Officials want to review ‘excessive use’ of guest passes in The Villages
 

The guest passes review workshop is coming up.

https://www.**************.com/2025/...-the-villages/

“Excessive use of Villages guest passes sparked discussion at a meeting Wednesday of the Amenity Authority Committee.

A review recommending revised fees and operating policies related to recreation, community watch and facilities in The Villages is scheduled for completion this fall.

The review will recommend additional ways to offset operating and maintenance costs…..”

This will be a great way to keep our amenity fees in check! Let the first 20 passes be free and then charge an additional 10 dollars for each pass after that in a given year. The additional funds required to take care of guests could be used to keep our amenity fees from climbing.

The amenities' fee automatically increases by the CPI on the anniversary of when your home was first sold.

I like the idea. How many residents, who aren’t running a short term rental business out of their home, would need more than 20 guest passes per year. We typically get about 6-8 passes per year, and have never needed more than 10.

And the number of people in the pool does not affect the price of chlorine or replacement ACs or roofs or lawn maintenance or…

Not true, have you ever gone in a pool after two hours of water volleyball being played on four courts. The water is so cloudy you can’t see more than a few feet underwater through swim goggles. The number of people might not affect the price of chlorine, but more is certainly needed (or the chlorinators that convert salt into chlorine need to run harder). Also, filters need to be cleaned/replaced more frequently, pumps run harder, water needs to be changed more frequently, and general cleaning and maintenance increases. Plus, the number of people in the pool most certainly affects the enjoyment of Ammenity fee paying residents.

Frequency
 

And Frequency does equal wear and tear! Along with the extra flushes in the bathrooms, paper towels/TP, and trash disposal.

Let those who want to abuse the right, pony up the cash for the continuing maintenance!

Grasping at straws is bad enough but counting sheets of TP?

Next you’ll be blaming the guests for exhaling too much water vapor, increasing humidity, and causing rain storms.

Omitted Scientific Statement
 

I don’t know if you recall Calculus class, but remember all those formulas you were permitted to write on an index card before those blue book examinations? Wear and Tear calculus


(F * A * N) / (S * (N^b))
Mechanical Wear Estimation and Fatigue Analysis Calculator | True Geometry’s Blog

The more the use, the more the cost. It’s just science…with mathematical absolutism.

The bottom line, increase use does cause increased failure of equipment etc.

So, back to straws?


More people in pool means pumps work harder? No.
Means more than 24 hours in the day for them to run? No.
Means the AC in the rec centers age faster? No.
Means the roofs wear out faster? No.
Means the grass needs to be cut more often? No.
Means the Community Watch needs to be staffed up? No.

Give a real example of an increased cost for the homes with more than 20 guests and what percentage of the budget that increase means. With any real numbers the added wear that actually increases cost will be in the noise.

Then remember, as others have pointed out, that your amenity fee is increased by the CPI each year regardless of the cost of the amenities.

No straws
 

No straws, just science and math

More guests equals more wear and tear. No question.

By the way, 20 people? Hilarious Understatement

Try 300,000 people in 2024! Are you suggesting that that mass of people doesn’t affect anything? You would be 100% incorrect.

Why are you against the abusers of the system paying for their abuse? There should be no beneficial free ride for those who continually abuse what we all pay for!
I’m sure the computer system knows who they are. Just run a query and bill accordingly. Abusers steal from the rest of us.

We all win if amenities are cheaper and usage costs are evenly distributed.

Uh oh math
 

Uh oh, math. As you were.

Why shouldn't guest passes cost something to contribute to the increase costs we all share? We have never needed guest passes when friends or family would visit because we entertained at home. Never used the community facilities. Yet, when others have guests and use the amenities the increased costs of maintenance and repair are passed on to us. Many folks have friends and family that come and stay and use "our" amenities extensively and the cost is passed on to all of us. I think a nominal fee ($10?) per guest, per month, would not be unreasonable and ma be significant in terms of offsetting costs.

Usage costs are evenly distributed now and, as I wrote above, the cost of amenities does not currently impact your amenity fee.

20 people was YOUR cutoff to define “abuse” and to begin adding an additional charge. IF the 300,000 number is accurate, how many of those represent guests in excess of your limit of 20? My guess is very, very few. I know my guests account for 12 of those and there a heck of a lot of grandchildren in that number as well.

If each of those passes was for a one week stay (remember, you are tackling the short-term renter problem) then that would be equivalent to fewer than 6,000 permanent residents. Compared to a population of nearly 150,000 that is about 4%. So ALL guest passes add about 4% BUT, not all those are the “abuser” so divide 4% accordingly to get a very small impact.

And again, the number of guests does not affect the largest budget lines. A fraction of 4% might affect a small portion of the budget but has no affect on the amount of your amenity fee anyway.

Limit Abusers
 

Actually they are not.

Family wouldn’t be a concern. The issue that needs to be addressed is some are renting homes and then passing off “the gift” of guest passes and their costs onto all who pay amenities. If they are using our amenities as for their profit, they can pay. I would recommend registered landlords and Airbnb’s who are abusing the system pay more to offset the additional costs.

20 passes should be more than enough. If you do have a bunch of grandkids coming in, you could even apply for a family exemption. The additional costs should be aimed at those who tote and advertise our amenities for their own personal gain.

This is less about the actual cost of guests and more about appearing to "fight the landlord" and the legend of the AirBNB nightmare. I don't know the stats, maybe someone here does, but of all guest passes issued, how many are every actually used (scanned)? I've had about 10 passes in the last year and I think one of the guests used one putting course once.

The notion of the bad guys using our amenities and driving up the costs is more about keeping them for ourselves and less about real cost increase. The friendliest community really just doesn't want to share because they resent the monthly fee they signed up for.

None of it impacts me too much.