u/thankfulforyourhelp

The carpet in my vacation rental is the original carpet - it's almost 40 years old. It actually looks pretty good, but it is getting pretty rough in the high traffic areas, so I'm going to replace it.

The thing is, I'm not sure if I should replace it with carpet or go with vinyl plank flooring. I've actually never had carpet and I thought it would be a nightmare in a beach house, but it's the opposite. It's soft on the feet, I have not had a problem with guests leaving stains, and very crucially, it's really forgiving on hiding sand. No cleaner can perfectly clean the floors to where you get sand out of every corner and staircase in a large home. Carpet really hides that - you can't see it or feel it.

I always thought vinyl plank would be a no-brainer. I've installed it myself at some other non-beach rentals. I do have to say, the mid-range brands on vinyl plank do not hold up. Only the more expensive brands look good after 5 years, so I'd be really worried putting it on a high-traffic area like stairs.

Anyone have any thoughts? No wrong answers. It's an expensive choice that could lead to 10+ years of regret, so I just wanted to put this question out there. It would also be really helpful to know if everyone hates carpet! I always thought I did.

First off - for your sanity, I would beg any friend not to buy a beach house where you need to rent it in the summer to pay the mortgage. It will bring in money and be fully booked from June to August, but the cost will be your sanity. Just be prepared for a second job and stress. To put this in perspective, there were 4 other homes that sold at the same time as mine in 2023, all the homes here become rentals, all 4 have since sold again because they owners realized how much it sucks. I already owned vacation rentals and knew it would be tough, so I was mentally and financially prepared.

This is one of those gray-area guests. I take leaving a bad review very seriously. I only do it for damage or violation of policies. I can't prove this, many in this sub suspect it, but there is likely some kind of punishment for leaving too many negative reviews for guests. I take warning other hosts very seriously, but also think that leaving a bad review for simply being unusually messy is too far. I just don't leave a review if it's just mess. I do believe in hospitality and have no wish to leave anyone a mean review that ruins their vacation experience.

The good: they left the home actually pretty clean for a group with kids. I would give them a high rating here. I can also tell they made an effort to clean, so please keep this in mind when you read the next stuff.

The bad: checked out 20 minutes late. The issue with this is I disclose clearly in my listing, after-booking message, check in code message, and on the fridge that I am fully booked in the summer and cannot do late checkouts. I even invite guests to cancel if the 10 am checkout time does not work for them. It's a large house and usually at least 1 thing is broken in every stay with no notice, so I need time to come up with a creative solution.

Messaged me at 12 am and 6 am about non-emergency things. This is something I would not care about if it weren't for the other things.

Found 2 vapes in the bed - they likely smoked in the house

Broke 2 light switches - like shattered rocker style light switches in the master bedroom and bath. It looked intentional, but not sure. Luckily, I am handy and raced over to Ace Hardware and put new ones in myself. Also ripped down some wall hooks and one of those bathroom caddys. The bathroom caddys are put on with those adhesive stickers, so they are crap and do come off from time to time, but it is always from guests who damage other things.

Very petty of this guest:

Some background: you have to pay $50 to park on the beach in my area and make reservations in advance - they sell out. I have a free pass that I keep on a hook right near the door so every guest saves $50. It's a big deal for that to go missing for the next guests because they would be all sold out if the pass isn't there. I let guests know prior to booking and then in my welcome message that I will send a reminder before their checkout to please just put that pass back on the hook. It actually goes very smoothly. I do have a backup pass that I don't tell guests about as an emergency backup.

I guess they didn't like this reminder - they hid the pass in a dresser for us to waste time finding. I know they saw my message. It's not even remotely close to putting it on a hook near the front door.

Should I leave a negative review on this? It is a bunch of small things that add up to where I personally would not host this person again and cancel on them if they booked with me, but none of this cost me money, just time and sanity. I always keep in mind that they are paying a lot of money and have no wish to harm their ability to Instant Book. I'm sure others can relate to this that are booked most of the year - once the guest is out, I'm on to the next one and don't want to spend time or energy dealing with the previous guest.

Really appreciate your perspective.

UPDATE: thank you all for taking the time to respond, truly. I come to this sub to learn. I know posts like these get a bit repetitive, but every situation is different and unfortunately reviews are usually not black and white. I've learned a lot from your comments. Based on the overall reaction, I am not going to leave any review. Sorry to those of you that may be upset by this. Here is why I'm not leaving a review in this case: they were pretty tidy and I saw an effort to clean up after their kids. The damage they caused and the late checkout did wipe out any time savings. Finished with only 15 minutes to spare. I would not host them again, but I don't think they are exactly a danger to other hosts property. As others noted, proving they smoked, broke the switches on purpose, and hid the pass on purpose is impossible. It is a hunch based on 8 years of studying guest behavior as a host. I would give them a solid 4. I keep my photos of damage and if they tried to return, I would cancel the reservation.

So I know from this group to go with leathered, dark granite for durability. My local granite dealer does not have it in stock. I will be getting quotes from some other countertop installers who may have it.

This is just a tiny sample of what they do have - I looked up their slabs online and it seems like most come from India or Brazil. Based on what I've seen in this sub, Brazil can have some bad granite. Are these Brazil options crap? Is India okay? Would you mind telling me if you think these will be a bad choice for durability/longevity? I have not bought these yet, so let it rip, no offense taken.

I have a simple L-shaped kitchen, no bar setup, so all slab weight will be supported by cabinets. I mention that because I've seen photos of cracks from under-supported granite in this sub.

https://www.stoneply.com/en/stones/sunset-canyon/

https://www.stonecontact.com/siena-beige-granite/s13771

https://www.stonecontact.com/bordeaux-dream-granite/s16869

I've truly gone through all the posts on this sub to try to do educate myself and I'm now more uncertain.

I've always just had laminate. The old laminate from the 80s to early 90s really holds up. Is it pretty? Nope. The newer laminate is much less durable, so that's why I was looking at quartz and granite. No interest in spending more than that on soapstone or quartzite. Just can't do it.

My question with granite is: if I use one of the top rated sealers, such as Laticrete StoneTech BulletProof Sealer or Tenax Proseal Granite Sealer, and I am diligent about sealing it every six months, will it truly prevent stains? If you could prevent staining, then granite, since it is heatproof, seems like the better material over quartz. It's also generally slightly lower in price at the local countertop companies in my area and looks better in person than quartz.

I've just been shocked by how many people say they bought Cambria quartz and it still stains and scratches - may as well have bought laminate then because those are the two big issues with laminate. that was the only reason I was thinking of quartz.

Grateful for any insight!

Both my mother and I have separate American Airlines accounts with points.

My mother is terrible with tech, so I always handle buying her flight tickets. I buy one for myself first and then log into her AA account and buyer hers.

This is the first time I have ever had this happen. Neither of the awards flights - neither the from or the return flight - are showing up as offered in her account. They are better flights - they leave at more reasonable times. Not only that, the first leg is showing as no flights offered for that day at all.

The only thing I can think of: I have the Platinum Select credit card and she has the no annual fee Mileup.

Has this ever happened to you or any advice? I actually could not find this exact scenario on Reddit or anywhere else. We've being doing this for years and have never seen this.

Update: thanks for the responses here. I'm really, really grateful for your help. I did call AA and they told me they could not book my mother's flight. They were blocking anymore point purchases for the flights for now. She would have to pay the cash rate to get the same flight. I cancelled my flight and I'm searching for some other destinations. This issue is coming up because we're trying to fly to Europe with AA. They have really limited routes for Europe, so it's always a creative exercise trying to find routes. Just wanted to update in case someone sees this post in the future with the same issue.

Hello all! Been lurking here and reading all the opinions on which skates are best for the outdoors specifically. I don't have an indoor rink, so I will always be outdoors and don't need skates that will work indoors.

I bought these Sure Grip Boardwalks with the 82A wheels from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094SMJFZT?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

Are there better ones you would recommend? Happy to spend what it takes - I just want quality skates that will make it less hard to progress as an outdoor skater and will last several years. Thanks!