Had to cancel today's guest: water break in foundation slab

[Kerry Baird]

Today I went to my vacation rental to finish up laundry for a turn.  When I went to the faucet to turn on the water, there was no water.  I went back to the recently-started washing machine.  Also, no water.  Immediately calling the water utility, I found that they had shut off the water to the house, because the meter was turning wildly. 

There was a blue notice in the door, which stated that 132300 gallons had run through the house.  Think about that.  A Home Depot bucket is 5 gallons.  100 gallons is a large fish tank.  1000 gallons would go on the back of a truck, or be a septic tank.  A 25 x 45 swimming pool 6 feet deep would hold 50,000 gallons.  The City rep told me to call my plumber. 

Mike got there within the hour, and turned on the water to the house.  He determined there is a leak in the slab of the house.  His suggestion was to call a leak detection company, who can come out on Monday.  My guest is due in hours.  I have booked the future appointment.  They can put a bandage on the problem, my plumber says, but it won't be a real long lasting solution.

Meanwhile, I call HomeAway and tell them that I have a guest inbound.  They put me on hold while they attempt to contact the guest.  I start to see notifications of cancellations in my messages on my phone.  Then I get a message from the guest asking, "Is this true?"  Oh my.  So I work to message him all the details of why it was last moment, what happened.  HomeAway won't hold the cancellation against me, as it is a situation out of my control.  They assisted the guest in finding another place to stay.  I hadn't had issues like this before, and am grateful HA handled this...I was quite distressed on behalf of the guest.  Wasn't thrilled that the situation was abrupt as it was for the guest.  

The plumber's plan is to route water through the attic space and drop down pipes in the walls.  I will need a sheetrock guy to put things back together again.  We may have a trench through the tile flooring and into the foundation.  I will have more to share on this topic.

I am not sure if I have to pay for the water; the plumber said they charge for water going through the sewer.  So there will be more to tell on this topic.

At this point, I am thankful we don't have a plumbing-inspired sink hole in the middle of the house.

[John Underwood]

That is good you went through HA as I have heard of scams where someone claims this last minute and moves them to another property that is crappy. Since HA contacted the guest and helped them find another place that should have eased their concerns.