Departing the vibrant city of Cape Town, experience the pretty Cape Winelands before heading to the picturesque town of Swellendam and then onto a superb country estate in Plettenberg Bay. Finish with two amazing days on safari staying at the Great Fish River Lodge, in the malaria-free Kwandwe Game Reserve. Choose to self-drive or private transfer - this is one of our most popular itineraries!
Stop and smell the roses on this leisurely tour of Southeast England’s greatest gardens and show-stealing stately homes. And the jewel in the crown? A trip to the green-fingered event of the year, the Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show.
Jan 21, 2018 - As the professionalization of homesharing progresses, adding a payments feature such as this makes a lot of sense writes Deanna Ting on Skift. First came split payments for groups. Now it’s flexible payments.
Today, Airbnb announced a new and more flexible payments policy called Pay Less Up Front. Now, when people book an accommodation on the Airbnb platform that costs $250 or more, they have the option of first paying a deposit — generally 50 percent — and then paying the remainder closer to their check-in date.
To qualify, bookings must also be made at least 14 days prior to the check-in-date. If a guest can’t fulfill the second payment, his or her booking will be automatically cancelled.
Before this new feature, users had to pay 100 percent of the cost of their Airbnb accommodation up front.
Flexible payments in the homesharing and vacation rental space, however, aren’t anything particularly new. For instance, sister companies HomeAway and VRBO, both Expedia-owned, offer this type of flexible payment option. But by adding this feature, in addition to offering split group payments, Airbnb is making its platform particularly appealing to cash-flow sensitive travelers.
Airbnb said it decided to add this feature primarily because it not only benefits guests but hosts, as well. In its testing of flexible payments, the company found that 40 percent of its guests, if given the option, would choose to pay less up front and pay the remainder later, and when they did, they would generally opt for higher-value accommodations.
In other words, with Pay Less Up Front, guests would spend more on their Airbnb stays, generating more revenue for hosts, and for Airbnb, too. For every booking made on its platform, Airbnb collects a three to five percent fee from hosts and a five to 15 percent fee from guests.
Airbnb also said that it found that with this payment feature, customers made bookings with nearly double the lead time, meaning hosts were able to confirm and manage their bookings more easily. This feature also helps guests who may have been previously wary of booking a particular listing further in advance because of having to pay 100 percent up front.
Cancellation policies, of which Airbnb has three standardized versions, will not be impacted if a guest pays with the deposit, the company said. So, if a guest who uses Pay Less Up Front cancels his or her booking, that should not have an impact on how much the host collects. Airbnb said that its hosts don’t receive payment until approximately 24 hours after a guest checks in; the company collects both the deposit and the final payment prior to check-in. The company also said it will honor the payouts specified in the cancellation policies that a host has instituted.
What happens if a guest fails to make his or her second payment will also depend on the cancellation policy that a host has chosen. An Airbnb spokesperson told Skift that, generally, if the second payment falls through, Airbnb will follow up with the guest to request another form of payment and the guest will have approximately 72 hours to resubmit another form of payment to keep the booking. It’s not clear, however, if there are additional ramifications for a guest who misses his or her final payment.
Andrew McConnell, CEO of Rented.com, which helps homeowners find rental managers for their vacation homes, said this new feature seems like an all-around win not only for Airbnb hosts and guests but for Airbnb, too.
That’s, of course, if this payments policy change indeed leads to the increase in bookings that Airbnb envisions.
“It’s a win for the host because more bookings mean higher occupancy and revenue,” he said. “It’s a win for guests, especially since there’s no financing fee. It seems like a no-brainer even if you are a billionaire to only put a portion down instead of the whole thing. And for those guests who are cash-strapped, this could be the difference in being able to make the booking or not. And it’s a win for Airbnb because more bookings and lower upfront costs mean happier customers, more repeat customers, more bookings, and thus more booking fees.”
McConnell said this symbolizes the “maturation of Airbnb as well as of the industry” as some differences between hotels and homesharing get diminished.
“[Airbnb] really becomes more and more of a good substitute for hotels,” he said. “When you book a hotel, unless you do prepaid non-refundable rates, you don’t’ have to put anything down and it makes it much easier to book a room. When people feel more comfortable booking, they book more frequently. That’s more revenue for booking channels, and more money for hosts because they get more people coming in. For guests, it gives them that piece of mind. It also opens up travel more for people who may not be sitting on a lump sum today but need to plan vacations more ahead of time.”
While many hotels require guests to pay for the cost of their accommodations when they arrive at the hotel, more and more hotel brands are also, interestingly, adopting tougher cancellation policies.An Airbnb Host’s Perspective
While industry experts like McConnell see this flexible payment option as a win-win situation for both Airbnb guests and hosts, one host said she’s not entirely convinced. Melanie Meharchand, an Airbnb host based in Monterey, California, who lists two properties on Airbnb, said that while she understands how this can be beneficial for hosts, there may also be “some downsides,” too.
She expressed concerns over how flexible payments might impact cancellation policies, adding that it might lead to some confusion for hosts.
“The availability settings in the system even for a host are so complicated right now that sometimes it’s very hard for hosts to figure out how much they get paid once something is paid,” Meharchand said. “You don’t know exactly at the end of the day how much you will get paid.”
However, Airbnb disagreed with this notion. “This doesn’t impact the way — how, when, or how much — a host gets paid at all,” an Airbnb spokesperson said. “Hosts won’t notice a difference, except perhaps they are getting longer stays and bookings secured further out, which hosts like.”
Still, Meharchand isn’t so convinced.
“It could mean that payments paid partially in advance or two weeks before or in combination with a cancellation policy could mean that hosts could not have any payment at all,” Meharchand said. “[Hosts] may be making time for a guest who may not ultimately end up making a booking. There’s very little compensation for hosts with Airbnb’s move toward a penalty-free cancellation policy.”
Meharchand also wondered about the flexible payments introduction given current hotel industry trends.”It’s interesting that Airbnb is doing this when you see other hotel companies moving toward stricter cancellation policies,” she said.
The ability of hosts to screen potential guests has been diminished, Meharchand said. There are two sides to that proposition though: While that can be a good thing because it reduces the likelihood of discrimination, it can also be a bad thing for hosts who want to know more about who is staying in their homes.
“If Airbnb thinks this feature will help people pay for properties they might not otherwise have been able to afford because they are paying in two installments, that puts a red flag in my mind,” she said. “We might be getting groups who might not be able to afford a property and might be less careful about a property. Part of the credit card system and having to pay everything in advance just meant you got a higher quality of guest overall. Airbnb could be opening itself up to slightly more risk with lower-quality guests being able to book. The screening mechanisms for hosts are being taken away.”
Flexible payments, Meharchand believes, is one of many steps the company is taking to make it easier for people to book a stay on Airbnb, and one of those includes the company’s push toward expanding Instant Booking on its platform. Of its more than 4 million listings worldwide, more than 1.9 million are instantly bookable, including Meharchand’s two listings.
“I did opt into Instant Book for both of our listings,” Meharchand said, “because the penalty for not being in Instant Book is that you are far less likely to get booked on.”
Said Meharchand: “Making homes more accessible by easier payments schemes is great, and it’s part of a whole scheme to make homes more accessible, but it can also be worrisome for some hosts because it reduces hosts’ ability to screen guests for people who would be appropriate for our homes.”
Source; Skift || January 16, 2018 |||
Tim is an award-winning radio announcer, travel writer and photographer, entertainment writer and cricket commentator from Auckland, New Zealand. He has travelled extensively around the world (with a special passion for the United States) with his articles published more than 100 times in major newspapers and magazines.
We have put together a golf tournament that everyone will enjoy regardless of their golf ability, it’s called the International Golf Week, everyone has a chance to win prizes in the different handicap divisions and for the low handicap players there will also be a scratch competition.
Hong Kong knows how to throw a party, particularly when the Sevens comes to town! From the amazing skyline to the equally amazing fans, your time in Hong Kong will last long in the memory and this is your chance to see all the action, live!
19 January, 2018 - A newly-signed contract discloses key details of Russia’s design goals for the country’s first high-bypass gas turbine engine in the 75,000lb-thrust power class launched on 19 January to support the CRIAC CR929 widebody, Ilyuishin Il-96-400 and several military projects.
The $1.13 billion (₽64.3 billion) contract awarded by the Russian government on 19 January calls on United Engine Corporation-Aviadvigital to develop a demonstrator engine named the PD-35-1 by 2023 featuring several state-of-the-art technologies, including wide-chord composite fan blades and composite fan case, ceramic matrix composites and advanced cooling systems.
The PD-35-1 also will be designed with a compressor pressure ratio measuring 23:1, the contract documents posted on the Russian government’s procurement agency says. That falls a step below the 27:1 ratio planned for the high-pressure compressor section of the GE Aviation GE9X engine now in development testing for the Boeing 777X.
But the documents still reveal a plan for Russian industry to make dramatic progress over the next decade. Building on the advanced metallics now in testing in the 28,000lb-thrust PD-14 turbofan, the PD-35-1 will drive Russia to introduce composite materials pioneered by GE over the last 15 years. The Aviadvigital PD-14 is Russia’s homegrown alternative to the Pratt & Whitney PW1400G on the Irkut MC-21 narrowbody.
In a statement posted on his Facebook page, Russia’s deputy prime minister for defence and space industries Dmitry Rogozin notes that the Soviet Union never produced a turbofan engine over 70,000lb-thrust and the PD-35-1 will become the first in the region’s history.
“We really need it,” he says.
Russia and China have teamed up to develop the CR929 under the CRIAC joint venture beween Comac and United Aircraft Corporiation. CRIAC is expected to select an engine made by GE or R-R to introduce the CR929 into commercial service by the end of the next decade. Separately, China and Russia each plan to develop indigenously-sourced alternatives to the Western powerplants for the CR929. The PD-35-1 also would be used to power several Russian air force development projects, including the Il-476 airlifter, Il-478 tanker and a long-term effort to replace the Antonov An-124.
Mimicking the structural configuration of the Boeing 787’s GEnx-1B engines, the PD-35-1 engine will be designed with widechord composite fan blades and a composite, the contract documents show. The documents don’t specify if Russian industry plans to use a similar process as GE’s 3D woven composite materials.
The turbine of the PD-35-1 will be exposed to temperatures as high as 1,450°C (2,640°F), exceeding the melting point of most advanced metal alloys. To help the turbine survive, the contract documents say Aviadvigital must integrate exotic new materials and advanced cooling systems. Two types of ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) – silicon carbide-silicon carbide (SiC-SiC) and carbon-silicon carbide (C-SiC) will be used in the PD-35-1 demonstrator engine, the contract documents say. GE pioneered the use of CMCs in the Leap-1 series of engines that it produces with Safran under the CFM International joint venture.
SOURCE: Flight Dashboard BY: Stephen Trimble Washington DC || January 19, 2018 |||
Is your 2018 business travel schedule making you depressed? Elizabeth Segranlong writes about those products and accessories that can help make your travel a little easier to handle.
Jan 20, 2018 - Tetra Pak has pledged to support the European Commission’s Plastics Strategy, announced this week as part of the EU Action Plan for a Circular Economy. The carton giant said it will work with industry partners to ensure that by 2030, recycling solutions are in place for all components of beverage cartons so they can be fully recycled across Europe.
Jan 20, 2018 - The concrete contains a fungus that produces calcium carbonate when exposed to water and oxygen. If cracks in concrete can be fixed when they're still tiny, then they can't become large cracks that ultimately cause structures such as bridges to collapse. It is with this in mind that various experimental types of self-healing concrete have been developed in recent years. One of the latest utilizes a type of fungus to do the healing.
Inspired by the human body's ability to heal itself, the concrete was created by Congrui Jin, Guangwen Zhou and David Davies from New York's Binghamton University, along with Ning Zhang from Rutgers University. It incorporates spores of the fungus Trichoderma reesei, along with nutrients, that are placed within the concrete matrix as it's being mixed.
Once the concrete has hardened, the spores remain dormant until the first micro-cracks appear. When they do, water and oxygen find their way in. This causes the spores to germinate, grow, and precipitate calcium carbonate, which in turn seals the cracks.
"When the cracks are completely filled and ultimately no more water or oxygen can enter inside, the fungi will again form spores," says assistant professor Jin. "As the environmental conditions become favorable in later stages, the spores could be wakened again."
The research is still in the early stages, however, so don't go looking for the fungi concrete in a structure near you anytime soon. In the meantime, however, scientists from both Newcastle University and the University of Bath have been developing self-healing concrete that incorporates calcium carbonate-producing bacteria.
A paper on the Binghamton research was recently published in the journal Construction and Building Materials.
Source: Binghamton University and New Atlas || January 20, 2019 |||
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242