have them using the kitchen and there's a laundrymat down the street. So, far we haven't had any takers, but we're trying to be open minded to the potential if a serious interest comes along.
 
last year we had 2 electricians for 4 months - not a spot of trouble no breakfast and room done once a week.
This year had2 chaps working on building the new police station - no breakfast and once a week room done - only ever saw them on thursdays when they paid the bill.
Think it depends very much on who they are which again is the luck of the draw.
 
last year we had 2 electricians for 4 months - not a spot of trouble no breakfast and room done once a week.
This year had2 chaps working on building the new police station - no breakfast and once a week room done - only ever saw them on thursdays when they paid the bill.
Think it depends very much on who they are which again is the luck of the draw..
Marcellus gas workers are out in the field drilling for gas - mud, Mud, MUD.
Yes, it does depend on the work and the worker. We DID take a welder working at the power plant once in the off-season. She was a welder and so quiet we had to look to see if her truck was there to know she was in-house. I would take her again in a heartbeat!
Added: we are taking P A students here for 2 week rotations at a very reduced rate. No breakfast - just coffee and juice. But 2 weeks is not bad got a long term (for here 2 weeks IS long term).
 
Ever asked any of them if they barter your renovation work for a place to stay. Bet those walls go up quickly :)
 
Back
Top