To ask if hotels/Airbnbs will let me stay during lockdown

[simonneilsbeautifulhair]

My boiler has broken, plumber can't get out until Monday evening and it's subzero, we are shivering and freezing in hats and coats and scarfs. No heating and no hot water. Would I be able to book a hotel/Airbnb for a few days until it's fixed. As it's just bloody unbearable.

Probably cheaper to buy some oil filled radiators or halogen heaters. My mother doesn't have a boiler, just LPG heaters and an immersion heater for water. She's 88.

Why not just go to B&Q and buy some electric heaters for half the price of staying in a hotel?

Hotels and Airbnbs are only allowed to open for very specific reasons, so no.

Can you order little fan heaters for just one or two rooms? Presumably the kettle still works so although it's not ideal you can get hot water.

It's only for two days, it will be unpleasant but you will be ok!

Crossed post. And yes to the immersion heater for hot water.

Yes you can. One of the reasons to stay in a hotel is that your main residence is uninhabitable. I had to recently for a similar reason and the list of reasons including this was pinned up in reception and they were fine with it.

We also found that the hotel was super cheap - £100 at a posh country one for an apartment with two bedrooms (I’ve got 3 kids).

Yes. Ring the local hotels and explain and I’m sure they will be fine

As someone who spent last night in a hotel for work, I'd rather stay at home even if it is cold. The rooms are stripped right back to basics, no extra pillows, no tissues, no food options available and masks to be worn at all times outside of your room. I also had to sign to say it was essential travel, and that I was OK with them passing my details to the police if they felt it wasn't genuinely essential travel

Best to check your nations rules. Wouldn't be applicable where I live. Hotels etc are for work, or otherwise being homeless (Northern Ireland). You can buy heaters from the shops that are open such as B&Q etc

Just get a couple of portable heaters like PPs have suggested.

Which country are you in and what are the rules for that country?

I've been and bought a small fan heater but it's still bloody cold. It's the combination of really bloody cold and no hot water to shower that is unbearable. Our bathroom is fucking freezing at the best of times as it's in an extension that some moron decided didn't need any heating. I had a heated towel rail fitted but it's still so cold that we put off going to the toilet for as long as possible on cold winter evenings; and that's when the heating is working!

I'm in England

You're allowed to book a hotel for circumstances like this, and given what you've said, I would. Take snacks with you and order take away delivery.

Come on OP. You've bought 1 fan heater? But a few oil filled radiators and a couple of extension leads. I mentioned my 88 year old mother upthread, well I grew up in that house and it wasn't pleasant in these conditions but doable. I live in a very draughty old house now and have oil filled radiators that get deployed when it gets really cold - they're brilliant.

Yes you’re allowed to book a hotel for this reason and I would be doing so!
Fab heaters are rubbish though if you do stay. You need the oil filled plug in ones

I think it is essential and an emergency I'd say a hotel would. Most Airbnb's have gone on the longterm rental market now travel has reduced they aren't getting business.
Good news for renters supply and demand

Halogen for your living room, oil rad for you bedroom and possibly kitchen. Oil rads are on a thermostat so can be left on low over night and adjusted if you need more heat.
Yes, you can stay in a hotel, but it brings its own problems as you are unlikely to have cooking facilities etc

Yes deffo go into an Airbnb abs be warm
They’ll be half to have a legitimate booking and guest who needs to stay

Get on your local Facebook page and ask for a loan of heaters and/or hot water bottles xx

See if you can find a smaller, independent place. I’ve just booked some colleagues into a b & b for work purposes and the landlady is really looking after them. The restaurant is closed but she’s doing takeaway roast dinners for them to take into their rooms & trying to make everything as clean, safe but homely as possible.

Pretty wasteful to go out and buy a load of heaters tbh When you won’t need them after Monday - where does she store them then

Id deffo look for a hotel or air bnb

Yes, it's fine. Hotels are desperate for business at the moment and aren't really checking too closely anyway - and even if they were, your house is uninhabitable so you are absolutely allowed to stay in a hotel.

Have a look at some hotel websites - most of them barely mention covid. They have the token list displayed on the website or in reception but that is all. Travelodge have no mention whatsoever of Covid on their websites.

@Heyahun

Pretty wasteful to go out and buy a load of heaters tbh When you won’t need them after Monday - where does she store them then

Id deffo look for a hotel or air bnb

Agreed. I don't have a car on which to transport oil filled radiators home in and I certainly don't have room in my flat to store them, so that wouldn't be my solution. I'd probably buy a fan heater as I do have space to store of those. If that wasn't warm enough I have a support bubble I could stay with but if I didn't I'd be booking into a hotel.

Spent 4 hours trying to defrost my condensate pipe this morning as I couldn't get hold of another reasonably priced plumber. Thought I'd be able to sort it but the entire length was frozen solid and I'd only managed to get about 1/4 defrosted in 4 hours. Admitted defeat and called every plumber again. Managed to get hold of someone who disconnected it from the pipe until it's warmer and stuck a bucket under it to catch water. WE HAVE HOT WATER and AGAIN!