Tropical Storm Dorian

Any South Florida hosts getting cancellations or offering them? I have guests coming tomorrow for the long weekend. I messaged them yesterday offering early check-in and I told them we are watching the storm and not concerned at this point. They did not respond. Now it’s a hurricane so I am a little concerned even though it seems to be headed for central Florida, not here. Should I suggest they cancel?

No, leave it up to them if they’re bothered. I’ve had couple here during tropical storms who have gone outside and danced in the storm. If it gets to the stage when there’s a mandatory evacuation, I contact guests to let them know but otherwise, I leave the decision to the guests.

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This 100%.

Reminds me of dancing on the beach during a monsoon in the Andeman Islands, with wife, with four stray dogs who’d adopted us and a bottle of Havana Club 7.

5* reviews all round. Even me :wink:

JF

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I was glad to see this post. We are in Sebastian, FL and have two guests driving here on Friday from Georgia for the long weekend and a church event. I keep warning them that we are already out of gas and that if they call for a mandatory evacuation they need to leave. They do not seem concerned and I will admit I prepare for the worst & hope for the best but these are two young girls coming for a church function.

should I tell them the forecast

Has changed since yesterday when I was pretty confident it

Wouldn’t be bad? I guess they have probably seen the news by now.

thoughts and prayers…who needs gasoline?

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Humpndunk that would be a worry having to evacuate but you have warned them right?

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When a hurricane is threatening Florida, the news goes out all over the States. (And my late mum always knew about impending S Florida hurricanes before I did and she was in England!)

As I said, if there’s mandatory evacuation, then the guests have to get out or not come here at all but actually, some people quite enjoy it and have a hurricane party :slight_smile:

Be sure that you have stuff in place for if the power goes out (it always goes on our street) such as canned food and bottled water. Make sure that the guests know how to flush the loo if the water is off (which happens quite often too). Have books, magazines and games available for when the power is off and be sure to have battery operated lights available and not candles.

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Geez I don’t want to have to buy all that stuff and then have guests be here with no power, no AC, no internet, and have to figure out how to feed them. Yikes. Before the last hurricane my guests cancelled.

No hurricanes here but I definitely don’t want to host during any natural disaster. Wouldn’t you just have all that stuff for yourself as a matter of course and be able to share it?

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Our place is in the south part of St Lucia, and Dorian passed just a few miles south of us. AirBnB sent me an email about 24 hours ahead of time:

“Because of severe weather conditions [yadda yadda yadda] …
If you want to change or cancel any of your reservations, contact your guests or visit our Help Center for more information.”

Dorian ended up being just a few hours of heavy rain and almost no wind, despite predictions otherwise. So I’d wait until it gets closer or your guests contact you - or AirBnB informs you they’ve allowed your guests to cancel and get a full refund.

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September 2017? So did mine and we had to evacuate anyway. And the hurricane was a non-starter (here, anyway). We went into an Airbnb for the duration. :slight_smile:

Yep. But I also have extra stuff squirrelled away for guests during the hurricane season. We very rarely have a mandatory evacuation. 2017 was the only time. We were in the apartment during Wilma (2006 I think) but had no guests at that time. :slight_smile:

No I would not have enough for 3 people normally. I live 1/2 mile from supermarkets, I don’t keep canned stuff in the house normally.

I just realized I don’t really need to stock yucky stuff, Publix will be open the next day.

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When Wilma hit here, it was several days before Publix was open. And bear in mind that Wilma wasn’t a catastrophic hurricane. But with no power and often no water, supermarkets have a hard time. They also have staffing issues after a hurricane or major storm.

It’s not really a case of yucky stuff. Your guests see you as the local expert and look to you for advice about how to live in the aftermath of a hurricane. As I said before. some love it!

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Yes, I warned them. They say they are watching the weather and they have friend 5 minutes away if they need to evacuate, but that’s not really evacuating. They are not due to start driving until Friday afternoon so we should know a lot more by tomorrow.
GOOD LUCK

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Aww that is the right way to look at it, if we lose power and the airport is not open, they will have quite an experience here with me, they will have an anniversary to remember.

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Everybody please be safe where the storm hits<><. We hope its not as bad as they predict. Thinking of you, our friends.

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So… I have several listings in West Palm Beach. I proactively contacted the guests schedule for today (Thursday - Tuesday) alerting them to the storm and that I am keeping an eye out.

I invited them to cancel and would give them a full refund.

I also mentioned that I will be checking the house every 6 hours until wind speeds reach 60mph+ because NO ONE should be opening windows or doors during a storm.

In response to the “people danced during a tropical storm”… I care about the safetyy of people staying with us but I also care about the house and any opening o windows and door during a storm would violate insurance and could put the home at risk.

You live on the coast and don’t even have emergency provisions for yourself? Please reconsider this. You should always be prepared to shelter in place for a few days.

I grew up on the Gulf Coast and it made me very conscientious about preparedness. I always stock extra batteries, candles, bottled water, canned, dry, and frozen foods to last weeks or longer, ice, generator, gas, stabilizer… I would never be without these things.

Hurricane Alicia took our water out for a week, and our power for 3 weeks. We survived just fine. Ate a lot of bbq.

There were no stores we could have gotten to even if they had been open. Everything was flooded.

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