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c) I’ve no idea of a reliable place (if any) in India to buy second hand stuff.
d) I see Kijiji (which I’ve never heard of) is an ad site, but I doubt it’s operational here.
e) I’ve already purchased a new machine.
In any case, I think buying second hand stuff is generally dicey. It might make sense for larger items which depreciate quickly from their new value, e.g. cars. But for smaller things it’s just too much hassle.
Having said that, if anyone has success buying a second hand washing machine, I’d be interested in the story.
I bought a second hand washing machine… that’s why I gave the suggestion
If a new machine is not that expensive, why charge guests to use it? Can’t you limit the number of loads they can use in your house rules in your listing?
Oh. How’s it working out for you? And what machine did you buy?
Good question. Perhaps it’s because I’m a greedy git?
And really, limiting the loads isn’t a solution. People need to wash what they need to wash. Charging something seems like a sane enough solution.
As has been mentioned elsewhere, I don’t charge that much, since the market won’t bear it. So I don’t particularly want to increase my overheads. Electricity is very expensive here, and our water supply is limited - we have tanks.
In north america, a set of dryer and washer will cost you easily $1500-$2000. I paid $400 for a pair of Whirlpool and has been used for 8-10 years. It was a dedicated machine for guests so I didn’t care as long as it works and looks nice. Very likely it will break down in 1-2 years but the machine is running about 3-5 times a week by guests or myself for turning over the room.
Don’t charge guests for using the machine, but build it into your price. Otherwise it maybe reflected in your reviews and deter future bookings from potential guests. (I wouldn’t want to book at a place for a long stay where I have to pay for laundry if I can find a place in a similar neighbourhood that includes laundry, just b/c of the convenience factor)
Thanks for the suggestion, I don’t think I want to do that, because relatively few people seem to want to use the washing machine - I mostly get very short stay guests. Though I suppose it’s possible that might change if I list a washing machine as available. And I can’t change the rate here with impunity - it’s a tight market, and lots of people advertise at crazy low prices - I don’t really get it.
In fact, electricity is inexpensive in India relative to other countries.
However, our washing machine and dryer don’t use much electricity. We heat water with natural gas and the dryer is heated with natural gas. Where I live, natural gas is much cheaper than electricity.
I think we are going to go into a debate here: the electricity price on the wiki page is compared across countries but did not factor in standard of living. I would presume India’s standard of living is quite low compared to Denmark or Germany so the cost per kwh should not be the only factor to look at when comparing across the countries.
As @faheem is known for being literal, I responded literally. In previous posts, he has mentioned affordability. Faheem has a degree in statistics, owns a house and has a second income stream. I think he probably earns enough to afford electricity that is less expensive than in most other countries.
Also, it appears that solar power is very inexpensive in India.
Yes, when I said expensive, I meant relative to what people earn, and the cost of living. As summarised, for example, by the per capita income one can find on places like Wikipedia. I wasn’t meaning a literal translation of Indian electricity rates to, say, US electricity rates.
Also, maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see Indian electricity rates included on that Wikipedia chart.
Having said that, some time ago I had a chat online with an American in VA (we chat regularly but have never met), and from the numbers he quoted, it seems that Indian electricity rates are actually comparable to Indian rates. I don’t suppose US electricity rates are uniform, so an exact comparison is futile. But costs that are comparable to US rates are enormous in India. The pay scales here are nothing like they are in the US.
Yes, that word has been used about me before. Sometimes prefaced by “maddeningly”. As in “maddeningly literal”. In this case, I was using the term “expensive” loosely, as explained above. Sorry about that.
It’s not really about affordability. This discussion was in the context of an Airbnb rental, and charging for the washing machine, remember? It’s about running a business, costs and profits, yada, yada.
Actually, I think it is about affordability. I don’t charge guests to use my washing machine and dryer in part because it costs me next to nothing. If it was denting my profit, I would probably charge.
Blimey! Next to nothing? Ohhh, in my dreams… We are being totally ripped off in the UK for utilities; it just gets worse and worse. They are coming up with different scams all the time, even the new, smaller companies join in eventually. You’re told to shop around every year for the best deal but many people don’t have time to do this. And many older people don’t have access to the internet to do so, let alone know about this new invention of a market place.
I could rant on having been stung twice. But I won’t bore people.
Yeah, it’s very different for us which is why I understand why hosts in different areas have different washing machine/dryer policies for their guests.
We don’t have a choice of utility companies. However, the price they charge is regulated by the government. Also, as I’ve mentioned I use natural gas much more than electricity. Where I live natural gas is pretty inexpensive.
Yikes! I’ll do my best, but a lot of this passed me by, and my normally astute husband, until we were brought up short by a huge bill for gas and electricity after moving house in 2014, and again in 2016.
Our dear Mrs Thatcher started privatising our then nationalised monopolies, starting with British Gas in the '80s. I was working in Bahrain at the time, and recall more knowledgeable (and wealthy…) friends buying shares. This set a pattern for what was to follow in the next few decades. National assets were sold off cheaply, by Governments of all persuasions, with the moniker attached that this enabled Joe Bloggs to become an asset owning member of what turned out to be an elite kleptocracy. One ex Prime Minister of this benighted land, Sir Harold MacMillan, famously declared that the family silver was being sold off. Fast forward a bit, and we ended up with what are known as the Big Six; so in essence, a cartel instead of a monopoly. You can choose your “provider” for both gas and electricity but there is little to choose between them; a fag paper comes to mind. Then you can choose a set tariff, but they forgot to tell Joe Public much about these tariffs, even that they existed in the first place, until the howls of outrage erupted at the bills people were faced with. We now have a few smaller providers in this so-called market, who start off with high minded ideals, with reasonable tariffs for the first year but soon join the cartel. Remember Google’s “Do no harm”? In the meantime, each time energy costs go up on the wholesale front, this is passed on to the customer, but not when they fall. The same has happened with water supply. We were astonished when we moved in 2016 to find that we have TWO suppliers to pay; one to take away waste water, one to supply clean water. Both have well developed expertise in passing the buck to the other when the are billing queries.
Just one more rant and I’ll stop. People think we have the NHS, although they do know that what they think it is, is in dire trouble. What they don’t know is that we really don’t have a National Health Service anymore, as they understand it. The Health and Social Care Act 2014 contained an overlooked clause stating that all services to be commissioned over £50K were to go out to tender. Anyone who is awarded a contract can use the NHS logo, so we don’t actually know who the provider actually is. Think G4S or Sodexo, and the many scandals in health and social care that have since been uncovered, usually by the documentary teams of Panorama, let alone in the rest of our so called Welfare State.
Enough. I now need to go into the garden and weed vigorously to fend off my despair!
Sorry, I didn’t mean to reopen wounds. This all sounds very nasty.
Hmm. Having a little trouble parsing that sentence.
Sarcasm, I hope. I was very young when that woman started running things. But she truly gave meaning to the phrase “hate at first sight”. I also think I was briefly in the UK while she was in charge. There was some commotion about a Poll Tax, as I recall, though I was too young and clueless to understand the issues at the time. I paid it - I think it was like 80 pounds.
Sounds like the opposition (assuming there is some) fell down on the job.
