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I’ve actually been quite lucky with this two weeks. One cancelation for Friday resulted in that day being open for a regular’s request. Their moving to today left last night open for my Airbnb friend from Marfa to bunk here after her flight was canceled late day yesterday.
My cancel for Monday/Tuesday opened those days for the repeat guest who texted late yesterday that she needed Sun to Thursday because a cousin unexpectedly died in his sleep this week.
Then after all that my xmas day booking wanted to move to xmas eve. I just told him it wasn’t available and I’m calling it a week. The only downside is not getting any reviews because these are all direct bookings. But maybe I’ll get some in January. Because of the kind of traffic I get with more people than ever driving for the holidays I can probably get some last minute bookings.
I feel for all of you who have to deal with another season of covid crap.
We haven’t had any cancellations, since we had the calendar blocked off anyway, so we haven’t dialed it up to Oloroso yet. We’re still down at the Amontillado level, hoping that the Spring will get us down to Manzanilla and the summer to Fino.
(this is obviously a response created by my husband, just for you : )
Oh no, it’s never down to Manzanilla! We’re off to Sanlucar en la mañana to eat fish, drink manzanilla and generally have a lazy Saturday, at a restaurant attached to my favourite Manzanilla bodega
In my opinion, one of the best mainstream Manzanillas on the market. Think I paid around €4 for a seventy.
My OH is off tonight with “the ladies who lunch”, so after I’ve finished my merluza in a tempura batter, alongside triple cooked chips, I’m off to sample some Fino en rama across the road.
Yeah, Manzanilla is bone dry, Fino slightly less so. It’s also said that you can smell the sea (Sanlucar is on the coast) from Manzanilla, but personally I leave phrases like that to folks with a better palate than mine!
I think that’s the case here. Regulations/advisories change daily. Case numbers are climbing as well, but we’re mostly vaccinated. 80% in my county. No one I’ve talked to is afraid of hospitalization/death. They are afraid of fines, and of quarantines.
I was swamped in bookings coming up, and all but this weekend’s have cancelled. As they cancel, I block the dates. That means I have a nice little holiday from guests coming up after this next solo-with-dog. If I find I can get along without the income, as I think I can, I’ll close completely after I’ve honoured my 2022 bookings. Or maybe I’ll be so re-energized by the break that I’ll jump back in with both feet.
We’ll see.
I do hope that those of you who want guests get them. Good ones. Clean, communicative, cheerful guests is my holiday wish for you.
I like the whole family of sherries and Manzanilla is really good, but I feel like I get the most bang for my buck from Mantequilla. I can put it on bread and then just drink any old thing with it.
I’m thinking you will be re-energized. All mine are now LTR with only one returning to STR for the summer.
I’m missing the guest interactions.
2 years ago I was sick of Airbnb, guests, maintenance etc. but the pendulum was swung to the other side. In retrospect I was too busy to enjoy it, so hosting felt like a burden.
When I flew to Canada back in July, there was a family behind me in the line-up in the Calgary airport to get our required PCR on arrival test. They had been on the same flight as me and I felt sorry for them- their 1 and a half year old had been intermittantly crying almost the entire flight, and they were obviously caring parents, trying everything to quiet her down, but she was overtired from all the travelling and wouldn’t be calmed. Their 4 year old was quiet and well-behaved.
We struck up a conversation in the line-up, and they told me they were quarantine non-compliant, risking the possible fine. They said they just couldn’t handle the scenario of being stuck in a hotel room for 3 days with the 2 kids after all that travel (they had flown from Costa Rica to Mexico to Canada that day) and were going straight home.
They weren’t Covid deniers- they were fully vaccinated and properly masked up, it was just the quarantine they couldn’t deal with.
Briefly (some months, I don’t remember how many) ALL travellers into Canada were required to quarantine in a hotel while awaiting their test results.
I had to travel overseas for work in Sept 2020, and that was a full two-week at-home quarantine on return. It was after that the government decided hotels were the way to go and it was something like three days. At the end of July they no longer put fully vaccinated test-negative Canadians in any kind of quarantine. The children (unvaxxed as they all were) had to quarantine, but with their non-quarantining parents, so that part was a bit of a joke. A nasty joke where you got threats daily by phone and email, even though told officially that all was good… @muddy 's lineup acquaintances likely did get a fine of around $2,000 CDN.
Who, the government? Hahahaha. Nope. At least not when I looked into it. Things did change constantly, but I remember snowbirds screaming about the cost at one point. They could afford months away in the States, but not three days in a hotel.
(There isn’t a lot of sympathy for snowbirds by other Canadians. Having to endure the winters hardens our hearts against those who leave. )
Paying the bill? No way. You had to show that you had booked a hotel room for 3 nights. They were specially-approved hotels, with special wings for us, and the price for quarantiners included meals (mine were virtually inedible) delivered to your room.
Travelers were free to leave before the 3 nights were over, as soon as you received a negative result from the PCR test given on arrival at the airport. Most received their results by the afternoon following arrival day. But there were no refunds for leaving the hotel before the 3 days you had paid for.
The entire quarantine was 14 days, so I finished out the period at my daughter’s place.
I also had to take a self-administered PCR test on day 8 of the period. They gave you that kit at the arrival airport and you did the test with assistance from a health professional online Zoom-type call.
So I had 3 PCR tests within 10 days- one 2 days before I left Mexico, one on arrival, one on day 8. That’s a lot of nasal swabs
Between visits home by me and my OH, and our daughters coming here, we’re around €800 to the bad simply with pre and post flight tests.
Come January, it’s another €250/300 or so for them coming here.
In the UK it’s £3,500 for ten days hotel quarantine.
If I were to be vocal in respect of the only folks making money here, I’d need not only a sleeping bag but a months worth of food to take with me to the naughty step
I had to pay the equivalent of about $170US for the PCR test I got in Mexico before flying to Canada. I could have gotten it for less than half that price had I had it done at the airport in Puerto Vallarta, but that would have entailed a two hour drive there and back, which I wasn’t into, so opted for a private lab that sent 2 heavily masked, face-shielded, hazmat-suited, gloved technicians to my home in the boonies who then came back the following day to deliver the results.
Then the 3 night hotel booking was almost $600 CAN.
The tests in Canada were free.
So yes, it was a considerably more expensive trip than normal, and more of a hassle, but I appreciate the seriousness with which Canada approaches this.
I’ve been following this advice but substituting fine Bourbon. Hic indeed.
Last year at this time I was booked solid from January through April. I shut down my shared home listing on March 13th according to the local laws. Lost lots of $$$ as the rest of the year was pickup up as well.
Snowbirds and Canadians were my biggest customer base. Canada shutting down international travel has hurt everyone in FL, so I know that’s one of the reasons my room is sitting empty. The US snowbirds seem to by flying - and I don’t get that as airlines are arbitrarily dropping flights and flights that are on are packed to the rafters. I’d prefer to drive!
Just had my 1 pre-Christmas reservation cancel as her other half made different arrangements? Who knows. She seemed nice and may book back again anyway.
I close between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day because I actually have family and friends showing up this year! Woot.
Airline cancellations are ridiculous right now.
Thanks. Not sure what’s going to happen. Am seriously considering shutting down the AirBnB portion and looking on Furnished Finder for a roommate/LTR situation. Or posting on Zillow for a roommate.
Bourbon. And champagne. Hic! Love your husband’s response!
I do that a lot! Not a lot booked, frankly. Many listings like mine (shared home) are moving to the traveling nurse side of the business.
I can put it on bread and then just drink any old thing with it.
)
