You’re sick af and just need a place to get some peaceful sleep.
Yeah, that’s the perfect time to be dirt cheap…
“So…you and the girls are still testing negative, eh?”
I tried to sound as casual about the news as possible, but inside I was secretly stoked about this (non-)development: if the rest of my family members at home were all still COVID-free, then that meant that I would need to extend my COVID-cation by at least another day or two. Oh, the humanity.
“Yeah, I suppose so,” the Boss Lady conceded. “At least through tomorrow night.”
What was advertised as a day of rest–and a little bit of real estate–had turned out to be a little more burdensome than expected,1White Man’s Burden, that is! and as Day 2 of my sickness came to a close, I still hadn’t truly had the chance to ‘rest’. Thus, even an extra day–especially a Saturday–was welcome, because that Day 3 would be just enough time to achieve the one and only actual item on my to-do list: write my weekly blog post.
*Ahem*
You can stop snickering now–despite how incredibly stupid of a goal “writing my weekly blog post” may sound, I have every right to make that disproportionately important to me. Which of course makes it even more amusing that that, of all things, is what really drives the plot of this sprawling, majestic, asinine story of me getting COVID this summer.
Oh, yeah, that’s right…some of you may not know what a sh*t-show you just unwittingly walked into. For those not caught up, we’re working our way through the tragicly un-uneventful saga of my COVID-vacation. And if you fall into this category, why not take a few moments to catch up, starting here?
Now, back to the task at hand: adding an extra night to my AirBnB booking…
“Hi there! I was wondering if I could extend my stay through Sunday morning? I tried to do it directly through the app, but I couldn’t figure out how. Thanks!”
After getting the go-ahead from the Boss Lady and checking the availability of my current accommodations, I fired off the short message to my AirBnB host at 7:41 pm. It looked like this place was free through the following Tuesday, so it should just be a formality to tack on Saturday night, and then I could (finally) get on with chillaxing/physically-recovering-from-COVID my evening away.
It was only a mere 5 minutes before I got a response:
“Unfortunately, someone is checking in right after you…”
“You got to be effin’ kidding me!” I muttered in the general direction of my phone.
I stared at the message in shock and disbelief. I flipped back to the availability calendar in my AirBnB app, and sure enough, Saturday night was already spoken for. Even worse, that ----- was only staying only one night. Sigh.
I quickly realized that it was my error, and that I must have gotten confused about the dates of my current reservation. Dang COVID Fog, already kicking in!
Well, crap, what were my options now?
Option 1: Just go home tomorrow morning. Possibly infect other family members. Be forced to quarantine in a single room and still be required to wear a mask 24/7. Attempt to write my blog post under the ever-judging eye of the Boss Lady.
In the words of my married co-worker, explaining my plight to our colleagues: “Once you get married, you want nothing more than to be alone.”
Yeah…so…that’s gonna be a hard pass.
Option 2: Find another AirBnB for tomorrow night. Eat the overhead cost of paying booking, cleaning, service fees, etc. Check out at 10 am here, check in at 4 pm there. Park at the library and rest and/or write with the car running the whole time. Defeat the entire concept of ‘relaxing’.
Geez, that sounds even worse now that I say it out loud.
Okay, think, Dude, think…what other options are there? You love problem-solving–here’s your chance to really shine!
Ah-hah! I got it!
Option 3: Book accommodations for not only tomorrow night, but TONIGHT as well. Have the legal right to a bed and a bathroom between the hours of 10 am and 4 pm tomorrow. Move to my new digs at my own convenience. Maybe even find a cheap option to offset the whole double-booking thing.
By golly! That’s genius–it’s amazing what problems you can solve with a little thinking outside the box (and/or by throwing a few hundred dollar bills at it).
In fact, I think I’ll head to the new place tonight and get “the move” out of the way so I can sleep in. It’s too late to let the Boss Lady know about my change in plans, as she’s no doubt passed out with our baby girls for the night. I’ll just fill her in in the morning…
“About your Host: Hi! I’m Ugonna2I’m not making this up, BTW. I double-checked my confirmation email and everything. and I’m a nurse in the Triangle Area. I’m currently overseas on a medical mission, so I thought I would it be a great idea to rent out my condo to strangers in the meantime…”
” ‘Ugonna’?!? That’s her name? As in: ‘U Gonna confirm my reservation request sometime tonight?’ Hah!”
At precisely 7:55 pm that evening I had located and subsequently requested to reserve a townhome about 20 minutes away. Even though it was one of the thriftier options, the total for 2 nights still came in around $265.
I decided to wait for the confirmation email and the critical “how to legally enter into this stranger’s home” info, before packing up my stuff and heading out. Which was also a good idea seeing as how I didn’t have an actual address, and the last thing I wanted to do was wander around homelessly in the middle of the night.
Around 8:15 pm, this native was growing restless, so I decided to read up more on the place I hoped to be staying. But when I saw that she was in Africa at the moment–and combined with the fact that AirBnB hosts3I bet every time I say ‘host’, you see a phantom ‘g’ in front of. Because you know at some point, I’m going to have to say the G-word at least two more times. have 24 hours to confirm reservations–I realized that Ugonna just might not gonna be handing over the keycode to her front door to me any time soon.
The mini-point of the story here is: AirBnB is not exactly well-suited for last-second/same-night reservations.
But you know what is ‘well-suited’? A hotel suite at an anonymous 3+-star hotel near the airport–at least according to the Hotwire app on my phone.
Turns out that I could cancel my AirBnB penalty-free up until the res was confirmed, and so I clicked through to the Hotwire payment page…and the total at this nice hotel was literally less than a dollar difference than the AirBnB that I would end up cancelling mere seconds later.
It was a no-brainer, right? Well…
Somehow, as soon as I committed to the idea of staying at a hotel instead, the penny-pincher in me immediately balked at the idea of dropping another $250 dollars just for–if we’re being overly-honest here–the opportunity to write my blog post mask-free and in peace…
“A grand total of only $150?? And it even has a microwave,4See last week’s post for the importance of this detail. too! Yeah, baby, now that’s what I’m talking about!”
My triple-guessing was about to pay off. One of the great benefits about Hotwire and similar websites is their blind-booking option. You know, where they guarantee a room in a certain geographical area and with a minimum star-rating for a lower price than you would pay going into it knowing the specific hotel you’re booking? Yeah, that thing. Except there’s a loophole: they normally show you 2 or 3 hotels and guarantee you’ll end up with one of them. Sometimes it might require a little more sleuthing, but you can almost always get a really good idea of what you’ll be getting.
In my case, it was going to be either a 3-1/2-star place, or this 2-1/2-star place:
Even though I kept my fingers crossed that I would somehow end up at the nicer place, I knew in my heart of hearts that for $150 I was going to get the not-even-3-star place.
At precisely 8:45 pm, I finally quit waffling and, patting myself on the back for being thrifty, officially rolled the Hotwire dice. Of course it came up ‘Extended Stay’, but hey–I was emotionally prepared for that outcome.
With that finally settled, I set my timer to see if I could be packed and out the door and on my way to my new home for the next two days in 15 minutes or less! And guess what? I nailed it in 14 minutes, 45 seconds! Things were at long last looking up.
On the way, there, I let my optimistic side give me a little pep-talk:
“It doesn’t look too bad, right? I grew up poor, so I ain’t one of those prissy princesses that can’t handle less-than-luxurious accommodations.”
…
“Heck, I saw that it even has a full kitchen–including a microwave–to boot!”
…
“And it’s pretty clear that this not one of those hotels where people get routinely murdered, so that’s good too…”
Content created on: 30 September/1 October 2022 (Fri/Sat)
Footnotes & References:
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