Sunday 28 October 2018

Where to stay in Ottawa after a natural disaster?


Ottawa has been over the top busy for hotel rooms.  The phone has been ringing off the hook for the last week  and I didn't put  two and two together until my guest told me they couldn't find a place anywhere in Ottawa to stay. Now I don't know if I should be offended in knowing that I'm their very last resort, quite possibly the last place on earth they would ever think to call unless we were both the last people on the planet but sigh, yes, I have rooms. I thought I was finished for the year and then I got one call and the next day I got eight and had to turn away so many people away. It was like Canada 150 all over again. 


It was unbelievable to me that people visiting Ottawa would not have a hotel room anywhere but so many others who lost their homes due to the tornado were displaced and moved to the hotels. That left exactly ONE bed and breakfast on the planet, I kid you not, in Ottawa with availability- yes, Spoiled Rotten B&B. Picture us wearing a cape.  Don't think the worst of me for being available in the burbs because it's quite charming here; really, it's like winning the lottery; well you’ll just have to book and see for yourself.

As an afterthought, I don't watch the news but I did see many, many pictures of the tornado after effects and they were heart breaking. I received my local Journal and front page was an article stating while Orleans was not affected there were some after effects. They showed a picture of a stop sign down. I almost killed myself laughing. This is not a competition folks!

The obvious silver lining to me is all this business means I’ll be paying my bills sooner but with every silver lining comes a few rain drops or deluge.  When I went to school to learn how to run a business the organizer introduced herself and said, "Most of you will fail. Some of you will become successful. Some of you become so successful you will fail." My thought that was the stupidest thing I've ever heard but I feel like I'm at critical mass right now. On a daily basis, I get IT types telling me my SEO is bad but for crying out loud, I’m not sure I could take any more traffic even if I fixed it. 

Every time somebody leaves and I have a sanity restoring evening to myself, I get another request and my empty, peaceful house fills up instantly. You know me, I'm not great at saying no or turning down a sob story so I live perpetually like I am selling my home.  Do you have any idea how lucky you are to be able to eat supper from the pot while sitting in your underwear, in a messy living room, and you haven't done your dishes in a month?  Ok, that last part is gross but you are sooooo lucky you don't have to live in fear of the phone ringing and the tornado cleanup happening every single time.  Sure, if I kept the house perfect I wouldn’t have this problem but have we met?    

With all the chaos and back to back 21 bookings in 7 days, my body went on autopilot.  I would get in the car and she would say, “don’t worry, I know where we are going” and would take me to Giant Tiger.  Once in the store, the cart would say “Hi Cathy, don’t worry, I know what we need” and the food I buy every single time I go there would hop in the cart.  Even my Tap Debit card knew the routine. 

Apparently, I’m not the only tired B&YB owner.  The posts from the other innkeeper's on Facebook are getting pretty amusing too. We're all exhausted and getting punchy. Personally, I'm waking up in different rooms with no idea what side of the bed to get out on. I have no idea if there's anybody else in the house. I race from one room to the next only to freeze and wonder, do I have any guests or have they just gone out.  IT’S SO NERVE WRACKING living this way!!!  Having nice guests helps ease the pain.

My favorite gay couple came back for the third time in 3 years. They’re a mature couple and I just love them. This year he called up and said I don't know if you remember me; he's in my call display and I said of course I do and he wanted to come up again and jokingly said he'll bring his wife. It's so cute when they refer to each other as wives and husbands. I prepared the romance room with tons of romantic decor and flower petals. Imagine my shock when he showed up with a woman. I have no idea who this woman is, and how dare she have an affair with this lovely gay couple. It wasn't till the next morning that when I asked him if this was his ex-wife and he looked at me funny and said no she's my current wife. He must have loved the look of confusion on my face when I blurted out, “so you're not gay?” He laughed and said I thought you might be thinking that. Imagine me being annoyed setting up the romance suite and a woman shows up with a man and ruins it. I thought I'd wasted all my hard work for a hetero couple when I was trying to impress the gay couple.  Whatever! They will be forever known as the gay couple in my books and at least I was the entertainment.

Yesterday’s guests worked a trade show and came in at 10pm after already having spent a night here and they apologized for the late hour but really it was nothing because I rarely get to bed before midnight and more importantly, some other guests were coming from Toronto and arriving at 2 a.m. They thoughtfully requested a self-check in so I could go to sleep early but nope can't do that.  Cathy the micromanager- I must know who's in my house at all times, get a feel for them to protect the others so after they arrived, I could go to sleep and then four and a half hours later get up again to start the day for the early morning breakfast departures; no rest for the wicked. 


I realized, a few days ago, when I looked up the last of my bookings on the old school index cards that there were no more official bookings for the year. Now that should have scared me but it doesn't because it’s the end of the season, I’m pooped, and more importantly, after four years of being in business, I realize that I'm not a destination; I'm a last-minute booking place and October always ends up being very busy. Well before I could get that thought out of my head I had received another booking and another and another. I'm now booked into the New Year, and throwing a family the best ever Christmas stay they will not find anywhere else on the planet.  I do love Christmas and that’s good because we got snow today and I’m fighting the urge to decorate.
  
If the season truly ends, I might just sleep for a few months to get caught up… no wait.  That isn’t true.  I’m going to see my 1 ½ year old identical female twin grand















 -monsters in Australia soon and I think they are going to kick my butt.  I’ve never been around them for longer than a few hours; they bite and scream and run everywhere and really don’t verbalize more than a few words. I don't know which Sybil I am going to get...happy Harry Potter girls or crying tazmanian devils.  Poor Granny is not going to get her daily naps. I remember when they were tiny babies and just pawns in my photo sessions.

I must post and run.  More musing to come now that things are coming to a snail’s pace. Thanks for coming out.