Not Your Room, Dude

Crazy Things Guests Say and Do: Part 79 of a 737 part series

Two guys just came back to the office, alarmed, after checking in. "Uhm, is that a shared bathroom we have?"

"What?"

They said they went into the room and there was some guy there in the next room and his stuff was in the bathroom. I thought they must have gone into the wrong room, by mistake, but there was something weird about how they described it, so I went over to take a look.

The shaving stuff was gone. Turns out the guy next door was tired of sharing a bathroom with his friend, went into the adjacent room, unlocked the adjoining doors from that side, and went in to help himself. As the real guests of that room showed up, he hastily snatched up his stuff and retreated to his room, pulling the doors shut between the two rooms.

Actual guests were not happy.

The Best Laid Plans...

Still don't have that wood boiler installed, and due to the silly hoops the state has made us jump through, it's going to cost $8,500 for materials and labor to get it done. That price does not cover what we've already paid for the boiler.

Thing is, if heating oil was still $4.00 a gallon, it would be worth it. I'd be angry that we'd had the thing, unused, for two full months of the heating season, but at least I'd know I was saving serious money going forward.

But of course, the price of oil has collapsed. If I was sure that it would stay low, I'd probably just shed a few tears over my lost time and money and try to recoup some of my money from the boiler.

But I still think the price of oil is going to start to creep up once the economy stabilizes. If I don't do this now, I'll be kicking myself later. Or maybe I'll kick myself if I do it. Or maybe...

Happy New Year

2009, eh? Sounds like a year from an old science fiction novel. You know, the ones where we have a colony on Mars and we tool around town in flying cars or strap on the jet pack for a quick errand around town..

2008 was a pretty good year for us, even though the world became one big mess, what with high gas prices, a collapsing economy, and all the other stresses in the world. Thankfully, business was pretty good at the inn and our personal finances are in good shape, even if our retirement accounts and the like took the same huge hits as everyone else's.

We went to Utah to visit family in the spring, as well as see some national parks, and then left the kids with relatives for a few days while M and I took adult time with friends in Monterey, California. The little guy caught a nasty bug on the trip and spent a couple of days in the hospital, but recovered quickly.

My daughter and I performed in the community theater production of Oliver! this fall, which was a lot of fun for both of us and left us humming show tunes for months.

Later, after foliage season at the inn, I spent a few days in New York with a friend and then the family took a trip to Disney World, where we all had a great time, even if we maybe pushed ourselves a bit too hard.

It feels like we've entered a different stage of life this year, with our oldest son now a teenager and the youngest going to preschool three mornings a week. We've definitely outgrown our living space and hope to rectify that this spring, assuming the snow continues to fall in Northern New England.

The Economy and Skiing

We've had some ups and downs in the weather this week that have kept us from fully booking at the inn during the holidays, but I don't think the economy has anything to do with any holes in the reservation book. When it snows, the phone has been ringing off the hook. And I've taken a preliminary look at December's numbers and we're ahead of where we usually are this early in the winter.

Even better, we have a ski race next week that has us booked up for two midweek days, plus a ski group that has been coming in every year now for three or four years, booking up the inn at the end of the first full week in January, a time that is otherwise a bit slower in bookings, due to the post-holiday hangover.

Which makes me wonder if the economy is going to have any effect on the business. Five percent would count as a huge recession in this country, but with such a small inn, I don't think I could tell a five percent decline above the normal noise of random bookings, the weather, events, and the like.

Reporters from two different newspapers contacted me this last week, digging for stories about how the economy is hurting the ski industry up here. They seemed a bit disappointed in what I had to say. Nevertheless, I'm always good for a quote. Unfortunately, in this case, it was the same quote. I told M that I need a new line.