Power is out on our block

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I know someone who stayed in a hotel in London several years ago. There was a small fire and the place was evacuated. The guests had to spend several hours standing in the street. And there were NO refunds and NO discounts!

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My husband is French and is definitely hung over today! Go Portugal

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@cassid as a retired ā€˜road warriorā€™ I can attest to many things worse than 45min power outage that have happened while staying in hotels.

@jaquo these things happen all the time, we have been in many hotels where the water wasnā€™t working 8-8 and other oddities, but of course no discount. I think my best story was being in a Hurricane in Cabo and the hotel trying to charge all the guests for the days we were stranded at the hotel. We ended up not being charged but just the idea they would charge us made me never go back to that property.

@Maggieroni None of our teams made it, but as Iā€™m sure you know from your Hubs, the Euros are a big deal and we have been religiously watching the entire tourney. So, there was probably more drinking than if any of our teams actually stayed in, bc we were half watching and more drinking.

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Have you ever been on a weekend cruise? To the Caribbean? In warm July? We did once and there was no AC on the ship and 95% of the toilets werenā€™t working! It was honestly a nightmare. I pestered the cruise line like a madwoman for months - no refund, no partial refund. All they wanted to give us was a $25 voucher to spend as part payment on another cruise - as if Iā€™d ever go with them again!

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I dislike people to much to be stuck on a huge boat like that!! But thatā€™s the same concept, no hotel would give a care in the world if the power went off for 1 hour, and the guests would just tough it out. Its unfair that we should have to make accommodations for guests, bc they think they are entitled, or basically a pay off to not get a crap review.

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When the power goes out here, so does the water, as we are on a water pump system here. Iā€™ve had guests in residence during power outages (rolling blackouts used to be part of living here) and no one has complained.

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Hah! Thatā€™s Van Halenā€™s famous ā€œno brown M&Msā€ clause. It made them look like pompous divas, but actually it was a test to see if the person they were dealing with had read the contract.

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I do too. It was the first and definitely last time. (I was persuaded by a family member, much against my will). I feel the same way about planes - being stuck in a small space for hours with no fresh air and people with goodness knows what diseases and ailments. Yuck.

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They still happen in BCN especially during the summer months when we are packed to the gills with tourist and everyone is blasting AC. The electrical grid gets overwhelmed and to prevent a repeat of our 2007 black out, we sometime get a 1 -2 hr brown out. Who knows if that was the case today, but that if 1000% the story I told these people :nerd:

We have done small ship cruises, less than 20 cabins, and I"m fine with those, but now way am I going on a Disneyland like boat that I canā€™t get off of. I donā€™t mind planes, probably because we spend so much time on them, I have just gotten use to them.

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Disney - on land or afloat - is my idea of hell! The same family member who persuaded me to go on the cruise also persuaded me to go to Disney in Orlando once. I hated it. The two occasions were pretty close together and I havenā€™t done anything he suggested since :slight_smile:

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Thatā€™s a good result. The nightmare scenario would be they came back. If you played hardball and kept your money, the two more likely outcomes were both wins:

1 - they get so pissed off they refuse to ever use AirBnB again. That would be better for other potential hosts.

2- they get so pissed off they start reading the listings and rules. That also would be better for other potential hosts.

If they came back looking for a refund, then youā€™d have a problem, possibly requiring police intervention. Good luck there.

We have a PIN lock so that each guest has their own code, which I cancel when the booking is done. Incidentally, I give personal codes to people like our current cleaning lady, a trusted neighbour, handymen, etc. That way you can lock somebody out without having to run around giving out new keys to everybody else. Also, we can never forget our keys and lock ourselves out, which my wife used to do regularly.

cheers

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I made sure all the keys were accounted for once they declared they had left. The building (my profile photo) that we are in has a locked front door and so does our flat, so I wouldnā€™t be too concerned about them trying to get back in. Iā€™m considering bringing over a PIN loc from the US as the options in Spain are just not that great. We are using PIN locks here in the US and they are great.

I think she finally realized she was in the wrong, and that 1hr without electricity is not a deal breaker and ABB would not have sided with her. Oddly she had two good reviews.

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Some of us know how to ā€˜rough itā€™, even if itā€™s as luxurious as a good roof over our head and comfortable bedding such as you offer!

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Forgot to mention, having a power outage here worked out really well for us last year. We had a mother & teenage son from the UK here for a few days. They seemed nice enough, but the mother was more stand-offish than we were used to.

There was a long power outage (a few hours) and we all ended up chatting on the porch. It was a really great way of really breaking the ice. I remembered I had some home-made Mango ice cream on the go (I was busy perfecting the recipe). That went down really well when I handed it around!

The rest of their stay was great for all of us.

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Oh manā€¦mango ice cream! Iā€™m salivating and my cheeks hurt.

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I love a good mangoā€¦turn it into ice cream and I would be in heaven!

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This recipe looks like it might be from a couple of months before those guests were here. I have a feeling I upped the egg count by the time they got here (I was scribbling on the print-out instead of updating it). I was also working on a peach version of the same recipe, so things are a little mixed up.

I used this churn:

Cuisinart ICE-100C Gelato and Ice Cream Maker (Silver/Black)

It was about $250 CDN when I bought it in 2014. It looks like itā€™s $500 now (from Amazon). These things are all cheaper in the U.S.

French Double Mango - basic w/ higher cream, lower sugar, no vanilla bean

  1. HEAT:
  • 5/4 cup whole milk
  • 4/4 cup Harmony Organic 35% cream
  • 1/4 cup sugar (1/2 total)
  • pinch kosher salt
  1. WHISK & BLEND:
  • 4 large egg yolks
  • 1/4 cup sugar (1/2 total)

8-10. FINAL FLAVOURING:

  • 2 ripe yellow mangoes
  • 1 lemon (juice only - be careful about seeds)
  • 3 tsp pure vanilla extract (doubled to compensate for lack of vanilla bean)
  1. blend mangoes & lemon juice
  2. prepare yolk & half-sugar mix in large bowl
  3. stir & heat milk, cream, half the sugar, salt
  4. separately whisk yolks & the sugar-half
  5. cut some heat mix into yolk mix (about a cup)
  6. mix back in & heat slightly, 8-10 minutes or until glorping uncontrollable
  7. kill heat & let cool a while
  8. add raw fruit blend
  9. if there are any seeds, etc., strain through fine mesh
  10. add vanilla
  11. after overnight cool, churn for about 50 minutes
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Itā€™s mango season here!!! They are dropping in droves from all the trees everywhere!

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Drool! "ā€¦

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I didnā€™t know mangoes grew in Hawaii. But if the climate is quite similar to India, it figuresā€¦ Well, live and learn.

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