Water crisis

Bed & Breakfast / Short Term Rental Host Forum

Help Support Bed & Breakfast / Short Term Rental Host Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Cbz

Well-known member
Joined
May 4, 2011
Messages
92
Reaction score
0
Facing acute water shortage here. Have received 500 litres of water in 5 days! & recent guests haven't been helpful at all; they used up like 5000 liitres of backup water storage in 2 days. so now all tanks are empty.
Should i put up any note in guest rooms, does it help? All i ever hear is complaints "no water in tap" <Well i warned you!>
 
Here in the midwest USA we're having so much rainfall that the farmers can't get into the fields to plant their crops. I wish we could send some water your way.
In regards to a note, Yes, by all means. Tell them in any and every way you can think of. Maybe you need to re-plumb your reserve tank so it cannot be freely accessible to your guests. If this situation has been happening in May every year for the past few years you might try to build in some sort of special offer for the times when the drought is happening, such as "come to Viper's place where we've re-instituted bathing on Saturday night only"...or as we say, try to make lemonade out of lemons.
 
Do you use ultra low flow showerheads? Low flush toilets? If water is in severe shortage, you can put up signs asking them to be mindful of the water. They just might not understand otherwise.
There are a few showeheads even at 5 lpm that can do a pretty good job. For our yank friends, that's about 1.5 gpm.
 
We have a sign in the rooms which says in part, "Welcome to the islands! Here, conservation & environmental conscientiousness is very importatant! Please help us conserve water & electricity by turning off water taps when not in use & any electrical appliance when not in the room."
Also, in the summer months water is rationed to the island & we only have "city water" for an hour in the am & one in the pm, at which time we must refill the cisterns. I post a special notice in the common spaces which states, "Water to the island is being rationed at this time. As such, we will use our back up cisterns, however will need to CAREFULLY CONSERVE water. Thank you for your cooperation. Please let us know if you have any questions."
Not sure what good they do (esp. the sign in the rooms as I've actually heard a guest telling another guest, "well, the water isn't hot right away, so I put the shower on, & got & get my coffee & by the time I'm back it's warm" ?!?!?).
 
Do you use ultra low flow showerheads? Low flush toilets? If water is in severe shortage, you can put up signs asking them to be mindful of the water. They just might not understand otherwise.
There are a few showeheads even at 5 lpm that can do a pretty good job. For our yank friends, that's about 1.5 gpm..
We use those 1.5 gpm showerheads and we've gotten comments from repeats that the shower is BETTER now than it was before.
 
Put up signs that water is rationed and only gets delivered a couple of times/week. Once it's gone, it's gone until the truck comes back.
You definitely have to explain it to people who are not familiar with rationing.
 
We have a sign in the rooms which says in part, "Welcome to the islands! Here, conservation & environmental conscientiousness is very importatant! Please help us conserve water & electricity by turning off water taps when not in use & any electrical appliance when not in the room."
Also, in the summer months water is rationed to the island & we only have "city water" for an hour in the am & one in the pm, at which time we must refill the cisterns. I post a special notice in the common spaces which states, "Water to the island is being rationed at this time. As such, we will use our back up cisterns, however will need to CAREFULLY CONSERVE water. Thank you for your cooperation. Please let us know if you have any questions."
Not sure what good they do (esp. the sign in the rooms as I've actually heard a guest telling another guest, "well, the water isn't hot right away, so I put the shower on, & got & get my coffee & by the time I'm back it's warm" ?!?!?)..
And they need hot water when they're on a tropical island WHY??? I always look forward to a nice COOL shower after broiling in the sun all day!
 
Do you use ultra low flow showerheads? Low flush toilets? If water is in severe shortage, you can put up signs asking them to be mindful of the water. They just might not understand otherwise.
There are a few showeheads even at 5 lpm that can do a pretty good job. For our yank friends, that's about 1.5 gpm..
We use those 1.5 gpm showerheads and we've gotten comments from repeats that the shower is BETTER now than it was before.
.
I bought a few, even though we don't have to conserve water. But there is no point in wasting it and it makes the hot water last. Everyone likes them, when they are well made.... except for that one lady that actually took out a screw driver and broke my shower handle because she thought that she could "fix" my shower.
 
I grew up on a farm in West Virginia - no city water back then. My parents had a well dug where the water witch said to dig. They found water - but it was mine surface water that can be used for NOTHING! So we continued, for the entire time we lived there, to haul water 5 milrd in 5,8, & 10 gallon milk cans. Daddy put in a cistern and a septic system (we had a deluxe 2-seater out back while we were there) for the renters when we moved to town.
I totally understand the conserve. One vacation out west it was sooo hot, all day I was looking forward to a long shower that night. The restaurant across from the motel had a sign - OUR WATER IS FOR OUR CUSTOMERS. WE HAUL OUR WATER 50 MILES. I could not bring myself to do more then a sponge bath that night - a shower would use too much water.
 
I know this is reaching-but could you put some kind of container or something to capture rain water?-dont know if it even rains alot, but most tropical places it rains or storms sometimes daily....just a thought
 
Do you use ultra low flow showerheads? Low flush toilets? If water is in severe shortage, you can put up signs asking them to be mindful of the water. They just might not understand otherwise.
There are a few showeheads even at 5 lpm that can do a pretty good job. For our yank friends, that's about 1.5 gpm..
We use those 1.5 gpm showerheads and we've gotten comments from repeats that the shower is BETTER now than it was before.
.
I bought a few, even though we don't have to conserve water. But there is no point in wasting it and it makes the hot water last. Everyone likes them, when they are well made.... except for that one lady that actually took out a screw driver and broke my shower handle because she thought that she could "fix" my shower.
.
Eric Arthur Blair said:
I bought a few, even though we don't have to conserve water. But there is no point in wasting it and it makes the hot water last. Everyone likes them, when they are well made.... except for that one lady that actually took out a screw driver and broke my shower handle because she thought that she could "fix" my shower.
This is exactly what happened with me. Guests trying to "increase the water flow" with a screwdriver & hance breaking the shower head
confused_smile.gif

 
Here in the midwest USA we're having so much rainfall that the farmers can't get into the fields to plant their crops. I wish we could send some water your way.
In regards to a note, Yes, by all means. Tell them in any and every way you can think of. Maybe you need to re-plumb your reserve tank so it cannot be freely accessible to your guests. If this situation has been happening in May every year for the past few years you might try to build in some sort of special offer for the times when the drought is happening, such as "come to Viper's place where we've re-instituted bathing on Saturday night only"...or as we say, try to make lemonade out of lemons..
Innkeep said:
Maybe you need to re-plumb your reserve tank so it cannot be freely accessible to your guests.
We need to pump up water to the other tanks & then only does it cater to the guest rooms. If there is no water in their taps, some come out screaming "there's no water"!
 
I know this is reaching-but could you put some kind of container or something to capture rain water?-dont know if it even rains alot, but most tropical places it rains or storms sometimes daily....just a thought.
birdwatcher said:
I know this is reaching-but could you put some kind of container or something to capture rain water?-dont know if it even rains alot, but most tropical places it rains or storms sometimes daily....just a thought
We have provided for rain water harvesting, almost 40K litres gets stored but it's used only for gardening, sweeping floors & washing cars. This actually saved us monthly bill of $400!
I cannot have the same filtered & recycled for general use coz the technical knowhow is not available in my town & more importantly nobody provides backup service here.
 
Put up signs that water is rationed and only gets delivered a couple of times/week. Once it's gone, it's gone until the truck comes back.
You definitely have to explain it to people who are not familiar with rationing..
Alibi Ike said:
Put up signs that water is rationed and only gets delivered a couple of times/week. Once it's gone, it's gone until the truck comes back.
You definitely have to explain it to people who are not familiar with rationing.
Thanks, i have put a note up in the rooms. I hope guests act responsibly
 
Trouble is it is feast or famin with water. In the uk it rains all the time yet very summer we have a hose pipe ban! Trouble was about half the mains pipes were leaking so gallons were wasted. Think they have improved it a lot in the last two years mind. We have had an amazingly sunny April so was starting to get worried and then it rained solidly all May so back to normal again. Wish I could harnes some of that water to flush toilets that would be great.
 
Trouble is it is feast or famin with water. In the uk it rains all the time yet very summer we have a hose pipe ban! Trouble was about half the mains pipes were leaking so gallons were wasted. Think they have improved it a lot in the last two years mind. We have had an amazingly sunny April so was starting to get worried and then it rained solidly all May so back to normal again. Wish I could harnes some of that water to flush toilets that would be great..
Trouble is it is feast or famin with water. In the uk it rains all the time yet very summer we have a hose pipe ban! Trouble was about half the mains pipes were leaking so gallons were wasted. Think they have improved it a lot in the last two years mind. We have had an amazingly sunny April so was starting to get worried and then it rained solidly all May so back to normal again. Wish I could harnes some of that water to flush toilets that would be great.
I lived in the PacNorthWET for 11 years, every summer we too had water rationing for gardens etc in the summertime. Meanwhile it has rained the last 9 days there straight.
There is nothing wrong with a note to let guests know, but if this is an issue all the time, it should be on your website in advance. I know I stayed at a few eco-lodges where water was premium and had to be hauled in, knowing in advance, we were careful and not wasteful. Couldn't really waste a trickle anyway - that is what they do there - make it a trickle type faucet
 
I agree with JB, this needs to be on your website as well. I know you don't want to discourage guests, but they should know what they're in for. When you have acute water rationing, there's nothing wrong with putting tasteful signs in your guest rooms and talking to your guests about it when they arrive. Some people just leave water running down the street....
 
I agree with JB, this needs to be on your website as well. I know you don't want to discourage guests, but they should know what they're in for. When you have acute water rationing, there's nothing wrong with putting tasteful signs in your guest rooms and talking to your guests about it when they arrive. Some people just leave water running down the street....
 
I agree with JB, this needs to be on your website as well. I know you don't want to discourage guests, but they should know what they're in for. When you have acute water rationing, there's nothing wrong with putting tasteful signs in your guest rooms and talking to your guests about it when they arrive. Some people just leave water running down the street.....
Samster said:
I agree with JB, this needs to be on your website as well.
Oh Samster, nobody reads website here. People just look at the contact page, call me up & start asking everything i have already put up on site. And this is when my site got only 5 pages!
I am soon cutting down my site links/editing it further & getting directly to the point. I will put in a line with regard to water rationing in the general information page.
 
I agree with JB, this needs to be on your website as well. I know you don't want to discourage guests, but they should know what they're in for. When you have acute water rationing, there's nothing wrong with putting tasteful signs in your guest rooms and talking to your guests about it when they arrive. Some people just leave water running down the street.....
Samster said:
I agree with JB, this needs to be on your website as well.
Oh Samster, nobody reads website here. People just look at the contact page, call me up & start asking everything i have already put up on site. And this is when my site got only 5 pages!
I am soon cutting down my site links/editing it further & getting directly to the point. I will put in a line with regard to water rationing in the general information page.
.
I know making them read is a nightmare but at least if it is there you have a fall back ie it is all there in black and white on the web site. not my fault if you don't read it.
 
Back
Top