Jun. 7, 2003 - High-schoolers flocking to the beach for their annual post-classes, year-end party are finding that not every hotel has put out the welcome mat. 

As the first crowds of students filtered in last week, some properties tried to limit liabilities by enforcing policies that allow only couples or families to rent rooms. 

Reservationists quiz callers to see if they meet the 25-year-old age requirement or are married. If they aren't, the students are either turned away or forced to pay refundable cash deposits of as much as $400 to cover any damages. 

"I've got no interest in being the frat house," said Bob Skotnicki, owner of the Emerald Shores hotel. "We just don't fool with it." The practice isn't new or limited to Emerald Shores. 

Hotels up and down Myrtle Beach's main drag have the "couples and families" preference posted on their signs to remind passersby of the rules. They don't want partying students disrupting the vacations of their family guests, they say. 

And it's legal. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects against discrimination on the basis of color, race, religion or national origin -- not age. 

"Nothing that we have would address that issue," said Jorge Martinez, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice. 

Properties in other destinations known to attract students use the same tactics. 

"I don't really see it as a legal problem," said Dave Sherwyn, law professor at Cornell University's Hotel School. "They are making a business decision." 

Some members of the Class of 2003 had to call several hotels to find one that would rent to them or had to recruit their parents to sign forms accepting responsibility. 

"We had to get our parents to sign all kinds of permission slips and stuff," said Clay Riley, a Saluda graduate staying at the Polynesian hotel. "[My mom] didn't think it was right that she had to sign all that stuff." 

Others aren't too bummed about it, able to pull a few tricks to sneak in a room anyway -- whether telling check-in clerks that the parents are waiting in the car or getting older friends to make the reservations. 

"There are ways to get around everything," said Adam Brooks, 20, of Piedmont who has celebrated "Senior Week" in Myrtle Beach for four years. 

The Surf & Dunes hotel is one of the hotels embracing the student business. But by mid-week last week, the hotel had posted a gentle reminder on its marquee: "Welcome students. Your mom called to tell you to behave." 

Each Surf & Dunes guest must put up a $100 cash deposit at check-in -- just in case. And management hires an off-duty officer for security. 

"It's going well," operations director Terral Koster said. "They're fun, and they've really held their own." 

Groups of students are finding they aren't welcome at the Palm Crest Motel, which hasn't accepted young, single guests in its 40-year-history. 

The noise the students generate and the clean-up required when they leave aren't worth it, said general manager Tara Benton. 

"I don't promote the party atmosphere," she said. "I don't mind if they come down and have a good time, but don't do it at somebody else's expense." 

A wave of laws in states across the country, including South Carolina, took effect in the early 1990s intending to protect hotels from discrimination suits. 

S.C.'s Lodging Establishment Act, known as the "prom night" or "first week" bill, gives hotels the right to refuse rental or evict guests for varying reasons typically related to youth, from packing more people than allowed in rooms to underage drinking. 

"The whole bill is designed around young people that abuse hotel rooms," said Tom Sponseller, executive director of the Hospitality Association of South Carolina. "The hotel industry had to come up with something to protect the other hotel guests." 

Colorado, which has ski weeks similar to Myrtle Beach's Senior Week, approved similar legislation in the early 1990s. 

In Nags Head, N.C., the First Colony Inn has policies that discourage taking student guests, including requiring two-night deposits and charging $35 per night per extra person over two in the room. 

Along the Grand Strand, recently named the nation's Best Family Beach by The Travel Channel, students can clash with family vacationers. 

But booming music didn't bother recent vacationer Lonnie Davis of Shelby, N.C. 

"I can tune it out," she said while lounging by a pool with an Eminem song blaring from a boombox in the background. 

Myrtle Beach Police beef up patrols to cover the surge in calls during early June as students flock to the beach, from noise complaints to disorderly conduct. 

"Everything associated with young men and women out on their own for the first time," said Lt. Chuck Dunn of the Myrtle Beach Police Department. 

No one knows how many high schoolers come to the beach this time of year or how much they spend while they're here. 

But tourism promoters say it's enough to make a difference, and don't mind the younger crowd, which typically rotate in through mid-June. 

"It's a nice boost," said Craig Lloyd, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce in North Myrtle Beach, where partying spring breakers were given the boot a decade ago. 

"Their money is just as green as everybody else's." 

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(c) 2003, The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, S.C. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.