Mandy, Author at Serendipity Mommy

The Common Airbnb Rental Mistakes and How to Solve Them

October 19, 2018 by Mandy

There is no denying that Airbnb is nothing but legendary in the bed and breakfast industry. It has made it easy and possible for travelers to find great accommodation options without the need to restrict themselves to pricey hotels or noisy dorm rooms. It has also ensured that travelers can now have a feel at home experience by spending in home setups just like the ones they had left behind. If you were coming to Canada for a vacation, you don’t have to spend hours upon hours scouring the internet for the best hotels to live in near the Canadian Rockies.

Once you are done with the Canada ETA application, all you have to do is head over to Airbnb and in no time, you will find a plethora of potential places you can rent for your stay. However, nothing with a legendary status presented challenges, and the same is also the case with Airbnb. In as much as it has brought along a lot convenience for travelers, it has also come with challenges, which if you don’t know how to deal with, you will surely miss on the great experience that millions of travelers around the world have been getting.

Here is a brief look at some of them and how you can deal with the most amicable manner-:

I didn’t get the place I expected

Thousands of people have complained of not getting the places they had hoped to rent, and sometimes the variation between the rooms you get and that which is being offered by the host are small, but sometimes you feel like you have been ripped off. For example, you may find that the owner has three cats yet they never indicated that they have pets in the listing or you may have been promised a room within the house, and when you reach, you are given a room downstairs when you had hoped that it will be one of the upper rooms.

If you arrive at your supposed rental and find that it is not what you had booked, reach to the host and share with them your concerns and see if there is anything they can do to help save the situation. If they are adamant about giving you what you hoped you had rented and you fail to reach an amicable solution, you can always request for a refund from Airbnb within 24 hours after check-in. Be sure to take photos of what you got to support your case in demonstrating that the host didn’t provide the room you had booked and they did nothing to change it.

Something isn’t functioning properly during your stay

People go to Airbnb because of the home experience. They want to a have a near experience as the one they usually have when at home. For example, they want to find a dishwasher, iron, Wi-Fi, machine washer, fridge etc. However, there are instances when you make the booking only to find that some of those appliances are not working or not working as they had been described. There are also instances when the appliances breakdown during your stay.

When you run into such scenarios, you should share your concerns with the host and request them to have them repaired or replaced as soon as possible, or if you think you can’t help but use the appliances, then you can go ahead and ask for a refund. However, if the items break down during your stay, this may be a sticky situation since the host may not be willing to take responsibility to have it repaired for your further convenience.

Nevertheless, you should still go ahead and share with your host what happened and see how you can reach an amicable solution. Some hosts will be good enough to replace them for you, but you can also find stubborn ones who will want you to repair or replace the item before you leave. Depending on the kind of experience you get, you can always mention it in the reviews so that you can warn potential visitors to that host to knowwhat to expect.

My host is disgusting

If you are renting an entire house, then this may not be a problem, but if you have to share space with your hosts, then you can be frustrated if you don’t like the host. Your disgust of the host can be avoided if you take a little time and dig deeper into the property you are thinking about renting. The first place you should start with is on the listing – take time to read through the listing to see if you can pick out certain subtle pointers that you may not like the host.

Check if they are offering tough conditions which you think may not be pleasing to you. Also, take time to read the reviews by past guests since you can get an idea based on their experiences if your potential host is someone you will easily get along with or if you are headed for potential conflicts.

If you move in and in the course of our stay you find that conflicts are beginning to arise and you are unable to continue living peacefully, you can politely request to be allowed to leave and be refunded for the days not used, or you can reach to Airbnb to act as a mediator. If nothing works and you can’t leave, just try to limit contact with the disgusting hosts. You won’t be therefore a long time and you will soon be out.

A reservation canceled by the host the last minute

Some hosts may decide to cancel reservations the very last minute, but such should make you overly worried even if you had a few days to your trip. In most cases, if this happens, Airbnb will let you use the money on another booking or give a refund if you choose to not use Airbnb for that trip. This should be a pretty forward situation to deal with, though it is very little you can do to control your host from canceling. You will just have to accept and a way to deal with it.

How Poker Can Aid your Child’s Mental Acuity

October 19, 2018 by Mandy

Many times poker is typically associated with seedy casinos, smoke-filled rooms, and unsavory gamblers, but push that stereotype aside. Here, we’re discussing poker as a fun family game that can be used to sharpen your child’s cognitive abilities. You don’t have to bet actual money, simply play as you would any other board or card game. An extra bonus—in our digital-obsessed world, poker is a screen-free activity that can be played anywhere with family and friends.

Let’s talk about how poker can bolster your child’s intellectual development.

Strengthen Their Memory

For starters, when you teach children poker, they’ll need to remember the suits, rules, card values and depending on the version—how to bet. If you need a refresher yourself, here’s a comprehensive guide that breaks down the rules for multiple types of poker. For children, understanding the game is a test on to itself.

Once a child comprehends the foundation of poker, the game is cognitively challenging to play, it incorporates strategy, attentiveness, and memory. Multifaceted card games that require counting and concentration keep the brain alert and sharpen skills. For this reason, a similar card game, bridge, is popular with the elderly. Research and studies have proven that mentally-challenging card games can help with brain development later in life, and slow cognitive decline while improving memory. The same principle can be applied to young poker players.

Sharpen Math Skills

Poker requires quick mental calculations with both your hand and when you need to bet. Depending on the age of your children you might want to help them out a bit or let them use paper and pen. Poker is a math-heavy activity, but your child will be so caught up in the competition and fun of the game, they won’t realize their practicing math skills.If you have older children, you can take the math lesson one step further and dive into the probability of outcomes based on cards and hands that have been played.

This practice can also lead to an experience in money management. A poker player only has so many chips in their pot. Based on observations and calculations children need to show self-control, diligence, understand the slow accumulation of savings, as well as know when to take risks to go all in.

Boosts Confidence in Their Intelligence and Abilities

Once your children understand the game and get some practice under their belts, they’ll slowly begin to trust their competence. After they experience a few wins and losses, they won’t feel too shy to make bets or put themselves out there. As well as understand that while card games require skill, they can also be affected by luck. (A valuable life lesson in general!)

By teaching children the game, how to take turns, and how to be confident in their decisions, you’re not only strengthening their mental capacity but their self-confidence in those abilities. Educational psychologist, Sean Flanagan, explains: “Card and board games can promote oral language skills, problem-solving, vocabulary development, assertiveness, and other reciprocal exchanges.”

Poker Enhances Skill While Encouraging Family Time

Bottom line — as parents, we all want to find challenging and engaging activities that promote learning for our children. It’s often difficult to find traditional pastimes that don’t involve video games or a wifi connection. A family poker tournament can achieve this while offering a chance for everyone to gather around the table and take part in some healthy competition. Not too mention, a chance to beat Mom and Dad. “To be able to compete against parents and sometimes win is symbolically important to kids. [They] can learn to win and lose gracefully, to be happy but not gloat, and to lose and not pout,” says William Doherty, professor of family social science at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul.

So find an old deck of cards and dust off the chips, it’s time to teach your children to play poker!

6 Ways to Make a Family Vacation Memorable

October 18, 2018 by Mandy

Family vacations provide the perfect opportunity to come together with your partner and children to make wonderful memories. The greater the trip, the stronger your bond will be throughout the years, and the more wonderful moments your children will have to remember once they become adults.

If you want to ensure your kids are filled with wonderful childhood memories, here are six ways to make an upcoming family vacation more memorable.

1. Unplug from Modern Technology

If you want to connect with your family and embrace relaxation, you should encourage everyone to disconnect from their smartphones, laptops and tablets for at least a few hours each day. This will prevent you having to compete with games, social media or text messages, so you can each enjoy each other’s company. You will return home more relaxed while feeling a little closer to your loved ones.

2. Surprise Your Loved Ones

If you want to make your children or family members smile from ear to ear during a vacation, considering arranging a thoughtful surprise they will not see coming. For example, you could take them to a theme park or buy them tickets to a kids theatre London show, which will ensure they have an unforgettable trip.

3. Break Free from Your Comfort Zone

Add some excitement to your vacation by doing something completely different. It is time to break free from your comfort zone and embrace activities you wouldn’t ordinarily try. For instance, you could hike through a lush forest, try skiing for the first time, or zip line across a canyon. It is the perfect chance to confront your fears, do something different and create a truly memorable trip.

4. Try the Local Cuisine

Children are unlikely to forget a holiday filled with the dishes or fast food restaurants they can experience back home. Ensure they never forget a trip by encouraging your loved ones to try the local cuisine.

For example, you cannot visit Canada without trying Poutine, and you shouldn’t visit Japan and not sample their fresh-tasting sushi. It will allow your children to learn more about the food and flavors attached to a culture, while providing them with a more memorable experience.

5. Walk as Much as Possible

Allow your family to absorb a culture and destination by walking as much as possible when on vacation. You’ll see much more than you would on either a bus or inside a taxi. Plus, it will help to keep your family both fit and healthy when on holiday. Simply review a route from A to B to avoid getting lost along the way.

6. Choose a Family-Friendly Hotel

While a hotel might accept children, it doesn’t necessarily mean they will cater to their needs, which could lead to your children becoming bored and restless. Do your homework to find a family-friendly hotel that features children’s entertainment and kid-friendly amenities, which will ensure your children never experience a minute of boredom when on vacation.

How To Save On Your Replacement Furnace

October 12, 2018 by Mandy

On average, a furnace can last 15-20 years before it needs to be replaced. If the furnace in your home is coming up on the end of its life, it’s worth replacing before a total breakdown leaves you and your family freezing in your home. It can be expensive having to replace a furnace, but there are ways to save, including investing in a high-efficiency furnace and renting to save yourself the upfront costs of a new unit.

Replacing your furnace can be an opportunity for you to save money in the future, especially on your energy bills.Today, you can find high-efficiency furnaces that use considerably less energy than your current one. Standard furnaces run at 80 percent efficiency (the minimum by law), but you can buy units that run 90 to 98 percent efficiently. That’s a difference of 10-18 percent of your heating costs that are wasted with a less efficient unit.

Another example of ‘paying it forward’ with a home upgrade is investing in a water dispenser for your home. While there is an upfront cost, the savings over time add up and there is a huge convenience benefit of buying a water dispenser. A new furnace also adds convenience benefits in the form of more equally distributed air flow throughout the house and several other benefits.

If you’re not worried about conserving energy and you want to save the most amount of money possible, the higher cost of energy-efficient furnaces mean that a less efficient furnace may be the least costly option.

However, much of that cost depends on where the price of energy is headed. How much will your heating bills cost you in 10 or 20 years? How big of a difference would it make if you could save 10 or 18 percent on that bill? Energy bills across North America are set to rise, with jurisdictions like Ontario seeing a potential rise in energy costs of 52 percent by 2035. That’s a significant jump and any efficiency you can gain from your furnace will go a long way toward softening theblow.

Whether you decide to replace your furnace with a new unit that’s high efficiency or a new 80 percent furnace, you also have to decide whether you should rent or buy. Buying your furnace could save you money over the course of its lifespan, but it will cost you immediately to both purchase the unit and have it installed. When you rent, you don’t have to pay anything upfront, which can make replacing your furnace in an emergency more palatable to your budget.

When you decide between renting and buying, keep in mind the cost of furnace repairs. If you rent, minor and major furnace repairs should come as part of your rental plan. This is where renting can wind up saving you both money and stress in the long-run, especially if you plan on keeping your furnace running as long as possible. The older it is, the more likely your furnace is to breakdown at inconvenient times. Furnace repairs have a broad cost range.

Your average furnace repair can cost anywhere from $20 to replace a thermostat to $1,500 to replace a blower motor. When that’s covered by your rental plan, you can come out ahead. If you bought, you’re on the hook for expensive repairs, often when your furnace is already quite old.

There is a lot to consider when it’s time to replace your furnace, but there are ways to save money on your next furnace replacement.

Why “in Debt” Doesn’t Mean Doomed

October 8, 2018 by Mandy

Have excessive debt that’s weighing on your psyche and ability to enjoy the quality of lifestyle you seek? You’re surely not alone. In fact, around 80 percent of Americans carry debt ranging from mortgages and student loans to credit card balances, medical debt and auto loans.

Not all of this debt is bad debt; however, a significant percentage of consumers will struggle to pay back what they owe and feel doomed in the process.

If you’re nodding your head as if to say “yep, that’s me,” keep reading to learn why being in debt doesn’t mean you’re doomed, regardless what the statistics might suggest.

Changing the “Debtor’s Viewpoint”

Owing quadruple-digit sums with only so much income coming in each month is intimidating. Add owing quadruple-digit amounts in debt like credit cards, which carry monthly interest rates as high as 25 percent, and the situation is downright panic-inducing.

Staring at what seems like an insurmountable sum while experiencing crippling negative emotions like fear, hopelessness, anger and sadness paralyzes us into grave acceptance. This is evidenced none other than by the 73 percent of Americans who die in debt with average balances of $61,554 (including mortgages) and $12,875 (excluding mortgages).

To combat this debilitating viewpoint, try to make progress any way you can. Seek therapy to unload the turmoil you’re experiencing, reach out to friends and family to uplift your spirits, set a budget to cut back in spending areas that only hurt your self-esteem and financial reflection.

Debt Relief Strategies for Every Situation

Seeking emotional support and maintaining a positive mindset are prerequisites to debt relief success, but an actual solution still needs to be developed for the debt to go away. The debt relief strategy to take should depend on the severity of a situation. This doesn’t necessarily mean the amount of debt owed, but more importantly, a debtor’s (in)ability to pay the debt back.

If you realize that your debt is becoming a problem early on, you can spare yourself many consequences. By calling your creditor and explaining that you’re having difficulty making payments on your debt, they could grant you a short payment grace period, lower your interest rate or even restructure the terms of your debt. However, this DIY approach will only work if you haven’t already lapsed on your payments.

In the case that you have a regular income but your balance is so big that it only makes you feel overwhelmed, use proven repayment strategies like the debt avalanche, debt snowball, or the hybrid debt snowflake method.

When you follow a debt avalanche approach, you’ll pay the minimum balances on all your accounts except the one with the highest interest rate, which you’ll allocate all your remaining funds in your budget toward. Taking the debt snowball route focuses on paying all your minimums and contributing the remaining money after expenses to your lowest overall balance. The snowball approach aims to save on interest whereas the snowball builds morale for continued progress.

If your budget is barely breathing with either of these strategies, the debt snowflake plan focuses on contributing day-to-day “found” savings through either the avalanche or snowball method to accelerate the days till you’re debt-free.

For debtors who want a more hands-off approach, debt management services take one monthly payment and appropriately distribute it to creditors on the debtor’s behalf. There’s also debt consolidation that involves taking out a loan with a lower interest rate to pay back a debtor’s previous balances to simplify payment and save on interest.

For debt that’s well exceeding what a regular income and strategic planning can accomplish, some solutions can lead debtors to financial freedom. By working with a debt relief company or by declaring bankruptcy, you can take a big step toward getting back on track.

Companies like Freedom Debt Relief founded by financial thought leader and CEO Andrew Housser provide debt settlement services that attempt to resolve debts with a debtor’s creditor(s) for a lower lump-sum amount. These companies charge a fee based on the original amount of the settled debt, but a debtor is only charged if their debts are settled and they agree to pay the settled amount.

By hiring a bankruptcy attorney, paying court costs and signing up for financial management courses, you can have your debt forgiven by declaring bankruptcy. Declaring chapter 7 will result in some of your assets being liquidated to help pay back your debt. Declaring chapter 13 protects your assets but requires 3–5 years of court payments for debt to be wiped away.

All in all, even these more severe measures are better than living in debt and the torrid carousel of emotions that accompany it. Debt has a nasty reputation, but with the number of people encountering similar situations and the variety of solutions available for all debt stages and severities, the only way to doom yourself is to sit inactive while debt clouds your entire world.