The Nice People No. 17

Pyxis

PasturesNew said:

Many years ago my older sibling visited the town where I was living, she stayed two nights in a cheap hotel.  The hotel rate was about £23 for a single room and breakfast, but just £26 for a double room and two breakfasts.  She booked the double room and each morning I'd drive over to the hotel and avail myself of that second breakfast, which was an AYCE buffet   Didn't feel any guilt.  99% of the time hotel's really take the Mick with pricing of single rooms, often being a broom cupboard at just £2-3/night less than a comfy/large double. 

That pricing does seem to be a bit askew.

This is the thing. I don’t mind paying a reasonable single supplement for a double for single use, but it does make me mad if I have to pay a supplement for a room that is too small to have even a small double bed in it, let alone two singles.

I must admit, though, that it is several years since I have had a single room. There don’t seem to be many about any more, certainly not in modern or refurbished hotels. 
What some older hotels seem to do is to squeeze in a small double bed, (4ft), by removing one of the bedside tables, not providing an armchair, and often just having a tiny side table instead of a desk or dressing-table, usually with no wardrobe, just a small hanging rail.
Then they charge you a single supplement, but really it’s not big enough for two adults.

Having said that, at least you always get an en-suite. In days of yore, on the rare occasion that I might have stayed in a hotel, sometimes the bathroom was shared. Seems unbelievable now. If you were lucky, you might have had a washbasin in your room.
If you were very lucky, you might have had sole use of an adjoining or nearby bathroom, but certainly not an en-suite unless you paid Ritz prices.

It’s one of the reasons (not the only one) why I’ve never been on a cruise. The single supplements are enormous, a much higher percentage increase than most hotels’ single supplements. I suppose one of the reasons might be because they won't  be getting two lots of the mandatory tips. (That’s another reason...the mandatory tips).

PasturesNew

Pyxis said:

 ).

I was once phoning round for a friend for him and his mates to stay in my town, as I knew the area.  
I phoned one "hostel" and wanted to book twin rooms for single people, who were prepared to pay the double occupancy.  So, happy to pay £30/night for a twin room priced at £15/person as hostels were cheap and they just didn't want to share rooms. 

The hostel declined and said they'd accept no such booking.  The reason they gave is that single people don't spend money there... two people in a room were likely to eat/drink/hang out at the place, whereas a single person would just get up and go out..... 

They had an onsite bar with pool table and other stuff that people'd hang out in and use for hours if they weren't alone, but you'd not sit inside, there, drinking, alone, when you could be wandering the streets and going in other bars or just strolling, out.  They kept the room rates low expecting people to buy bar food, drinks and play pool for 2-3 hours.

So, sometimes, even paying double, you can't book if  you're travelling alone. 

PasturesNew

I'm noticing a small increase in sales falling through.  Not many, nor many more, but it just happened that two that had been on my list reappeared. 
1/ The nice bungalow I viewed, up the flooded private lane. Sold, back on the market in under a week. 
2/ The bungalow I never saw as it'd "sold" to somebody before it even got onto RM (it was top of budget and needed a lot of work in any case), is back on the market three weeks later. 

The trouble is .... there's nothing I fancied that's been sold that could reappear.  Well, there is one, but that's probably close to completing now and would be unlikely to reappear.  It's the one that went on in Oct 2018 at £295k, immediately sold at £280k (completed Dec/Jan), then was back on in July 2019 or so for £315k (no changes whatsoever) and sold within a week again.  I'd take that if it appeared... but it won't.

PasturesNew

2 new confirmed Coronas in my area... where my area = a 20-30 mile radius of the area where I live.... that's all I know.  Hopefully it doesn't turn out to be 20-30 feet  

It'll probably turn out to be students or skiers, or Hospital staff, or school people.  I think I'm still in a safe corner. 

Pyxis

PasturesNew said:

2 new confirmed Coronas in my area... where my area = a 20-30 mile radius of the area where I live.... that's all I know.  Hopefully it doesn't turn out to be 20-30 feet  

It'll probably turn out to be students or skiers, or Hospital staff, or school people.  I think I'm still in a safe corner. 

Have they been taken into hospital, or are they self-isolating?

PasturesNew

Pyxis said:

..

Have they been taken into hospital, or are they self-isolating?

No idea. Local online newspaper has it as their current headline.  As is usual, when you try to find anything out, no story has any depth. 

Pyxis

Out of interest, Pastures, where do you get your info from, re. the corona cases?

PasturesNew

Pyxis said:

Out of interest, Pastures, where do you get your info from, re. the corona cases?

Just online. I spot something and go look, look for other sources, see if it's real/fake or if there's more info anywhere.  

Testing isn't quick... these probably tested 1-2 days ago .... they might've caught it dashing out for loo rolls and hand sanitiser. 

ukmaggie45

A friend of ours was discharged from Wythenshawe Hospital today (Manchester) following surgery on his ear (long story but it was almost bitten off by some bloke walking a load of dogs) when he was expecting to be kept in till Monday. Guy in next bed says he saw a load of people in hazmat suits going to next door ward. When our friend was discharged said there was nobody around at all. He sent us a nice photo of the signpost "this way to the NHS 111 coronovirus pod" in the hospital grounds.

Pyxis

ukmaggie45 said:

A friend of ours was discharged from Wythenshawe Hospital today (Manchester) following surgery on his ear (long story but it was almost bitten off by some bloke walking a load of dogs) when he was expecting to be kept in till Monday. Guy in next bed says he saw a load of people in hazmat suits going to next door ward. When our friend was discharged said there was nobody around at all. He sent us a nice photo of the signpost "this way to the NHS 111 coronovirus pod" in the hospital grounds.

Bitten off by the bloke? 😱😱😱😱
...and not by one of the dogs? 😱😱😱😱
Good grief! What was his problem?