Rich and Strange Aeons

I've been here over 28 days. Say a guest room turns over every 4 days, on average; that's 7 turns. Say 1.5 guests per stay; that's 10 days over the period. 3 such guest rooms, so around 30 people have traipsed through this space while I've been here. 30 people who think short-term travel is a great idea now.

At least 2 of those rooms have their own bathroom, so I don't share that, though the 3rd room is big and typically has 3 or even 4 guests. And most of them don't use the kitchen. And it's all decently ventilated, or at least the windows are wide open. But still.

I haven't been counting, but 30 feels like a lot. Still, say it's every six days, including empty days, that's about 5 * 1.5 * 3 = 22 ish guests. Yaaaay.

In the spirit of positivity, I should note that my host has been awesome. Well, she doesn't wear a mask, that's not awesome. But she's responsive, diligent, and actively thoughtful; in general it would be hard to be a better host. Though most of my hosts in nearly 3 years in Airbnb have been good.

Going for a walk really can help. Helped in January, when there was a catastrophic blowup in my life. And tonight, for pettier causes. After losing my last Airbnb to house sale, I reserved this place for 5 weeks. But the old place had a 30 day minimum, so turnover wasn't that high. This place has 5 rooms and high turnover, which is *really fun* in a pandemic. But tonight's thing was that I'd anticipated a quiet Thanksgiving -- fewer people traveling, I'd been told last week no one had booked it, and so I figured it was just me and the other long term guest, a very quiet girl.

But last minute bookings happen. Two nights ago, a couple and a baby, in the room that shares a very thin wall with mine. Okay. Today they left, yay... and then *four* people move into the same room, lots of stomping, cooking too.

It's not like I can blame anyone. They're renting a room just like I do (though why are they traveling, and for only five days?) and the landlady is of course making money, it's not like she promised no one would check in over the holiday.

But having my expectations, shattered, LOUDLY, really got to me. I was already on edge from the host puttering around cleaning for two hours -- she's diligent, probably natural for her to do so as soon as someone checks out, but it's the day before Thanksgiving, take a break! And now I know why she had to: more guests -- and then, bam.

I feel calmer after the walk. Also after meeting some of them and telling them about the THIN WALLS AND CREAKY FLOOR.

I'd also been mad about them not wearing masks in the kitchen despite being Asians speaking Asian language, but they were apologetic enough when I brought it up and wearing them now.

New policy: when renting long term private rooms, try to find ones that have a 30-ish day minimum, to avoid this turnover problem.

I guess I've noticed my irritation before, but not as strongly. Pandemic doesn't help. Thin walls don't help. And it hasn't been much of an issue in a while: Most of my places for a while have been entire (Osaka, for less than I'm paying for a room here), the only guest room, or multiple guest rooms but fairly isolated (like an ornate garret I stayed in in Berkeley).

Well, two Saturdays from now I start splurging on an entire bungalow for six weeks. Expensive but I started figuring it was worth it to avoid people, especially the sort of people doing short term travel now. Spend on rent instead of medical bills.

Wow, I haven't had an airbnb tag before.