Twenty-one or over: the age gate explained for hotel guests

Every good hotel bar has someone who glances at the door. This site has a screen instead. Before the first page opens, a visitor is asked to confirm that he is twenty-one or over, and pressing the button is his own declaration that he is. The text of that screen, and what it means, is set out on the age verification page.

Why the line is drawn at twenty-one

Plenty of sites in this category settle for a lower number. The house uses twenty-one for guests and roster alike, because a higher threshold leaves less room for doubt near the edge, where someone's own account of his age can be a year or two generous. It also fits the people who actually book from hotel rooms here: business travellers, conference delegates, couples on a long weekend and residents with an evening free.

The rule reaches everyone in the room, not only whoever writes the first message. Sending a booking message is the guest's statement that he, and anyone else present during the session, is twenty-one or over.

At the door of the room

A therapist may ask to see photo identification when she arrives. She glances at it and gives it back at once, without copying, scanning or photographing it, and nothing from it is noted anywhere. Should she be unable to satisfy herself that everyone present is twenty-one or over, she leaves before anything begins. That call is hers to make, and nobody argues it with her.

A courtesy as well as a rule

The screen also does something quieter. A person who reached the site from a search result on a shared computer, or who handed a phone to a colleague for a moment, can close the tab before anything else appears. Hotel business centres and lobby terminals are exactly the kind of shared screen it has in mind.

How the site handles the little it stores about visitors is on the privacy page, and broader questions are answered in the FAQ.