Hi,
First thing I would like to talk about is my new cancellation policy. My policy has always been you can cancel for any reason up to two weeks prior and receive a refund. After the corona virus hit and it became pandemic in March I was having second thoughts on this. I ended up issuing $30K in refunds for visits booked before the virus went pandemic. When the Steeler’s schedule came out the end of April and I started getting all the reservations for this season, I went on line and saw what others in the lodging industry were doing and I took the most liberal policy I could find, no cash refunds instead a two year credit. If we get the pandemic under control this fall things should start to pick up, what we obviously need is a vaccine. I would think there should be a viable vaccine on the market by sometime this winter so next season should be fine. But I’m sure some people will still be wary of traveling next fall, that’s why I extended it to two years. So I put the notice on my Guidelines page under Stay With Us. I created a form letter in my reservation system explaining my policy and why. By far, most of my fall reservations are from guests that have been here before and I anticipated most of them understanding. All did except one that I had considered a friend and someone that would be sympathetic to a small business trying to stay afloat. Other than him, just about everyone either just accepted it, many accepted it and wrote me a note voicing their support. I have even received this response from folks booking here for the first time. Again, except for one. 🙂 She flat out refused my offer and has filed a “charge back”-disputed with her credit card company (I have submitted my rebuttal). She also filed a complaint with the BBB which I am working on my rebuttal there. So two out of close to a hundred I feel pretty good. Which goes to show you what a great country we live in, people supporting other people and businesses during this crisis. With all the hatefulness in this country being portrayed in the media, it’s good to see we still have compassion (at least most of us). A big THANK YOU to all of you for your support.
Rayezette received the harshest punishment I have ever inflicted. She’s been pooping in the garden around one of the elephant ears. I haven’t been positive it was her but thought it was (when she poops, she drops little gifts separately as opposed to RJ and most dogs that poop in a pile). She just did it in front of me. So the good boi RJ and myself came up to the office leaving her locked in the courtyard. I figure I’ll go out in about an hour and let her come up with us. (OK, I only lasted 15 minutes before going down)
My new water feature out front at the end of the deck is turning out to be very popular. I’m getting a lot of guests hang out there. Partially the seclusion from other guests, of course the water feature and you can observe the street from relative obscurity. I used the same small pump when I moved the statue to the new base. It just had this little filter and with it sitting in the sand, there was too much grit and I burnt the pump out. I went up to Scotty’s Water Garden out by Monroeville. Great place and great guys, he isn’t always trying to sell you the most expensive and lots of up selling. He looks for a reasonable solution to what you are trying to do
Target has taken a lease on most of the first floor of the old Kaufman’s building and plan on opening one of their urban stores. (It will have a smaller foot print than the one in East Liberty). Nice to have a larger retail store Downtown but I’m sure all those little convenience stores Downtown are dreading this.
Carrie Furnace in Rankin has started showing themed drive in movies. They held the first one last week, a nice way to get out, enjoy some social distancing and seeing some classic movies. I don’t know if they will let you walk around the furnace while there for the movies, since it’s dark and there’s probably a liability issue they need to be
Speaking of movies the week of September 16 a new movie venue is coming to Pittsburgh a floating screen on the river. great option if you have a boat or a strong swimmer. 🙂 Details and permits aren’t complete yet if I hear new details, I will bring them up.
I drink a good bit of water after stopping all sodas, iced tea & lemonade. I’ve been fine with tap water up until about a year ago. I was getting a film on my glassware. I assume it was the chemical they were placing in the water to seal the lead from contaminating the drinking water. PWSA has replaced many of the known lead service lines and they seem to have repaired many of the lines that were either breaking or eminently ready to break. First of all I’m no longer getting film on my glassware and the water tastes so much better. Also, Pittsburgh water pressure was noticeably decreased about the same time. I had mentioned to my sister how I was again drinking city water and I swear the next day the news interviewed the mayor and the new head of the water authority saying our water is the best it’s been in years.
Technology and me, no peace exists. I have battled my iPhone for over a year, I couldn’t hear people that called me (my hearing’s fine) . I blamed it on Apple for not sending the call correctly-I could tell the caller let me call you right back and everything would be fine. I fought with my local phone carrier because most of my calls come from my business line or toll free number and is then forwarded to my cell. Very few people have my cell number so I was then blaming my carrier for not forwarding correctly. FINALLY I went to Verizon and said either fix this or I will go to another carrier. they immediately offered me a replacement phone. It works so much better. Windows did an update and it’s probably my fault when I restarted my computer and it screwed all my settings up, Answer Group, my IT people fixed that in short order. I really like those people, they have access to my computer and go in and fix many things. This blog has been sitting in my computer for over a week, I haven’t been able to load pictures. This will be my last post in Word Press, the platform is no longer supported by it’s developer. Nick, my web guy has switched me to a Tumblr format. It will look different and Nick will put a link to past post in Word Press if anyone wants to see old posts. I start working with it next. You might see a series of short posts as I learn the new format.
Instagram is going well, I made my 100th post today and have over 100 followers. I’m at theparadorinn if you want to check it out.
Thanx and wish me luck learning the new blog format,
ed
