Clubhouse reservations
One policy, applied the same way to every owner, until someone from outside the community walks in the door.
A clubhouse reservation policy should set the same booking rules, deposit terms, and consequences for every owner, in writing. One thing changes those rules entirely: opening the room to an outside group, a paid class, or the public converts a private common area into a place of public accommodation under the ADA, even though members-only bookings never would.
What the policy needs to spell out
A reservation policy earns its name by covering every booking the same way: who can reserve the room, how far in advance, what hours are available, what is included (tables, a kitchen, audiovisual equipment), and what happens if the reservation is cancelled or the room is left a mess. Write it down and hand it to every owner who books, not just the ones who ask.
Two pieces belong in other lessons, not here. The deposit itself, how much to charge, when to refund it, and what a state's contract or consumer-protection law might say about it, is covered in Deposits. Alcohol service at a booked event is covered in Alcohol at association events.
When "members only" stops applying
A clubhouse limited to owners, residents, and their guests generally sits outside the Americans with Disabilities Act's Title III accessibility rules, because Title III reaches common areas only once they function as a public accommodation. The trigger is not who owns the building, it is how open that particular use is.
"Title III of the ADA requires that places of public accommodation (e.g., hotels, resorts, swim clubs, and sites of events open to the public) remove physical barriers in existing pools."
Source: ADA Requirements: Accessible Pools, Means of Entry and Exit, U.S. Department of Justice
That quote is written about pools, but the category it defines, a "site of events open to the public," is the same category a clubhouse can fall into. Practitioner commentary describes the same shift for clubhouses: renting the room to an outside group, using it as a polling place, or advertising an event to anyone who wants to attend can convert that specific use, for that occasion, into a public accommodation, even though the clubhouse's normal members-only hours never would be. Whether a particular rental crosses that line depends on how it was advertised and who could attend; check with counsel before assuming either way.
Enforcing the policy without skipping a step
When a reservation goes wrong, a board typically reaches for one of two tools: keeping part of a deposit to cover the cost of damage, or fining the owner for violating the rule. Those are not the same thing. A fine is punitive, and in states with a common-interest-community statute, boards are often required to give the owner notice and a chance to be heard before a fine takes effect. Illinois's Common Interest Community Association Act is one example of that pattern: it lets a board regulate common-area use and fine violators, but only after notice and a hearing. Whether your state imposes the same requirement, and what the notice period looks like, depends on your own state statute.
The association's underlying duty toward anyone using a rented clubhouse does not disappear just because a resident booked it: an association generally owes ordinary care to keep the space reasonably safe, and liability for an injury usually turns on whether the board knew or should have known about a hazard and failed to fix it.
Check yourself
Answer before you read the explanation, recalling it is what makes it stick.
A resident wants to rent the clubhouse to a local yoga studio for a class advertised on social media, fifteen dollars a head, open to anyone who signs up. Does ADA Title III likely reach that rental?
The board fines an owner two hundred dollars for going over the guest cap in the reservation policy, with no notice and no chance to respond. In a state with a common-interest-community statute like Illinois's, what is the likely problem?
The clubhouse hosts a holiday party capped at owners and their invited guests, with no outside advertising. Is this event subject to ADA Title III's public accommodation rules?
Sources
- ADA Requirements: Accessible Pools, Means of Entry and Exit, U.S. Department of Justice
- Commentary on ADA Title III applicability to private residential clubhouses and pools, HOA Law Blog, Tarley Robinson, P.L.C.
- Commentary on the Illinois Common Interest Community Association Act, board rulemaking and fine procedure, Rathje Law, Illinois Condo and HOA Law Blog
- Commentary on premises-liability duty of care for HOA common areas, Aquatic Attorneys
Amenities
Next, work out what your deposit terms actually say before someone leaves the room a mess. See Deposits.
Whether renting the clubhouse to an outside group makes that occasion a public accommodation depends on how open the specific use really is, and any notice-and-hearing procedure required before fining a reservation violation varies by state and by your own governing documents.