Does anyone rent rooms out for Theatre Digs?

[rentaroommuggins]

We live near a popular regional theatre and have been renting out a nice room and bathroom in our home to travelling theatre workers for the past several years. We keep the price down so low paid theatre workers can afford it on their per diem. We could get a lot more on other platforms IE Airbnb etc.

The problem is that some theatre workers appear to be quite flakey. We've just had another guest due here at the weekend contact us to say they're arriving next week instead. Sometimes guests cancel at the last minute with an flimsy excuse and because Theatre Digs payment terms are payment on arrival we are missing out on the full fee for the period they originally booked. There's no proper cancellation policy, they only forfeit about 10% of the fee.

A lot of the time guests don't review, we always review guests as reviews are important to both host and guest.

We're getting a bit sick of the cancellations and thinking of packing it in which would be a shame because travelling theatre workers need nice comfortable safe places to stay that are also within budget.

I don't know what I'm asking really, just having a rant.

AIBU to cancel Theatre Digs and the flakey theatre people?

If you depend on it for income then cancel; if you like to help actors out then it’s ok to cut them some slack

I’ve just started doing this - but directly through the theatre rather than via theatre digs website. See if your theatre has a list they publish direct to touring performers - if they’ve booked directly with you over the phone they may be less flakey

Good idea, thanks

I used theatre digs in the past but it was through each theatres own dig list. I wasn't flakey but my god some of the doolally old land ladies were! They were often quite low grade accomodation. But I tolerated it so I could picket more of my "touring Allowance"

Just wanted to say that we use Theatre Digs quite often for visiting performers and we’re very grateful for the digs that are good so we don’t mess our hosts around! It’s increasingly difficult to find affordable accommodation for theatre workers so we very much appreciate good digs. I’m sorry you’re finding some a bit flakey - maybe they need to revise the system slightly so that there’s a larger deposit taken, as I think currently it’s only 10% or something.

Coming at it from the other side, I work in theatre (not an actor) and I tour, and use TDB a lot.

Thank you for offering your room, and keeping the price reasonable.

You've had done bad luck with guests, I think - tour dates are fixed months in advance, so it's a pretty big mistake for someone to book for the wrong dates.

I'd ask you to stick with it, if you can bear to, please?

Regarding digs lists, comparatively few theatres actually keep one now, it's a lot of work to keep them up to date, and many just don't bother. Also, if you're thinking of only having a phone number on the digs list for people to contract, personally it would put me right off. We work strange, often unsocial hours, and I often book digs late at night, so would be unlikely to phone you.

Regarding people not reviewing you, some people are just a bit lazy. I always try to review, but it can take me a while to get round to it. However, (and I'm not in any way saying this applies to you), I sometimes don't review if the room was terrible, which I know is unhelpful, but I've seen hosts give very hostile all-out denials in reply, and also give tit-for-tat bad reviews of guests.

My daughter relies on Theatre Digs when she is on tour so it would be a shame to lose a host. I don’t think she has ever cancelled or been flaky and she def can’t afford Air BnB rates. Awful that people have let you down but lots of young theatre workers really need TD.

Thanks for all your comments.

We do want to help theatre workers and so we keep our price low on the TD website.

Bookings usually are made months in advance but changes come at the very last minute, IE they're not needed at the theatre until a later date is the most usual excuse, sometimes a complete cancellation is because they've found something cheaper or free.

Strangely, though our local theatre always has panto we've never taken a TD booking for December or Jan.

Oh well, we generally enjoy doing it and the guests are usually friendly, though we've found a lot of backstage guests will avoid entering into any conversation or even passing the time of day. We do make a point of leaving them to come and go without interruption.

BTW the guest bedroom and bathroom are 'very naice', we get excellent reviews - when guests bother to leave one. We're very aware that the standard of TD accommodation is not generally great.

If the theatre digs guests are so flakey then I’d wonder if they really need the accommodation tbh.

There are some industries which attract more privileged people because they have bank of mum and dad funding them.

If that’s the case with theatre, I’d offer my digs out full price on AirBnB and make a donation to a charity for disadvantaged theatre students.

I’m tempted tI’o do this. Looking at the site it seems people are charging 35 a night which seems low. I would offer a newly decorated double room with own bathroom. Can I charge a bit more?

Could the lack of panto bookings be because more of the performers/backstage will be more local?

We charge £50 for double bedroom, private bathroom and they also get private use of another small room with kettle, microwave and fridge for guests to store and prepare simple food and drinks.

TD takes 10% of the total fee and hosts have to provide guests with bank details for payment of the balance on arrival.

I believe the per diem covers the room cost.

Thank you for being so helpful

A friend's sister does this but it is done through the theatre directly. Admittedly the theatre holds quitw big productions and often productions are on for two weeks normally so it is quite a stable income as the cast remain the same. She does it because she loves the theatre and enjoys meeting different people.

FYI, touring allowance on commercial tours (the better paid ones) is £350 per week, which is supposed to cover accomodation, food, travel to/from the theatre during the week (travel from town to town is paid separately), and any other living expenses you may have during the week. So if you're charging £50 per night, that is actually not very cheap for theatre digs, which may explain why you are getting cancelled bookings, if people find somewhere cheaper after they've booked with you.
I do sometimes book somewhere around that price, but will balance it out with somewhere cheaper another week - eg this week I'm paying £160 for the week, and next week will be paying £320.

On cheaper tours ('subsidised' is the term used by Equity), touring allowance is £300, and living away allowance, which is if you aren't touring but are doing rehearsals and a short run of a show at a theatre not in your home town, weekly living allowance is £270.

Can I ask if wages are on top of that? It doesn’t sound great!

Yes, but they're not very much. It isn't great, I agree!

That's surprising - theatre shows are scheduled a long way in advance, customers are in their seats at a fixed date and time, and not being there and ready isn't an option...

I know an actor who often tours and says the theatredigs landladies are uniformly eccentric (not usually in a bad way).

Do you want everyone to review, really? I just stayed in a booking.com place that wasn't great and I just left a note about the mould (in a spot they might plausibly not have noticed) and non-functioning shower. (Well, I suppose they never use it; I'll presume they didn't know). I'd have felt guilty posting a review for all to see...

I'd like guests to leave a basic review so potential TD guests have a reasonable idea of how it fares against other places, because I know there are a lot of substandard rooms out there ..... ie good location, easy access to the theatre, comfortable clean room, pleasant hosts, good facilities.

Apart from one or two grim guests I have always left a complimentary review recommending guests to other hosts. Every little helps as they say.

What about if they have negative things to say, though?

@Itsasecretnowoh no it isn’t. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist!)

Well of course, some do and will leave negative comments IE street noise, which we can't do much about ..... But honestly for us, we get very few negative comments. We've been hosting for years and have fine tuned what we offer guests so we're getting it mostly right.

There's always someone who doesn't believe in ever giving full credit but our Airbnb reviews are usually 5*, - except from the person whose phone wasn't charged so they couldn't find our address and marked us down because their check in experience wasn't perfect (I'm not kidding sadly).

We'll take a bad review on the chin and if something within our control needs fixing then we see to it.