Where is Steve's blog?....or how I spent my summer vacation.
It is a warm sunny summer day the sky is blue , kids are enjoying the beach, somewhere grown men are playing golf thinking it is a sport and I could be riding my bike dogging drivers texting or playing Pokeman Go as they drive instead I'm in our downstairs apartment. In the bathroom. On the floor. I'm getting dizzy from inhaling some ammonia laced cleaning product.
We decided to try and rent our downstairs apartment using Airbnb, a room sharing, online service that lets you rent a space in your home to people from all over the world.
We went about decorating and furnishing the apartment with a New England beach cottage theme.
After several local antique stores and a few Facebook yard sale buys we had our "cottage".
Once I figured out the nuances of Airbnb experience we were ready to go. Now I'm running a hotel with one bedroom.
Our first booking came from a friend who owns a local restaurant. Her friends stayed a weekend in April. It worked. They loved our cozy, cottage filled with antiques and furnishing from local yard sales. Once we got down the routine of cleaning between visitors it became easy. We started enjoying
meeting people from all over the world. The young girls from New York who used our bikes, our backyard fireplace and who, after watching them drift off into Wickford cove with our kayaks I had feeling that only a dad has when he thinks that his children may be in over their head. When they asked if the kayaks had pedals I knew that they were novices. I watched from the shore under the cover of nearby trees as they struggled to go forward by paddling frantically while going nowhere. I didn't want them to see me hovering over them like a mother hen so I left secure in the knowledge that they would never make to the open ocean and would continue to paddle in circles in what I knew was a foot of water. I was was back in 20 minutes when I had not heard from them...( once a dad always a dad). There they were on the shore wet but smiling.
Not all of our guests need this type of coddling. Some we never hear from the time we give the grand tour and hand over the key to the day they leave. Other families with young children become best friends in the short time that they stay with us. Most are always just a text away, asking about restaurants, local attractions or in one case for a ride home when they got stuck out late on a local island after having missed all the buses home.
It is been a busy summer vacation!
We decided to try and rent our downstairs apartment using Airbnb, a room sharing, online service that lets you rent a space in your home to people from all over the world.
We went about decorating and furnishing the apartment with a New England beach cottage theme.
After several local antique stores and a few Facebook yard sale buys we had our "cottage".
Once I figured out the nuances of Airbnb experience we were ready to go. Now I'm running a hotel with one bedroom.
Our first booking came from a friend who owns a local restaurant. Her friends stayed a weekend in April. It worked. They loved our cozy, cottage filled with antiques and furnishing from local yard sales. Once we got down the routine of cleaning between visitors it became easy. We started enjoying
meeting people from all over the world. The young girls from New York who used our bikes, our backyard fireplace and who, after watching them drift off into Wickford cove with our kayaks I had feeling that only a dad has when he thinks that his children may be in over their head. When they asked if the kayaks had pedals I knew that they were novices. I watched from the shore under the cover of nearby trees as they struggled to go forward by paddling frantically while going nowhere. I didn't want them to see me hovering over them like a mother hen so I left secure in the knowledge that they would never make to the open ocean and would continue to paddle in circles in what I knew was a foot of water. I was was back in 20 minutes when I had not heard from them...( once a dad always a dad). There they were on the shore wet but smiling.
Not all of our guests need this type of coddling. Some we never hear from the time we give the grand tour and hand over the key to the day they leave. Other families with young children become best friends in the short time that they stay with us. Most are always just a text away, asking about restaurants, local attractions or in one case for a ride home when they got stuck out late on a local island after having missed all the buses home.
It is been a busy summer vacation!