I was going to say I wouldn't take the booking but see it's already set. We charge extra for a group taking the whole house (it's primarily a cleaning/laundry/supplies fee because they use a lot more than a typical full house would).
I would say no amount of profit would be worth me doing all that extra work to prepare a dinner, so if you're comfortable with a caterer using the guest kitchen then go for it. I agree that you should contract with the caterer directly to avoid and "misunderstandings"..
Rupert said:
I was going to say I wouldn't take the booking but see it's already set. We charge extra for a group taking the whole house (it's primarily a cleaning/laundry/supplies fee because they use a lot more than a typical full house would).
I would say no amount of profit would be worth me doing all that extra work to prepare a dinner, so if you're comfortable with a caterer using the guest kitchen then go for it. I agree that you should contract with the caterer directly to avoid and "misunderstandings".
Rupert, please help me understand why you charge more for a group? Is it due to your location where they normally spend all their time there? For me, them do not seem to make any more of a mess than when I am full with individual bookings. In fact I have found it to be much easier. They are usually all gone at the same time providing us with more quiet time, easier to go do all rooms rather than spuradic. I will say that when everything is HERE, I am usually burning the wick at both ends in keeping things neat..but do not find that they use more supplies or create more laundry that any other full house.
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It is just related to our set-up here and who are "normal" guests are. Our area (versus our Inn) is the destination. So our Inn is geared to be a great home base for exploring all the things there are to do in the area. Our Inn is not designed to be the destination (no hot tubs, fireplaces, etc.). With a normal full house the people check in and head right back out, then come back in the evening and "hit the hay". They get up and eat breakfast, then go back out all day.
When a group is booking here (we've had different kinds, from family reunions to weddings to business weekends) the whole group is planning to BE here, the whole time they are renting. So they basically don't leave, which means they use more of everything (from food to room supplies like linens). It's also much more difficult because instead of serving breakfast from 8-9:30 AM, they all want to sit down at the same time which is harder for us. It's also much harder to clean their rooms because they DON'T LEAVE...so instead of cleaning you end up giving them extra sets of towels, etc. Just uses more stuff.
We have found also that regardless of the reason for the gathering, people just don't behave well when they have the entire house. They get this weird sense of entitlement and things get treated much harsher than they normally would. Honestly, we charge the extra fee because we DON'T want groups...so it acts as a deterrent, and if they book it anyway we get a little extra out of it (not much though after you cover all the extra "stuff" they consume). You have to be pretty far ahead of the game here to do a whole house booking on a weekend (at least 6 months) so that helps too, but you always get these people wanting to book a year out and it just causes a lot more headaches for us that we don't want to or need to deal with.
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