Most of Europe as well… I cant think of the last time I saw an automatic car in Spain
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I ordered my last car with a stick. An automatic makes me feel like an old lady. The stick was $4000 cheaper, gets better mileage and gives you better control. I will always drive a stick when possible. And yes when I got to Italy and rent d a car, only sticks were available. 
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Yes, thank goodness I know how to drive a stick shift. When I went to Ireland in a group of 6, I was the only one who could drive the rental van. I have to say, I was proud of myself. I hadn’t driven a stick for several years, but I drove a van, on the wrong side of the road, on the wrong side of the car, and having to shift with my left hand! I didn’t kill anyone, LOL!
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Thank God mine is a detached apartment above the garage or I think I’d die, lol.
I have never driven a manual - US, UK, Australia, wherever.
Yeah, thank God someone had given me a massage certificate a few weeks prior to his injury. I went and had a massage a few days after his injury. It was heaven.
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haha I know, right! in my previous job we had hire cars every week for work and there were a few colleagues who couldn’t drive manual and it a right pain for the hire car company.
First, my sympathies for your situation… and yes, you do sound positive… keep it up - I too know the struggle against depression.
Second, I’d like to know what other site that you are using? I’m in the SF Bay area, am a superhost and have been doing Abnb for 3 years. Everyone says how high rents are and how hard it is to get a place at a reasonable price, but I am VERY! reasonable, compared to the comps, and so far, March has been a dry month. The winter months (Oct-Jan) I’d have expected to slow, but my rooms were full through the winter. I’ve even been posting on CL in hopes of finding long term housemates. sigh What other site are you using, and are you renting a room or a “whole house?”
@katnhat I am renting a “whole house” Mother-in-Law style apartment, about 500sq.ft. so I can list on HomeAway/VRBO (which is where this booking is from), Innclusive (still in beta, so people can sign up and look around but not book yet), Home Escape (free listing, no fees!, but no bookings yet), and then I have my own basic website and do direct bookings for repeat guests.
The nice thing about HomeAway is you can list for free (though your first booking’s payment is delayed a MONTH). After that it pays out according to how you set up payments, but it takes about 5-7 days to receive it from them. You can enter cleaning fees, pet fees, security deposit, taxes, you can load contracts, and I think you can have people pay you directly if you pay an annual fee. While the payout process is a little cumbersome to me, I like the guests I’ve gotten better. They’re not bargain hunters, they’re used to doing traditional vacation home rental so from the 3 bookings I’ve had since I listed 2 months ago I’ve liked them better and I can bet good bookings asking more there because I’m not lost among 100s of different styles of listings. After this summer we’re switching to just during the summers for a few years since my cousin will be renting from us for the school year, and I plan to make HomeAway my primary listing site at that point.
This was such a shock to me when I booked my holiday there is 2015, I was completely stranded in Pensicol for 10 days with no public transport as ALL hire cars were manual. There is no way I can drive a manual car on the opposite side of the road I am used to, on windy roads in a foreign country = receipt for car accident. TBH I was surprised given Spain relies so heavily on tourism like we do in Australia where we always offer both.
Most people in Australia only get their licences in automatic. After 3 years you can tow a trailer and drive manual. You used to have to do your test all over again as my mum did when I was little to drive our manual 4wd.
Why would you take one night stays. There just isn’t enough money in it. I would take a minimum of 2. At the moment I am only taking one week stays and in the spring I will adjust to a minimum of 3 nights. I am okay with losing the onseys… I would sugget if you have kids you might want to rethink your strategy. I also reuire 24 hours notice of a stay. So no texting me at 6 p.m,. to show up at seven. My life and energy are worth more than a few bucks .
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Well, you meet people you wouldn’t have met otherwise, even if fleetingly. And I’ve met quite a few nice people doing one night stays, and got good reviews from them. You can always up your cleaning fee a bit, if you want to discourage one night stays.
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Thank God we have a free National Health Service here.
Interested though @Sarah_Warren what is the point of having health insurance if it leaves you in debt to the tune of $7000 before it pays out? Here if you have private insurance you give them the details and they deal with the insurance company directly. You don’t pay anything.
What happens to families on low income who can’t afford health insurance?
An interesting subject for those of us who don’t have to worry about these issues.
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Right now, those families are heavily subsidized.
Americans choose their insurance plan. Some families opt for a higher deductible [i.e. $7000] in order to spend less per month on their insurance, hoping that they don’t need medical care, while others pay more per month for a lower deductible. All of our insurance plans in this country have a deductible to discourage people from using medical care when they don’t really need it.
horrifying stuff really
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Generally, that is a choice. We are forever playing Russian Roulette. People who are sick, of course, choose smaller deductibles knowing that they will pay more in premiums while many young families choose less expensive plans. Crazy way to do health insurance. Sick people are now being told by some elected officials that it would “help the deficit if they simply died”… seriously!
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Ah I had read about Obama care so thought things had changed…clearly not.
Because that’s the real problem, isn’t it? It’s not that people need care they can’t get…right? It just needs to be “accessible,” not affordable. 'Merica!
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I think I will stop here. I find this all so infuriating!
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