Chaperones and beach rentals

[lollygal]

We have several rentals that we have managed ourselves for a couple of years having previously been with a management company. I have not had a bad experience yet, but I was asked this past spring by a neighbor in Chattanooga if I was going to be at the beach during this particular week of spring vacation and would I pick up the key for her daughter and friends rental. It seems this mom had rented a nice beach home for her daughter (1st year college) and girl friends to spend the week. She was just hoping I would be willing to pick up the key at the management company!! It seems she didn't want to have to drive 6 hours to pick up a key and then come home leaving them to party!! Needless to say, my answer was "NO" and I listed the reasons why.

 

[Miss Kitty]

This topic is so very sad to me. Another example of what parents can buy (chaperones) for their children, not what they can give (time). I live in Dallas and have never heard of hiring chaperones for these trips. I was a chaperone on a trip to Atlantis for 40 kids from my son's senior h.s. class (now there's a place I do not need to go back to!!). We had a 4 to 1 ratio of kids to parents (moms and dads). We held meetings and had all sorts of contracts signed by kids and parents. We let parents know we were not babysitting, but would be checking in with our groups face to face once a day. If any of them had been arrested/jailed or caught by one of us doing anything illegal....they would be put on the next plane. We were lucky...there was no guarantee that any of our planning/contracts/rules would keep 40 kids safe when they are legal to drink, gamble, etc. I wonder if I would still be wanting to do this now? Probably not.

 

[sunsetdunes]

The real party at fault here is your "management" company. Post the offending company's name on this board so we can all keep an eye on them.

Yeah, glad you put "management" in quotes. :clap_1:

 

[Suncat]

I'm sorry, but I find the concept of hiring a company to chaperone your kids, if that is what actually happened, totally bizarre.

I guess I have missed something--I had never heard of this either until the Aruba case. Did the Mt. Brook students have hired chaperones?
Isn't the drinking age in Florida 21?

 

[Kimmifunn]

They did have chaperones...but if I don't recall, my senior trip to Cancun in '98 (Vestavia High School- same area as Mt. Brook) we had about 60 kids go and we had chaperones that we NEVER saw. Basically it was 4 sets of obnoxious parents that got a free trip out of it. We went wild in Cancun...I'm not going to lie, but it's also Cancun. As for renting in Grayton, my parents have a house on the program and have never had this problem. And all the times I begged and begged them to rent us our own house they never did...as they thought it may come back to haunt them! We did rent houses throught The Beaches of South Walton though...we were about 23 and 24 and we didn't have problems. We also didn't trash the house...

 

[spinDrAtl]

Our management co (on site) will kick ANYONE out, no refunds, no questions, for violations of the rules - noise, excessive partying etc. But I don't think we would have the problems with underage groups due to onsite management and security.

 

[wetwilly]

My agency is not onsite but that exact story happened in a house down the street from ours where a mother drove 6.5 hrs to Seagrove checked her under 21 yr old son and a group of his friends (most under 21 yr old) and then drove back home to leave them their to party and do springbreak. They got loud and it was obvious to some folks that they were unsupervised and to the credit of my agency they kicked them out promptly. It was dumbfounding to me that some people would do that but it happens and the mother when she came back down to pick them up and pay for some minor damage could not believe that the agency would "treat them that way". She sould have looked in the mirror and asked herself why she was treating her kids that way and why she was not working to spend more time with her kids....my agency is very strict about this. :clap_1:

 

[iqueequeg]

My agency is not onsite but that exact story happened in a house down the street from ours where a mother drove 6.5 hrs to Seagrove checked her under 21 yr old son and a group of his friends (most under 21 yr old) and then drove back home to leave them their to party and do springbreak. They got loud and it was obvious to some folks that they were unsupervised and to the credit of my agency they kicked them out promptly. It was dumbfounding to me that some people would do that but it happens and the mother when she came back down to pick them up and pay for some minor damage could not believe that the agency would "treat them that way". She sould have looked in the mirror and asked herself why she was treating her kids that way and why she was not working to spend more time with her kids....my agency is very strict about this. :clap_1:

There's a seperate thread about what renters want from the homes they rent. But I wanted to put in here that as a renter (who is a long way past spring break age), I would consider it a plus if the owners had a stern warning about loud partying in the rental agreement. It would indicate to me that the unit will be more likely to be clean, and that the area will be peaceful.

 

[wetwilly]

My agreement that I use when I rent direct does have a clause that says no "open" parties and loud music and my agency has one too. Plus both have a clause that states that someone over 25 must be staying at the unit and that it will not be rented to college kids and is a "family" rental unit...

 

[gr8mom]

I'm also confused about these "chaperones" as they are called. Are you saying that some of these are just paid jobs with no connection/relation to the children they are supervising? If so, I guess I'm really feeling old and out of touch. I'm almost 40, my oldest child is 13, and I can't even imagine sending my child into a situation like this. I can see where this could be a real problem for management companies to discern whether these groups are actually unsupervised/under-supervised!