Bear Necessities

I voted +0.25% last week and still think the same

What if we already have one? I don't need two.

Oh god I'm getting flashbacks. I'd totally forgotten when every post of theirs had a footer about LIAR LOANS

The carpet and sofa say that's 100% an old dear's house that is now "vacant". I'm guessing the family need the cash, right now! Estate agent probably gave them an unrealistic valuation to get the chance to sell it, but the family need the money so badly that they can't wait months to get it sold

I think everyone in this thread needs to get some sleep. Or have a w*nk and calm down. Or both.

Then further down the line, the "dinner party" will be six people rooting around in a bin round the back of the KFC

Could buy a lot of sausages for that money

My original thought was £800k. But I didn't see where it was, so I was well out!

these are some staggering drops

Oh god. I wrote my massive long thing about how much we've benefitted from going on holiday in air bnbs and then I read your nightmare and I just want to burn the whole concept to the ground now! Sounds absolutely vile.

I don't understand the vacuum and dust reference? You don't have to clean and dust before you leave. Any that I've stayed in have cleaning and washing the sheets and all that stuff as part of the fee, just like if you were in a hotel, so you don't have to vacuum or dust, you are basically treating it as your own home for a few days or a week, but with a cleaner cleaning it at the end. We've found them far better than a B and B or a hotel when you have two kids in tow, so they are ideal for families - because a hotel suite with multiple rooms is too costy, or you have to get two separate rooms, which isn't ideal when you have to supervise the kids, same with a B and B, would have to pay for a double and a twin and then keep checking that the kids aren't pissing about and in a B and B you dont get a kitchen you can use or a sitting room or dining room of your own. I try to make sure I book ones where they aren't taking a perfectly good home and letting it out (thus reducing the housing stock) so the one we stayed in when we all went down to a family wedding near Nottingham was a converted barn building attached to someone's house. Could hang around in it when the kids were tired of wedding crap, could get up late and have breakfast when we wanted, go out all day or stay in all day, come back and cook if you want to (we ate in restaurants half the time and cooked the other half to save money.) Not that the four of us are party animals but the place was on the edge of a village and i dont think neighbours would have known we were there. Same on our holiday to Berlin this summer, we booked an Air B n B which was a family home while the family who owned it were abroad visiting family. So we just used their house like it was our own. Made for a fantastic 2 weeks away with the kids, again cooking in the kitchen half the time, eating out the other half, if the kids are knackered after traipsing round the sights then just go back to the flat whenever you want and watch TV like you would in your own house. Basically a home from home. It was great. and between stays they arrange for a cleaner to come and get it ready for the next guests (I think the family were away for the entire school holidays) And in this case the money was going to a family to help them with their day to day cost of living, not some massive hotel chain who then pays the money to Lenny Henry or whoever. Can't see any problem with that. Again with this one, I guess people could rent that place for a party, but the details for the place said it was a family flat and he only wanted to rent it out to families. (but probably because he was scared of people destroying it, not out of concern for his neighbours) but I very much double his neighbours noticed a different family was in there for a couple of weeks. We didn't hear anyone else at all in the time we were there - (They are famous for building good solid walls in Berlin!) The Berlin Air BnBs do seem more highly regulated than the uk, they have to apply for a licence which can be turned down, and they have to have certain lefts of things for fire safety and the sort of landlord stuff. I did look up hotels for both of these holidays, but nothing was even close to as good a price or as much space / with sitting room and kitchen etc. I'm opposed to the concept if it's a house or flat that someone has bought for the purposes of just Air BnB so reducing the housing stock but otherwise it's just like having a holiday home without having the costs of owning one, or staying at a friends house while they are away, but for those of us who don't have friends kind enough to let us borrow their place! As a single person or a couple then maybe a hotel or regular B and B might be just as good, but for us these were cheaper than two hotel rooms, but with their own kitchen/sitting room (the Berlin one had 5 bedrooms to choose from - not sure why they rented it to us when they probably could have got far more from a booking of 7 or 8 people) So that was a very long winded way of saying Air BnB isn't just tw*ts having massive parties, it's appealing to families too. Would never let this place out though, not sure I'm keen on the idea of other people using the marital bed or nosing at all our stuff, and I'd not want to put out neighbours at risk of pr*cks descending on the place for a party. If there was a way to say "you can only air bnb the place you live (when you are away) or an annex to your own house" and bringing in tighter rules about gas safety certificates / smoke alarms etc like they have in the Berlin ones, then I think that would be better than banning it completely, as that deals with the housing stock thing, and the safety thing. Not sure how you deal with the parties thing, as I'd be annoyed I guess if our neighbours rented their place out to a load of partying tossers every summer, but families using it would be fine. Not sure how you regulate for that. Until I was an adult I'd never stayed in a hotel (first time was in Japan) on family holidays when we grew out of enjoying camping, it was always borrowing a friend's holiday cottage in france, staying in someone's holiday cottage in Denmark and Sweden (which were just through the travel agent where there was a list of holiday cottages to rent, presumably a precursor to modern Air BnB. I've always considered hotels to be the "posh, not for the likes of us" option. But then the Kyoto one, my first hotel experience, had a pair of cockroaches that crawled out of the air con in the night, so I realised hotels aren't always the posh option! (We stayed in a hostel in Tokyo just before that and not a cockroach in sight)

0.25% and they will say that we are gradually slowing to a stop (although I'm not convinced we are)

0.25, slowing down as they near what they think will be the peak (of 5.75 or 6). gives them the option to pause at the meeting after that and make it look like a steady deceleration, but gives them the option to do 0.25 again the next time as well if they think they need to. (or 0.5 again if things go pear-shaped for them)

Hmm, I'd not thought of it like that

2 months exactly since it was listed and today I thought they'd sold it or taken it off the market as the for sale sign was gone. But no, I think it had just blown over! They are living in it now though, there's a trampoline in the garden and signs of life I guess two months is nothing in this climate though. Maybe I should check back in 2 years! https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/137316614#/?channel=RES_BUY

The place I go for mine does a pick up and drop off service for an extra tenner, which seemed pretty reasonable as I work from home about three miles from the garage, and can't be arsed to go and drop it in and faff about getting home. If they ever do surge pricing I'll go elsewhere, but I don't think they ever would!

Chain restaurants do this to some extent. There are still early bird specials, and mid week 2 for 1s. Unfortunately that sort of deal makes me feel I'm over paying if I go any other time!

Yeah that would be first on the todo list! I grew up in a Grade II* listed 1720 house with single glazing throughout - my parents managed to scrape together enough money for some homemade secondary glazing in some of the rooms, because you couldnt just put regular double glazing in it, but it was proper proper cold in the winter and impossible to heat properly. I mean this was the 90s but when all the boomers are like "oooh I remember ice on the inside of the windows and having to run down to get dressed in front of the stove" I'm thinking "yeah, me too, me too". I've always loved old houses because they remind me of home. but would be super cautious about buying one. I don't want to be that cold ever again!

Some people like doing nothing. If I was attending an event that was rained off I'd probably just stay at home, I'm not going to be frantically looking for a last minute place to piss my money away. (besides, Chester is much nicer in the sunshine than in the rain, I go into town far less when the weather is bad, and so don't spend nearly as much money on food/attractions if the month is rainy

All this "shock it looks like a recession is coming" is weird when the bank of england have been saying (in so many words) quite blatantly "yeah we are going to keep on putting rates up because triggering a recession is the only way we think we can get inflation down". It's hardly a surprise.

It was probably the tin hat that was interfering with the signal!

The person insists that their friends put in new heating etc and its lovely and warm I'm not sure I can believe that if it is still only an 42 E rating, it must be leaking heat all over the place.

mine is fine (talktalk using openreach) 510 down / 50 up as per usual.

reading the thread, that house was there first and everything else grew up around it. Trouble with the "best" house in the street in a bad part of town is you can't really move the house somewhere nicer...

uh oh.