Owners residence not on Guest House Premises

[Derek Merkl & Sue Wright]

Can anyone confirm if it is a legal requirement to have someone 'living on the premises' of a Guest House. We have no-one at present, our manager having left. We live accross a cobbled square opposite the Guest House. We have interconnecting phones and door bell so can be contacted at any time and always tell guests how to reach us in the event of an emergency. This system is working well we do not seem to have any problems, I'm wondering if I should convert the managers bedroom into another guest bedroom........

[joyful]

I think as long as you can be contacted that should be fine - they are all 18 I presume so that shouldn't present a problem. Worth checking though in case of some unfortunate incident!!

[ALEXA-HOUSE]

Check your insurance policy as this can effect it

[Raincliffe1]

Check your insurance policy as this can effect it

Agreed, there is always the standard question about living on the premises. In theory, you should pay a lower premium if you live in as you can 'keep an eye/ear on things'.

I wouldn't think it was a legal requirement as so many owners live separate to their business premises. Regarding whether you have a manager or responsible person on the premises when guests are in residence then I think that is up to your conscience and how well you know your guests. We have always 'lived in' in the hotels we have had, yet when we have looked at others with a view to buy where the owner doesn't live in, there is always a manager or similar on the premises. To be sure though, check with your solicitor (unless anyone on here has specific experience of it and you can get it from the horses mouth).

Katherine

[Kim234]

I know a few places who don't have someone there at night but I would have thought you would need something in your fire alarm system to tell you it is going off.

[Der Alte Fritz]

I know a few places who don't have someone there at night but I would have thought you would need something in your fire alarm system to tell you it is going off.

What you get is a "Telephone Dialer" fitted to your alarm system and it will then dial you with a pre-recorded message telling you which zone has gone off, etc. It can be set to call a series of numbers in sequence so could call a land line and then a mobile.

[Der Alte Fritz]

One of the definitions of hotels is that they are required to have a night porter. Bed and breakfasts are not and so long as there are ways of contacting the owner, it is alright for the property to be unmanned at night.

We recently approached this problem and came up with a door intercom which dials a telephone number. It can be set so that it dials a land line and then a mobile or it can be switched to dial the mobile straight away. We mounted one outside to deal with guests arriving and walk-ins and a slave unit inside so that guests can call us if they need us. We can even open the door remotely if need be.

The one that we bought is produced by Videx but there are other manufacturers out there.

[hotelowner]

could you tell me which videx model you have please? it would be a very useful solution for us - many thanks

[Der Alte Fritz]

Our security guy from ADV Security built a package with a Videx 4000 series GSM one button box (http://www.videx-security.com/products/category/72%2C12%2C65%2C66/product/722/) that linked in with a proximity reader and call dialer so that our system now does the following:

1) Proximity reader and fobs allows guests to come and go as they please. (Depending on the reader you could recorded their movements as well if needed.)
2) Door panel dials land line and then a mobile number when button is pushed.
3) Door panel can be switched to dial mobile number first. (you can alter the mobile number at will)
4) Door lock can be controlled from the panel so I can open the door for a guest by pressing '0' on my phone.
5) I can activate the panel remotely by telephone.
6) System links into our DECT phones (bought from Amazon.co.uk) so is a really cheap option. DECT phones ring anywhere on our site.
7) We have a seperate building and have fitted a 'slave' door panel to that with its own proximity reader.
Total cost is around £2k for everything but we had to shop around as we did have quotes to to £5k.

What struck me was how flexible these systems are, you can configure them to meet a variety of different set-ups.