I can’t speak to military families per se. We have had military guests (1 person staying for business at the nearby base) and a tenant, at the same base. They were outstanding.
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As we don’t allow infants or kids, we probably won’t experience the rest (hopefully).
Even better, pay our military enough that lower grade enlisted families don’t have to get food stamps to get by. Historically, discounts had been offered to service members because businesses knew the pay was deplorably low.
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Absolutely, your gut was right. Hotels and resorts do not allow pets to be left unattended even if crated. The standard daily fee for pets is $75 per day as well as liability for any damage by the pet. Just a suggestion, for your metrics you can send the higher fees and also attach a pet policy. 95% of the time they decline. If you want them to decline or that you want to ensure that your property is protected.
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Have discounted for NHS staff and one booking came with their family.
They stayed for a week and ordered evening meals and cooked breakfasts.
The 10% discount was offset by the additional £860.00 from the food they ordered.
I will also discount for repeat guests who return multiple times a month.
I am doing currently doing this for a guest staying 2 to 3 days a week and is expected to be here for most of the winter.
Always happy to give my guests something back.
If they are happy I am happy!
Perhaps the damage supposedly attributable to a ‘military’ connection is not so much the ‘military’ but more perhaps of those who don’t own their own homes …they possibly see a ‘rental’ as a ‘rental’ and don’t see that where they are staying is someones home (or second home) - they may be used to having anything damaged replaced or repaired at no cost to themselves?
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I was 30 minutes away in my dentist office getting teeth cleaned. My porch has a motion activated camera that records. It also dings my phone when someone steps on the porch or drive.
I would never mention a possible discount to any guests for leaving it in good order. That would leave a host wide open to argument about what constitutes “good order”.
But it would be a great surprise for a guest to get a message saying, “By way of appreciation for you leaving the place so clean and tidy, and to honor your military service, I have sent you a small financial reward. Thank you for booking with me, it was a pleasure to host you.”
Agree. This is what I have done in the past.
Still reeling over another f(&-);:
military nightmare booking which was really a party. Too much to go into here. I had no idea it was a military crowd. Short story booked for four brought 12, my limit is 8. Refused to leave. Pice no help. I am stuck with mess and damage again.
Will be talking to lawyer so he can sort local police. They told be I needed to go go court and get a judge to sign an eviction order before they would do anything. Too many guests and other infractions, like arriving 6 hours early and walking into back yard and through garage into house, and so much more, unplugged my Minut noise monitor, and more. After bonding mono-mono with the brotherhood, i. e. 10 army veterans with 3 wives, and one child, all staying at my place; the police told me my contract which the guests had signed, regarding eviction for violating stated house rules was not enough to make them leave! I am ready to just sell house and give up the headache.
So sorry this happened to you.
I might get raked over the coals for this, and I’ll preface it by saying that I know one can’t make generalizations about an entire demographic of people, because there are so many exceptions that aren’t like that at all, but I think that the military and the police tend to attract a certain type of person. Not everyone is attracted to a job where they get to carry a weapon and possibly be required to kill someone. And those that are may have other things in their attitude that is common to that mind set.
Of course there are also people who join the military because they can get a free education, don’t have any other good job prospects, and may dread the thought of actually seeing combat, and people who want to be cops because their dad was a cop, and they actually want to help protect their community and catch real bad guys, as opposed to enjoying the prospect of throwing their authority around with those whose skin color they don’t like.
I have a degree in criminal psychology and you are more correct than you realize. Phycologist have done studies and profiles of criminal and those in law enforcement. Amazingly, the psychological profiles are very similar. It is the old cops and robbers game many if us played as children. The side we are on, depends on the day and who we aligned with for the game.
I am taking this one on the chin to give the fool a one star rating. I suspect he has been thrown out many times. When I called VRBO in this case, they said he had stayed other places, had been a member since 2015, yet he had no reviews?!
He died have insurance. After his party, I will be replacing a new skillet burnt beyond recognition. I already had the plumber here to unclog the toilet and clean grease out if trap they poured down the sink instead if using grease canister next to the stove.
The hot tub repairman will be here tomorrow to fix the vapor lock they created in the jets. I just put in new jets and system last month grrr.
I will be replacing the Minut they ripped from half hour for them to the wall as I did text every half hour after midnight telling them the party was over.
I will also have exterminator bring dog to double check for any bed bugs as they literally made a flop house out if my place. I did bomb and use Ozonator but I prefer to be proactive. Then cleaners will be cleaning sofa, throw rugs, while I am painting chipped wall paint and scrubbing greasy hand prints from well everywhere. I have been working on this and laundry, cleaning dirty dishes and fridge full of leftover food for 2 days already. Naturally they could not throw out any trash as they used my garage bags for their dirty clothes, or the ones they did not wash while flipping at my place. And then there is a broken recliner and on and on…
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If they were military this should be reported to their CO.
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Whether you were on the premises at the time isn’t really the point. What did you say to the child? Did the parents make excuses? What were they?
The OP says this. Veteran is not active duty.
But even if they were active duty, good luck finding out what unit they are in to report them.
No way to find out that I know of. If you know, please advise.
Why would I say anything to a 3-4 year old after the fact? The parents clearly did not care as they made no attempt to say, hey our child tore up your flowers. They knew he did it when they finally came out and pulled him out of the flower pots.
I had no idea he also did it in the back yard until they had left as I do not have cameras there. It was on the patio where there are tables and chairs, and a hot tub. My guess is they were too busy to watch the child. The broken window blinds in three different bedrooms was more evidence of this. It is late in the season here. I just changed flowers to fall plants a little earlier than planned.
Do I like it, absolutely not, but you have to pick your battles. The flowers were the least of it
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Quite. So you didn’t say anything but let the parents continue to allow the child to to exactly as it liked? The result was that the family created even more damage.
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You have assumed a little much here. It was the day before they left. I was not in the house and had no way to judge what was happening there. The wind had blown most of the evidence away in short order. The only proof I have is sharing the video. Yes, it was annoying but not to the degree I would nag young parents who had presented as military nurses, about it. At the time, to assume they allowed him to act the same way inside the house and that it was not a one off seemed like a big leap to me.
I guess I do not have the wisdom you do.
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Why does it matter? Why would anyone track down guests after they’ve left just to wag their finger at them? That isn’t hosting, that’s a power trip.
I’m sorry if I missed this somewhere but I’m curious.
(1) Did you ask them to pay for the damages & if you did, how’d it finally work out?
(2) Have you given thought to a way of breaking this cycle? I had a tough run after things started picking up again after Covid hit. After some analysis I decided to raise my prices, include infants in my max occupancy (ie they don’t stay free), really scrutinize “new” profile inquiries & some other stuff. We’ve had a much better go of it since; and I declined a few folks once I started to see where my problem was coming from.
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I thought that the host said that he/she saw it before the guests left? I fully agree that once guests have gone, they’ve gone. The host should move on to ensuring that the incoming guests have a great time.
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