Talk of The Villages Florida

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-   The Villages, Florida, General Discussion (https://www.talkofthevillages.com/forums/villages-florida-general-discussion-73/)
-   -   Officials want to review ‘excessive use’ of guest passes in The Villages (https://www.talkofthevillages.com/forums/villages-florida-general-discussion-73/officials-want-review-excessive-use-guest-passes-villages-361222/)

Normal 09-12-2025 07:55 AM

A can agree to that
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by La lamy (Post 2460484)
I think a limit on guest passes per household is a great idea for mitigating short term rentals. My guess is 10 passes per year. No extras at any cost, or else it'd still be too easy to put that cost onto short term visitors.

For sure, 20 passes may be too generous. One thing seems certain, costs currently are not going down. Mitigating the increase with renter pass premiums could only help. Some might say it won’t amount to much, some say it will. The bottom line is it’s something, either big or small, it’s something.

Landlords admit (at least on this forum), that renters would pay for use of our facilities. Whether it’s with higher rental rates or out of a landlord’s pocket, who cares? The free ride on the rest of us should be terminated.

kareneluck 09-12-2025 07:58 AM

I like the idea. First 10 for free and then $10 each for more.

Aces4 09-12-2025 08:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby (Post 2460485)
Here's an idea, piggybacking on your comments:

The Rec dept. can sell guest passes for registered guests for $10/week, or $25/month, per person. If a pass ends up not being used, then the money is refunded. If it's used even once, no refund. And all guest passes must be presented with a photo ID, so someone can't just use someone else's guest pass to get away with free amenity use. That would need to be actively enforced. That means if some unknown people are in the pool and the ID checker person comes by, they can order those people to get out of the pool and show their ID. If they refuse, the police can be called.

All this feels to me like a big reason not to buy in The Villages. Pay all that money for amenity fees and one can't even enjoy time here with family and friends without a big surcharge. Ah, the joy of living with miserly old people day after day. What's not to love?😬

jimhoward 09-12-2025 08:10 AM

I don't really see the downside of charging a fee for guest passes if they were to decide to go that way. If the numbers I have read in this post are accurate, there are hundreds of thousands of passes issued in a year. Even a fee as little as $10 would generate millions of dollars of revenue for the districts. The cost burden on applicants for passes would be minimal unless the number of passes was very large.

Birdrm 09-12-2025 08:20 AM

I actually think 20 passes is a bit high, I would suggest 10-12 and then have the fee start, I do understand some actual homeowners might need a few more than this limit, but so they might have to pay $20 for the last 2 guests in a busy year! The idea is to get the weekly rental units to pay the $10 for each guest!

Aces4 09-12-2025 08:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimhoward (Post 2460499)
I don't really see the downside of charging a fee for guest passes if they were to decide to go that way. If the numbers I have read in this post are accurate, there are hundreds of thousands of passes issued in a year. Even a fee as little as $10 would generate millions of dollars of revenue for the districts. The cost burden on applicants for passes would be minimal unless the number of passes was very large.

Just remember you have set the table for higher fees for everything. It's the same as the way our government works, just increase funding little by little by little. To me, all this points out is the fact The Villages is not self sustaining and get ready to pay. IMHO, this is the tip of the iceberg.

gobuck827 09-12-2025 09:45 AM

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Bruceg15 09-12-2025 09:49 AM

Guest Passes
 
All,

I fortunately have my Children and Grandchildren visit often. One of the amenities was use of our recreation facilities, when we decided to move here. One of my Children has four kids. They usually visit us about every couple or few weeks. We are owners not Renters. That would kind of be kind of expensive. FYI that does not include my other family and Grandkids. What about our friends that come from all over the US? They all enjoy our amenities.

Our visitors are attracted to all our amenities, and we all have fun. And maybe some of them buy a home here because of the visit and the great amenities that we enjoy.

On the other hand, there are Homeowners that run Air B &Bs. They make money from the property. Those should take the brunt of the Guest pass fees, not the residents, their families and the guests.

The smack down should be to charge the outsiders that use our amenities. Charge them or remove them from our community amenities.

DO NOT CHARGE THE RESIDENTS AND THEIR FAMILIES AND FRIENDS.

asianthree 09-12-2025 09:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by La lamy (Post 2460484)
I think a limit on guest passes per household is a great idea for mitigating short term rentals. My guess is 10 passes per year. No extras at any cost, or else it'd still be too easy to put that cost onto short term visitors.

Renters sure charge just like the $50 residents pass.

However, for us what children, or grandchildren do we forbid coming to see us at holidays, with 10 passes no exceptions.

3 kids, 3 spouses, 6 grands + 2 fiancé’s. It’s hard enough for some to get family to visit. Your idea to limit, would only cause hardship. Choose who is special and who is unloved.

3 kids come 3 times a year, twice with spouse’s, 6 grands once a year for parks, along with fiancé’s.(gone 4 days out of 7 day visits).
One child is nearing hospice, so visit is difficult yet important for all.

All come for two holidays per year. None go to any public pools because we have our own. All frequent restaurants, so great for economy.
2 kids and 1 grand + fianc, are avid golfers each belonging to private clubs. Each value playing time with their dad and grandpa.


So in your opinion who would you choose for only 10 passes. Some would say dump the 49yo stage 4 brain tumor, visits can be sad.

biker1 09-12-2025 09:57 AM

They need to be accompanied if they are under 19, otherwise no.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gobuck827 (Post 2460520)
My understanding of the guest pass system is that the passes that are now available for no charge are to be used by “guests” of a home owner. They cannot be used by the “guest” unless they are accompanied by the resident.

The guest ID’s that are issued for renters already cost $50 dollars and require the residents of the rental unit to surrender their villages ID’s prior to being available to the renters.

So the renters that obtain a guest ID are not creating any additional burden on the amenities since they are just using them while the owners cannot.


OrangeBlossomBaby 09-12-2025 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aces4 (Post 2460495)
All this feels to me like a big reason not to buy in The Villages. Pay all that money for amenity fees and one can't even enjoy time here with family and friends without a big surcharge. Ah, the joy of living with miserly old people day after day. What's not to love?😬

$10/week and $25/month for temporary unlimited use of amenity passes (except regional and sports pools) seems reasonable to me. It's not a "big" surcharge. All the swimming, basketball, archery, bocci, billiards/pool, video games, and opportunity to get in on many rec center classes, for just $10/week? How is that a "big" surcharge?

OrangeBlossomBaby 09-12-2025 10:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bruceg15 (Post 2460522)
All,

I fortunately have my Children and Grandchildren visit often. One of the amenities was use of our recreation facilities, when we decided to move here. One of my Children has four kids. They usually visit us about every couple or few weeks. We are owners not Renters. That would kind of be kind of expensive. FYI that does not include my other family and Grandkids. What about our friends that come from all over the US? They all enjoy our amenities.

Our visitors are attracted to all our amenities, and we all have fun. And maybe some of them buy a home here because of the visit and the great amenities that we enjoy.

On the other hand, there are Homeowners that run Air B &Bs. They make money from the property. Those should take the brunt of the Guest pass fees, not the residents, their families and the guests.

The smack down should be to charge the outsiders that use our amenities. Charge them or remove them from our community amenities.

DO NOT CHARGE THE RESIDENTS AND THEIR FAMILIES AND FRIENDS.

And many landlords don't inform The Villages that the people staying in their homes for a long weekend or a couple of weeks are tenants, not guests. They get the same guest passes you get, in the same way you get them. There is no way to know that the person staying there is paying for the privilege, or visiting as a guest.

OrangeBlossomBaby 09-12-2025 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by asianthree (Post 2460525)
Renters sure charge just like the $50 residents pass.

However, for us what children, or grandchildren do we forbid coming to see us at holidays, with 10 passes no exceptions.

3 kids, 3 spouses, 6 grands + 2 fiancé’s. It’s hard enough for some to get family to visit. Your idea to limit, would only cause hardship. Choose who is special and who is unloved.

3 kids come 3 times a year, twice with spouse’s, 6 grands once a year for parks, along with fiancé’s.(gone 4 days out of 7 day visits).
One child is nearing hospice, so visit is difficult yet important for all.

All come for two holidays per year. None go to any public pools because we have our own. All frequent restaurants, so great for economy.
2 kids and 1 grand + fianc, are avid golfers each belonging to private clubs. Each value playing time with their dad and grandpa.


So in your opinion who would you choose for only 10 passes. Some would say dump the 49yo stage 4 brain tumor, visits can be sad.

A solution to that would be to limit FREE passes to an arbitrary number of adults, and children under 19 who are accompanied by those adults, would always be free. So if you did the 10 passes per year...

Then up to 10 ADULTS would get passes for free. AND all kids under 19 would get passes for free. If an 11th adult wanted a pass, and brought 3 kids with them, then the adult would pay for an adult pass. And the kids would still get free passes.

golfing eagles 09-12-2025 10:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby (Post 2460533)
And many landlords don't inform The Villages that the people staying in their homes for a long weekend or a couple of weeks are tenants, not guests. They get the same guest passes you get, in the same way you get them. There is no way to know that the person staying there is paying for the privilege, or visiting as a guest.

True, but the neighbors will know. Since anyone can anonymously report an 8-inch garden gnome, why not accept anonymous reports of someone running a STR business?

OrangeBlossomBaby 09-12-2025 10:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by golfing eagles (Post 2460538)
True, but the neighbors will know. Since anyone can anonymously report an 8-inch garden gnome, why not accept anonymous reports of someone running a STR business?

That would require the Developer and all the CDDs to agree to enforce the internal deed restrictions consistently.

I mean, I'm 100% in favor of the idea. But there's no hope, no prayer, no wish that'll make it happen. So I'd rather try for things that can actually be enforced.


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