Job Discussion Forums

[bornslippy1981]

When you rent a room at a guest house, does it have a lock? It doesn't seem difficult to get into one (a guest house), and since the other residents are strangers, it would be easy for someone to go Christmas shopping in my room while I'm at work.

Does anybody have experience living in a guest house? Could you provide any info.? Probably a very broad question, but more specifically, is it a good route to go while searching for an apartment or a roommate? As far as cleaning the common areas, is this the responsibility of the tenants, or the managers?

[Apsara]

Yep I'm pretty sure that all rooms at guest houses will have locks on the doors. I lived in 2 for a mercifully short time and that was the case. Quality can vary widely I believe, from well-run places to complete dumps. The places I lived at had managers who did a bare minimum of cleaning, or perhaps once a year a thorough clean of one particular space if it got extremely nasty. Generally kitchen cleaning was up to the residents, and as you can imagine, some people do nothing at all- not even wash their own dishes. The first place had the worst cockroach infestation I've ever seen, the second at least one resident rat. Strange people from the mildly eccentric to the completely insane seem to wind up in guest houses as well as some normal people. Do a lot of checking of the places you go to- try to talk to some other residents, find out how clean/quiet safe it is before you move in.

[bornslippy1981]

Thanks for the info. I decided to live in company accommodation for the first month or two while I work on finding alternative means by either word of mouth, or investigating the places, rather than relying on web photos.

[Apsara]

Actually I didn't swear when writing the above, c-o-c-kroach seems to be unacceptable on this forum...

[Apsara]

Actually I didn't swear when writing the above, c-o-c-kroach seems to be unacceptable on this forum...