So, the context for this one.
I have this winter lodge in the land preserve in Seefeld by the Linden's trail, across from the Alchemy store. Rather than just rent it to one or two people, I decided to make a winter lodge, and rent the separate rooms in it (three) to the public. The rent was set at $25/35 with the idea it would be for short stays. That's $180 x 3 or $540 which is US $2.00 revenue per month. The tier on this 2048 is US $5.46 per month, however. So that means that even when it is filled with 3 people (and it always was), it didn't even pay half the tier. What I noticed is that the people who lived there never left any tips. Ever. Just people passing by and having some cocoa on the porch and picking up some free cross-country skies and snow boards would leave the tips. The tips were not enough to cover the tier. It's not much, but it ads up -- all the donations and tier that I get for the Land Preserve I make up cover 15% or less of the tier, and I have covered the rest of it myself with rentals there and elsewhere, but this has become harder and harder as the cost of SL has gone up, even with lower tier (the cashout is less now) and with the need to buy new mesh content to stay relevant.
So I decided to first, double the price. Even then, at US $4.00, it's not enough to cover the tier, even with tips. But it's something. I don't think I could charge more than $50/75/wk for rooms anyway, especially with no skyboxes.
I also decided to limit stays to two weeks. I find that 25L rentals often fill up with people who pay 6 months in advance to lock them in and stay there for ever. I haven't had a policy of limiting stays but I feel like they've lost their purpose then when essentially, a few people then shake me down for rentals that don't cover tier, rather than having lots of people come through to enjoy something as a getaway for two weeks.
More people wouldn't add to the tier, but it adds to the overall pool of customers who might then go to another rental and pay more, it does work that way. People leave a more expensive one, go in the cheaper one for awhile, come back to the expensive, or they start out in the cheap, go to the expensive. Remember, the purpose here is not my fabulous greedy land baron existence, which is all fake. My purpose is merely to get tier paid.
I announced this policy in my group newsletters, and did several things:
o gave existing tenants asked to move one free month at the Lodge or that Pueblo skyboxes, in my new area in Crespo
o in fact found some more cheap snow and put in another inn to add to the spots but still kept this policy
o successfully moved two of the three in Seefeld to other locations and they seemed happy enough and appreciative enough for literally the YEARS they had enjoyed a dirt-cheap rental for me.
At the time I cleared the house out -- and BTW immediately got two brand-new tenants I'd never had before, so the change was achieving its purpose -- a much older tenant who had come and gone arrived and rented. She paid a month and I made a note to myself that I would have to tell her of the new policy since she hadn't read two newsletters about it, understandably, people don't.
I then saw her pay for another two weeks, so that's when I IM'd her, and got a ration of shit. BTW, had I ever bothered to look at her profile (I seldom do with tenants), I would have been warned. Here's what it says:
I'm a phenomenal secret-keeper because, deep down, I really don't care about your shit enough to actually talk about it.
I CLEAN my friends list, if we haven't spoken and/or you turn out to be a fucking idiot, most likely i'll remove you. SAVE the butt hurt act for someone else.
Hm. This person might just be a woman and a total bitch -- OR a man, with that level of nasty. Does this work on anybody, really, except to drive them away? Why do people put such hateful and vituperative statements on their profiles?!
[06:27] Zooey (zeroz.cummings) paid you L$100.
[06:31] Prokofy Neva: Hi, I don't know if you read the newsletter, but there's a new policy for Seefeld (and the price doubled as you can see) -- limit 2 weeks from Nov-Feb. So after your current box expires you should go to another place to give someone else a chance because it is in demand. There's a new inn in Swain, and also the Lodge in Carlisle, and $25 skyboxes in the new area in Crespo, etc. here are some landmarks
[06:32] Inventory item 'Ravenglass Rentals $25 Snow Lodge - Home for the Holidays' offered
[06:32] Inventory item 'Ravenglass Rentals - SL Public Land Preserve Lodge $50' offered
[06:33] Inventory item 'Ravenglass Rentals La Montana Rosa OFFICE' offered
[06:33] ZeroZ Cummings: well, you can refund the money I just paid and i can go elsewhere
[06:33] Prokofy Neva: well as I said you can stay for 2 weeks there but when it expires you should move to another lodge
[06:34] ZeroZ Cummings: furthermore, i had time left and wasnt credited
[06:34] Prokofy Neva: I don't know what you mean by that, the boxes were refunded and people were given refunds plus the cancellation fee
[06:35] ZeroZ Cummings: i only rented the place because my friend that died used to live there. so i kept it for sentimental reasons
Let's stop right there, and note the similarity with other manipulative, controlling people like the one in the previous post. When someone tells you of a tragedy -- their own, or another's close to them -- in a transaction that is impersonal and financial, what are they hoping for, consciously or unconsciously? They are hoping for pity, hoping for a deal, and hoping you will change your mind.
[06:36] Prokofy Neva: well I'm sorry to hear that your friend died, who was that?
[06:36] Prokofy Neva: but this place is in demand, so I have this new policy because people keep asking about it
[06:37] ZeroZ Cummings: wow, thats crazy lol
[06:37] Prokofy Neva: even at double the price it doesn't pay for the tier that it costs
[06:37] Prokofy Neva: why is it crazy to give more people a chance to live in a nearly-free lodge?
[06:37] ZeroZ Cummings: crazy that its in demand
[06:37] Prokofy Neva: you have had years with me subsidizing your Second Life, and I have never had a thank you or a tip or anything, and yes, it's in demand in the winter
[06:38] Prokofy Neva: so this is the policy, and you can live there for 2 weeks, move out, come back, do whatever, or refund by clicking the same box you paid
[06:38] Prokofy Neva: as for "not being credited" I'm not getting your point, but give me a date you paid and I will check it
[06:39] Prokofy Neva: I see now from your profile that you are quite nasty
[06:39] Prokofy Neva: I have had friends die in SL including one I shared a place with for years but I wouldn't then think that entitles me to a dirt-cheap rental forever
[06:40] ZeroZ Cummings: i said it was sentimental, asshole. i have my own sim
[06:40] Prokofy Neva: yeah, me too, and I need to get them paid and not have bitches like you freeloading on them and being ungrateful to boot
[06:40] ZeroZ Cummings: The person you messaged has blocked idiots.
[06:40] Prokofy Neva: bye
[06:40] ZeroZ Cummings: The person you messaged has blocked idiots.
I looked up the account and saw that indeed, while she paid for a month Dec. 7, the box must have somehow got reset. That does happen occasionally when the Lindens do a rolling re-start. It doesn't happen always -- these rental cubes can be taken back in inventory or returned from a sim to Lost & Found, and you can put them out and they are still ticking with the same correct days left and amount paid. But for some reason -- maybe sometimes the Linden set point is further back? -- they mess up now and then. Since you have a record on your accounts page, it is easy to rectify, I just need the date. But after this this nasty encounter, I'm not sending this person the refund I normally would.
Yes, it's sad to lose a friend in SL in RL. The friend I'm referring to was my friend in the Sims Online, and in SL at one point we shared this mountaintop cabin in Pickering behind St. Paul's Cathedral. He used to have a whole sort of Native American camp there on that sim. Either I bought the patch on the mountain top and he lived there or he bought it and I lived there or they were next to each other, I don't remember. We would sit on the porch and chat sometimes. He was then lost to Gor, which surprised me, since he seemed so nice and educated, but there it is, I hardly saw him after that, although occasionally we would chat. He also loved sailing. The really sad thing there was that his long-time girlfriend in SL and he were finally going to move in together in RL. I believed he lived in Texas or down south somewhere. So she went to his town and tried to get in touch with him. He didn't answer. He didn't log on to SL. He didn't answer e-mail. And she was frantic and trying to find him and IMing everybody. I had no idea, and I wondered if he got cold feet about the relationship moving to RL.
But it was worse -- he died suddenly in RL in his sleep. Maybe he had a heart condition. And died for real, it wasn't one of those fake SL deaths. His brother confirmed it. The poor woman! I felt so sorry for her, even not being a fan of Gor. People have the right to chose their own lifestyles.
Anyway, I can understand why, if you have a sim, you would still rent a little room in the house, or on the sim, where this friend was who died. But why does this entitle you to be an asshole? After all, you are asking merely to leave for awhile in the winter, and then you could come back.
To add to your snottiness the crack that this isn't really in demand is just plain selfish and short-sighted. You yourself stayed there for months on end yet you don't think it's in demand -- you saw how two other people also rented it literally for years? Hello? New people moved right in. If it has a vacancy for awhile, that doesn't undermine the point, that it should be made available for more people, not subsidize a few for years.
Russians always note that the other side of sentimentality is cruelty.
