OnTheShore
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2011
- Messages
- 1,276
- Reaction score
- 5
Well, looks like it's been just over a year since my last posting here at Innspiring... I guess I just got caught up in other things, mainly related to my day job. An e-mail from the Admin about the new software prompted me to come back and take a look. Glad to read again so many familiar voices.
This certainly has been a crazy year, but we've been rolling with the punches and have been quite busy since June 26 when our state opened up to visitors (willing to certify compliance with requirements) from beyond northern New England. Some of our long-term returning guests took advantage of our offer to simply postpone their stay to next year rather than cancel, allowing us to keep their downpayment and allowing them to keep "their spot." The resulting vacancies have all been filled with new guests (a lot finding us via Air...), many of whom would like to come back next year but won't have the same "dibs" we traditionally have given to the current year's guests for the next year... I guess one of our advantages is the independent, self-contained nature of the "housekeeping" cottages we offer, where our guests can isolate and quarantine themselves as much as they wish. No one comes in our house, we conduct all our business outside on the porch, and there is plenty of room for guest groups to keep distance from other groups.
So it looks like our season will not be the complete bust that I was worried about as a possibility back in March and April. We had a gaggle of college seniors (including our son) staying with us this spring after they got kicked off their campus, going to remote learning due to the virus -- their experience, along with those of other such groups around the country, was written up in the Hechinger Report (also published in the Washington Post). The college I teach at did the same, so I was able to be here all spring too, teaching my classes remotely as well. We took in a homeless person into one of our cottages in mid-May, for 6 weeks, for not much money, but at that time something seemed better than nothing. There was SO much uncertainty as we waited for our state government to come out with their re-opening plans..... We delayed "opening" of our cottages until we knew we would have guests to fill them to avoid the expense of opening them up from their winter slumber only to have to close them down again if nobody could come. I put in for PPP loans for our two businesses back in April, and am now waiting for the powers-that-be to finally figure out what they are going to do about forgiveness, so I can get on with that part of the program... (more uncertainty -- argh!)
I am sure some of you all are probably really struggling out there, and the situation in some of your locales may be much more dire than it is here, now. I really feel for you, and hope you all are able to survive. We are very fortunate. We have not experienced any angry push-back from our guests or prospective guests about the requirements the state has for them (some frustration and disappointment, sure, but no anger directed at us). Nor have we experienced any push-back from the locals in town here, as everyone else is also in the same boat (dependent on tourists).
OK, enough rambling. Hopefully I won't be gone from here for so long again, but who knows. I'm not really looking forward to the return of students to my college campus for the fall semester -- all the plans seem to me to be a house of cards....
This certainly has been a crazy year, but we've been rolling with the punches and have been quite busy since June 26 when our state opened up to visitors (willing to certify compliance with requirements) from beyond northern New England. Some of our long-term returning guests took advantage of our offer to simply postpone their stay to next year rather than cancel, allowing us to keep their downpayment and allowing them to keep "their spot." The resulting vacancies have all been filled with new guests (a lot finding us via Air...), many of whom would like to come back next year but won't have the same "dibs" we traditionally have given to the current year's guests for the next year... I guess one of our advantages is the independent, self-contained nature of the "housekeeping" cottages we offer, where our guests can isolate and quarantine themselves as much as they wish. No one comes in our house, we conduct all our business outside on the porch, and there is plenty of room for guest groups to keep distance from other groups.
So it looks like our season will not be the complete bust that I was worried about as a possibility back in March and April. We had a gaggle of college seniors (including our son) staying with us this spring after they got kicked off their campus, going to remote learning due to the virus -- their experience, along with those of other such groups around the country, was written up in the Hechinger Report (also published in the Washington Post). The college I teach at did the same, so I was able to be here all spring too, teaching my classes remotely as well. We took in a homeless person into one of our cottages in mid-May, for 6 weeks, for not much money, but at that time something seemed better than nothing. There was SO much uncertainty as we waited for our state government to come out with their re-opening plans..... We delayed "opening" of our cottages until we knew we would have guests to fill them to avoid the expense of opening them up from their winter slumber only to have to close them down again if nobody could come. I put in for PPP loans for our two businesses back in April, and am now waiting for the powers-that-be to finally figure out what they are going to do about forgiveness, so I can get on with that part of the program... (more uncertainty -- argh!)
I am sure some of you all are probably really struggling out there, and the situation in some of your locales may be much more dire than it is here, now. I really feel for you, and hope you all are able to survive. We are very fortunate. We have not experienced any angry push-back from our guests or prospective guests about the requirements the state has for them (some frustration and disappointment, sure, but no anger directed at us). Nor have we experienced any push-back from the locals in town here, as everyone else is also in the same boat (dependent on tourists).
OK, enough rambling. Hopefully I won't be gone from here for so long again, but who knows. I'm not really looking forward to the return of students to my college campus for the fall semester -- all the plans seem to me to be a house of cards....