VRBO Disaster

When we got Morgan's wedding announcement, I decided that I would go ahead and book our hotel rooms even though I wasn't quite sure if all of our family could make it. With the wedding happening on a Friday, Nick starting a new job, Brett and Karen talking about having children and Cameron unsure of his future after graduation, it was definitely hard to plan ten months out. Even so, I thought that it wouldn't hurt to go ahead and book rooms for all of us knowing that I would be able to cancel some of them if need be.  

Even though I looked for lodging as soon as I got the announcement, I wasn't able to find enough rooms for our family at the preferred hotel.  The three rooms that were available had a no cancellation policy which did not work for us.  Unfortunately, there weren't a lot of other hotel choices in the area with open rooms either. Plus, those hotels were all north of the venue meaning those in our family that were arriving on the wedding day would have to drive even further north to change before the ceremony.

Hearing that I had no luck with the hotels, Cal suggested that I try VRBO.  We had never stayed in one before but knew a lot of people who had.  Nick helped me with the website and soon I found a five-bedroom house fifteen minutes from the wedding venue that would be perfect for us or so I thought.  Shortly after booking, the nightmare began.  VRBO cancelled my booking due to a payment error on their end.  Even so the owner of the rental went ahead and charged me a $375 deposit anyway which meant that VRBO wouldn't guarantee the stay.  It was like renting from a random person which made all of us uncomfortable.  I emailed the owner right away and was assured that I would be refunded immediately which never happened.

Two weeks later, I am still trying to get my money back.  I have heard nothing back from the owner and VRBO said that there isn't anything that they can do about it.  Thankfully, I was able to file a claim with my credit card company and have all of the email messages to help back my case.  The other good news is that I found a Hampton Inn about twenty-five minutes south of the wedding where we can all stay.  Even better, I can cancel up until the night before meaning that no one has to decide today and I can get my money back if something happens.  Needless to say, I have decided that VRBO and Airbnb aren't for me and plan on staying with the Hilton chain from here on out.  

Cleaning Grout is Not For the Weak

Several months ago, I bought a steam cleaner to use on our glass shower doors.  I could clean the water spots off of them without it, but it took a lot of work.  I saw a reel that suggested using a steam cleaner, so after more research, I thought I'd try it.  It worked well and did cut down on the amount of time it took to clean the shower doors.

While I was getting the steamer ready to use, I realized that it had a brush for grout cleaning.  I have a ton of tile in my house and although I kept the floors clean, I knew that the grout had not been thoroughly scrubbed since we moved in three years ago.  My handyman suggested using Stanley Steamer to do it, but once I saw the quote for $360, I decided to find a way to do it myself with my new steam cleaner.

I first tried the cleaner on the front porch, and it made a big difference. Every week since then, I put on my to-do list, "clean bathroom grout," but something got in the way.  Finally last May, I was ready to work on the bathroom tile when I got an email that the attachments were being recalled because they would slip off easily causing burns.  I knew from experience that they were right and waited for the new parts to arrive.

Today was the day that I got the steam cleaner out and started on the bathroom tile.  It took a lot of work and way more time that I thought that it would, but they looked a hundred times better in the end.  After all of that work, I decided that I couldn't do the rest of the tile in the house with just the steam cleaner and started looking at grout brushes.  I hope it makes the job even easier.  No matter what, it was nice to know that I had come up with a solution for several hundred dollars less than Stanley Steemer.  I would much rather but the elbow grease in at home and use that money for our trip to the Midwest later this month.