The Changing Scenario of BnB Management in the midst of a Pandemic

Running a bnb can sometimes leave you feeling kinda shell-shocked, something I never expected when I decided to airbnb just before retirement.
I've told you before that the little airbnb turned into a registered business, so I should have known back then that things would sometimes get a little too much for a #silverblogger!
This has been one of those weeks!

We have guests from all walks of life coming for various reasons;

• Business guests and trainees fall into the same category as they ALWAYS order early morning breakfast.
• Leisure guests who spend the days at the beaches and self-cater, mostly with braais (BBQ's).
• Sportsmen - we've had young cricketers, super-fit Comrades marathon runners, young BMX champions, SA Darts contestants (who need a beer for breakfast to steady the hand).
• Entertainers - from dancers to a rock band.
• Body builders who gave me a fright when I was greeted one morning by bulging muscles and the tiniest speedo I've ever seen.
• Expats visiting family.
• Function attendees here for weddings and other special celebrations.
• Honeymooners
• Those visiting a sick loved one, at times sadly followed by a second visit for a funeral.

And so forth...and so forth, my list could go on till day break; needless to say we've seen it all!

The scenario changed drastically last year when our deranged NCC closed down the beaches smack bang in the midst of our peak holiday season.
NCC = National Corona Command Centre - sounds like something attached to the military not so!

Once we could host guests again following last years forced closure of all short term accommodation establishments, which by the way has been the death knell for some large hotels, our target group shrunk to:

• Large percentage business and training guests.
• A small percentage of leisure guests slowly returning.

One inland guest who was so tired of working from home, drove all the way down to Durban and set up office in our cottage for a change of scenery and also to visit his elderly mother.

Our saving grace has been a local training centre who refer out of town trainees to us, and as we are small, guests feel safer with less chance of bumping into other guests, so we have been getting more and more business bookings.

Ain't it strange how we all suddenly became afraid of being in a crowd or look at other people suspiciously wondering:
'is that person safe, where have they been, why are they wearing their masks half-mast'... and so forth; so we back off!

It's just awful, I miss the closeness and chats especially!

The past three weeks we had three super guys here for business, but when they saw the cottage could accommodate five, two more colleagues joined them and the neat and tidy cottage ended up looking like a war zone, so they got rapped over the knuckles by me and tried their level best to keep the cottage in a reasonable state.

However, Fridays can be super stressful when there's a same-day changeover as time is limited, especially when you have prospective guests sending a friend or family member over to view the accommodation!

We survived, but the original neat threesome is back on Sunday so things should operate as normal plus we will have a new trainee in our small unit for the next three weeks.
I have a feeling the trainees get the riot act at the training centre, as they leave everything spic and span, not a thing out of place, unlike our friends this past week!

Does this sound like retirement anyone?
Well, I am retired but certainly not sitting on the beach sipping cocktails, although there are times when we can break away and those always are precious times!

In closing, I'm certainly not ready to fade away into the sunset just yet!

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Original Content by @lizelle
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