I was just asked by a guest if they can receive mail with their name on it while staying at my home for 21 days. What is the normal response to this?
No no no no no no no no. And no. 
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Thank you, Paul…please, I’m all ears! I’m sort of a newby at this. I’m going on 4 months now
I just think its a bad idea. They aren’t living there. If they were on like a 3+ month lease as a lodger then yes by all means let them have mail. But they aren’t.
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They can receive packages at the local FedEx or UPS office.
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I’d recommend a local post office to them, where they can get a PO box.
You really don’t want to be stuck forwarding mail for them afterwards, or want any lines of credit they might apply for associated with your address.
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Absolutely right! Who knows what they might get mailed to them?
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No. Drugs through the mails is common.
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Yes definitely I worked with Royal Mail for a while and often felt suspicious envelopes that seemed to have a powder inside.
Plus I know people buy them on the Dark Web and it’s all delivered through regular mail.
NO. receiving mail at an address is often used as a form of identity verification. who knows what that could be used for
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All it takes is the guest opening up a bank account and using your address, and you will have junk mail from the bank until 2021. I still get bank statements for a guest from 4 years ago. You just can’t get it to stop. Also you’ll get catalogues for years clogging up your mail box.
I also agree with @hypertokyo that it is used as identify verification which is very tricky…
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All you have to do is write NOT AT ADDRESS on the envelope and post it. They return to sender and remove your address usually. I had loads of mail from the previous owner and it all stopped when I did that.
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Do you have to be a ups or fedfex member to have things delivered? how do they work? (asking for myself as going to the state’s soon)
I’ve heard of this ‘dark web’…think I read it in some fiction novel…so it’s a real thing?
To the original poster, receiving mail may be a way to ‘establish’ a local residence for any number of reasons and none of them are good in my opinion. I get that Mom may not be able to understand how to email, but certainly, if she can write, she should be able to talk on the phone? Unless she is non verbal for some reason. But see, that’s just too complicated for me already! No, my answer would be an absolute no. By the way, I do not get my mail delivered to me…it’s not an option. The post office provides me with a post office box because there is no mail delivery to my physical address. But no, no guest will ever use my address.
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I ended up taking all your advise. I sent her this response: It is not typical for someone staying for 3 weeks to have all of their mail delivered to our house. A package here and there is fine though. The local PO box might be a better option if you are staying half the time at our house and half at another. If you were staying here for the two months / summer then I could see it making sense to have it all sent here.
Thank you so much for your help and support. This site is amazing!
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Agree. Don’t let guests receive mail at your address! What a great way to get drugs delivered wth none of the risks. If the PO discovers the mail with contraband before it gets to your house, guess who gets in trouble? Not the guest!
Also you didn’t ask us, but we hope you are not booking for more than 30 days, as that kind of booking confers long term tenant status on your guest, with all of the protections that gives them. Which means they could squat at your house and you’d have to go to court to evict them.
Yeah. It’s 100% real. I’ve seen it, plus I know people that have bought drugs through it. You need special software to go on it. But I won’t go into detail because it’s not relevant on this forum.
Packages are even worse then letters. Who knows what they contain?
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I’m sure there is nothing I need on there anyway!
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