So, S19 and his friends have been talking over the last few months about going on vacation together. It looks like a crew of around 10 kids who are interested in getting a house together for a week before school starts again. I have no issues with this except I don’t think any of them have really thought out the logistics of how this is going to work.
Has anyone (or your kids) been able at 19-20 yrs old been able to do something like this? I just don’t see any owners being willing to rent to them! At least, not w/o a parent in some capacity. Am I wrong?
Most of the times we have rented through airbnb and vrbo there is a no parties clause and when I have talked to some of the owners they have said that any issues they have had have been with younger renters, usually bridal parties, who have parties at their properties and cause a lot of damage. So I would also think it would be hard to find a place to rent for that age group.
Whose name would be on the lease? Would you want to be responsible knowing they would be drinking? How well do you know those 10 kids? If you really want to do it then maybe considering having few parents stay at the house, so you could keep it under control and try to give them some space.
I have known few parents who hosted graduation parties at their ski or beach house. My kid went to one at Telluride where parents hired an activity person to take the kids hiking and biking. The parents were there to make sure there was enough food and drinks (alcohol included), and kids were safe. D1 had a great time and I was comfortable with the situation, but I wouldn’t have let her go to a house without adults there at ages 16-20.
My high school kid has been able to rent AirBnB once she turned 18, and did so for skiing in Colorado with friends. College kid uses them all the time when she and her roommates travel. Neither had parties or were the partying type, but the rental should be no problem. I am pretty sure the landlord will charge for any damage or excess cleanup required, so you may wish to warn your kid about that.
No, you are not wrong. My girlfriends and I do Wine trips/beach trips and frequently do Airbnbs and the owners are very keen on making sure that no kids renting AND that it is a not a “straw renting” going on. Right now I am searching for a family lake rental so I have been looking across multiple states and hundreds of rentals. Everyone has had a clause about age and no parties.
Well, the easiest way to know for sure would be for him to get on the website and try to rent the unit he likes. Most of the North Carolina colleges have fraternities and sororities that rent very large beach houses in the spring, so it can be done.
I’ve never met these kids and I have been getting very little information out of my son. I’m sure they’re all good kids… just not great w/ the details of how this is going to work!!
The original plan was for parents to host the group at the end of the semester. That didn’t happen so now the girl whose parents were hosting wants to get a house somewhat near school for the week before classes start. Then everyone drive the hour to school… with everyone’s dorm stuff. 10 kids, 10 dorm rooms worth of stuff… and as of last night, only 2 cars. LOL… they’re delusional!
My son is not the one who is planning all of this, as the one girl has the “final say”. I was already planning on saying I would be willing to go as the house mom. I would even be willing to do the cooking. I don’t think he’d be willing to even bring it up w/ the group, however.
I’m amazed that any Air BnB would allow this, especially with what’s going on right now. Unless restrictions ease with Air BnB, I think they have to spend a lot of time and money ensuring that places are sanitized to certain standards. My sister and I just had to rent an Air BnB due to the unexpected passing of my mother, and we had to pay a huge surcharge for extra cleaning. Plus, we had to provide the owner with a statement of death from the funeral home to even rent to us. The state we were in just lifted some restrictions, but I think going forward we shouldn’t be surprised if there are extra charges for sanitizing between renters.
Personally, there is no way I’d let my kid participate in this plan (not until this health crisis is more manageable) and I am thinking that owners may not want to assume the risk either. I can imagine a scenario (and of course, hopefully this doesn’t happen) where someone gets Covid among that group of students and then multiple parties launch lawsuits against the Air BnB claiming it wasn’t properly cleaned, or the rooms didn’t allow for proper distancing between ten non-family members. I just think this is a bad idea. Maybe they could all go camping instead?
I honestly have never heard of a mom accompanying college aged adults on a trip. Maybe it is done where you are, but I have never heard of it.
It is quite possible COVID has imposed additional restrictions.
DS#2 rented a beach house with several friends for a long weekend when they were in college. Don’t know how many occupants they said they had (it was 6 I think). But 10 kids for a party? I wouldn’t allow it if I were the landlord.
I am part of a sports team that travels, so have rented Airbnbs for largish groups in multiple cities. From what I’ve seen, larger rentals fall squarely into two categories - nice ones that don’t want/allow parties or dumps. That’s fine for my team, we’re all adults and have a 5 star rental history so it’s never been a problem to rent a nice, large house somewhere if I just message the owner, explain the situation, list the ages and professions of the people (we’re clearly not college kids and most are in highly regarded professions indicating they’re at least reasonably responsible). I can’t imagine that’s going to work for 10 college students, though, unless someone is lying. Unless the landlord is a total newbie or desperate, they know that the damage done in party houses is far greater than whatever rental income they receive and collecting on damages can be a nightmare.
I do have a friend that made the arrangements for part of her kid’s swim team to rent a place in Miami for spring break, but that was right as the whole C19 thing was starting so I never heard how that turned out. I thought she was nuts.
I know my son and his college friends rented air bnbs a few times for a weekend away. My son was not the renter and I don’t know if whoever got the AirBnB was over 21. They also rented one for Spring Break senior year (when they all were 21). There are definitely people who would rent to a group of kids. This plan doesn’t sound very realistic, but it is likely the kids will figure that out.
We had a “decade birthday” weekend get away with my DH’s college friends. The house had a “no party” clause, but let us use have a party when they found out which decade we were celebrating!
My daughters friends recently rented a small cabin (air BnB) for a few days. Most of the girls were over 21 and there wasn’t a party. There was not an extra cleaning charge for sanitizing or anything. They all stayed at the cabin and hung out together, no going anywhere else and they brought their own food to cook. It sounds like the plan that the OP’s son is trying to pull off isn’t very realistic. I’d probably tell him to let you know when he knows the potential arrangements are being finalized. Sounds like it’s all a little far fetched to me. There’s also a big difference between an Air BnB party and just a bunch of friends staying for a few days at a location. And, no, my daughter would never agree to me being the “house mom”.
We recently rented an Air BnB while moving into our new house. It was super easy, no restrictions, no big surcharges. I don’t see that as being part of the equation. Their ages… yes, I absolutely see that as a major obstacle. I don’t think these kids are being very realistic. I don’t want to be the one to pop this particular bubble, but I will be keeping a much closer eye on how plans are (or are not!) developing.
This is based on pre-COVID rental that ended up getting cancelled this spring.
S19 and a group of around 8 guys had a rental lined up at Myrtle Beach for spring break. The owners were aware of and ok with the ages, I think all were college age guys under 21. There were some extra charges. Also there was talk about the parents signing something to agree to pay for damages, although after they took my info I never signed anything so it may have been just to scare the kids into not trashing the place.
As @milee30 alluded to above, this place was a dump. The boys were excited to stay there. Not a chance that I could have gotten my wife to stay at a place like that. Definitely it was geared to people who wanted a party house near the beach.
IMO it is best for the kid to tell the parent about this stuff after the fact LOL. generally if it isn’t your credit card, this is not your circus. But room mum had me cracking up.