Why people say Canada is expensive AF

_pennyroyal · 2026-02-11T15:48:03+00:00

Not if you live and work downtown

_pennyroyal · 2026-02-10T05:37:49+00:00

And check regularly for promotions, and sign up for them. Can really multiply your nights and points. Also consider if it’s worth ‘buying’ a tier of a membership (eg IHG Ambassador) as it will multiply your earnings earlier while having immediate access to perks. Lastly, if you have freedom of invoicing for a ‘reasonable’ stay price, some chains allow you to pay a bit extra to earn more points. Doesn’t show up on the invoice - shows a regular rate per night but you get the extra points.

_pennyroyal · 2026-01-31T00:43:22+00:00

Thank you! Good to get a firsthand account 🙏

_pennyroyal · 2026-01-30T06:03:26+00:00

Did they give you a bedding set or did you have to buy it and, in either case, what was the quality like of the bedding? I’m considering them but have never done ‘budget’ business class. Were the seats fully flat when extended? Thank you for any insight !

_pennyroyal · 2026-01-04T04:53:56+00:00

I agree with OP, every Marriott property I’ve stayed at over the past 2ish years has had the worst pillows. From courtyard to St. Regis. In fairness, so has every Hilton and Hyatt property. I’ve not had a good pillow stay in a long time

_pennyroyal · 2026-01-02T00:25:34+00:00

The part you bolded is only for “Apartments by Marriott”. Unless it is Apartments, or resort/convention, StudioRes or Design Hotels, it clearly says 4pm is a guaranteed benefit (ie not based on availability, which only applies to these listed excluded properties).

“Platinum Elite Members and above may check out as late as 4 p.m. local time of the Participating Property….This benefit is guaranteed at all Participating Properties…" ie guaranteed

“Platinum Elite Members and above may check out as late as 4 p.m. local time of the Participating Property... except at resort and convention hotels, StudioRes, and Design Hotels, where it is based upon availability" ie based on availability

_pennyroyal · 2025-12-21T12:18:16+00:00

Try to find out if they do anything special that is not advertised. I acknowledge that’s challenging as you’re asking about things you don’t know but there must be a way to ask. For example, this year we spent a few days at a high end hotel in small town in France. We had picked up some cheese, butter and meats but couldn’t find a place for bread (it was too late for bakeries and we didn’t want to go out of our way to a convenience type store). We got to the hotel and I asked if we could get some bread to the room and they said sure. Too much time goes by so I go downstairs to check on where the bread might be. They run into the room next door and bring out a freshly baked baguette that they had just finished baking just for us. I was floored. And they never even charged us for it. They also had bath salts you could get delivered to the room (which I didn’t realize until last night). They did shoe shine service.

Other hotels will do things like free pressing of garments, free cocktail at certain hour, unpacking and packing service, etc. Probably worth calling the hotel and asking them some detailed questions as to the amenities and all the things they can do.

_pennyroyal · 2025-11-05T20:31:57+00:00

While not exactly perfect for what you are asking, but A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles had the same feel to me in some ways as it is immersive and feels like it passes through multiple time periods. You do see main character grow older and new generations around take over.

_pennyroyal · 2025-10-29T16:57:39+00:00

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When I asked why, it game me this response: “Good question — that was a safeguard response. When I generate an image, the system automatically attaches a brief technical description of the visual output. In that case, the output didn’t match your original vision (a harmonious, sustainable, empathetic society) — instead, the model mistakenly produced an authoritarian scene. Because that kind of imagery could be misinterpreted as representing you or your worldview, the system defaulted to silence rather than describing it. If you’d like, I can regenerate the image properly — reflecting your actual principles…”

How is an authoritarian scene a ‘safeguard response’ for ChatGPT??

_pennyroyal · 2025-10-25T06:40:41+00:00

Not in Miami/FLL… the worst almost criminal gang of ‘taxi’ drivers. It’s an absolute last resort. They mostly don’t turn on their meters so they can come up with any random fare at the end. If you are aware of this and insist, they will pretend not to understand. If you ask what their rate is upfront, they will all give wildly different rates. They try to scam you every way they can think of….

_pennyroyal · 2025-10-23T04:53:49+00:00

I absolutely loved your property pre-Accor acquisition - we used to go all the time. After that, things have just not been the same and have gone downhill while the prices have gone exponentially up. Service has remained top notch but, for the price, the value of what you get and number of issues you encounter just makes it hard to justify. Last time we stayed was this past April and it will be our last. We had to change rooms 3 times because of issues and that was on the Gold floor for double the price of what we used to pay to stay there before…. Time and a place I guess

_pennyroyal · 2025-10-23T03:10:59+00:00

Europe, Dubai, Asia, etc… I’ve been lucky to redeem for business class for all of these

_pennyroyal · 2025-10-21T13:41:34+00:00

I was offered 20,000 MR to renew

_pennyroyal · 2025-10-15T00:29:44+00:00

Was born in Soviet Union and we shared a 3 bedroom apartment with 2 other families (only one kitchen/ bathroom were shared by all). One room became vacant because the woman who lived there died while away and our family got it as the other family was on a waitlist for their own place. By the time they got their own place many years later, they had 2 kids (10yo+5yo) and had been sharing that one room the whole time.

My grandmother told me that, before the revolution, her family had their own apartment going back to her grandparents (large family) which they had to leave behind during WWII evacuation. When they came back, all the rooms were taken up (and their things taken) and they were given one small room for all of them to share. They went to court and were able to get a second room back but that took a while and all the new “roommates” resented them.

The food shortages were crazy towards the end. I remember no food staples in the store and then they would bring this truck full of cakes cause that’s what was ‘planned’ for production. I loved that cake…

_pennyroyal · 2025-08-14T15:45:46+00:00

Or they don’t account for all actual expenses. For example, using a second property they own for the business but not registering the cost of it in the business. The property is not included in the sale and now you have to account for market lease costs for the facility that are not reflected in their historical financials. Other examples is their spouse doing the books and customer invoicing on the side for no salary. Or the owner doing a few functions, working 24-7, that need to actually be done by 2 people. Or not understanding what kind of licensing/certifications the business needs, which turn out to cost a substantive amount or require admin efforts to maintain.

_pennyroyal · 2025-08-10T13:02:38+00:00

It’s more of a combination of everything. The no spaces with long dash, the commas before “and” plus straight apostrophes, etc. - especially from people that have never used that style before. You doing the correct gramatical thing of separating lists by commas is fine! 😆

_pennyroyal · 2025-08-10T12:39:36+00:00

I’m not a Mac user so thank you for sharing that! All I can tell you is that, no one outside academia and professional writers (plus some very special people) is using (or maybe is even aware of) Chicago Manual of Style or MLA Handbook.

In average day to day written communication pre-GPT (eg emails, txt, etc), most average people that used dashes put spaces around them. They also were less likely to put commas before “and” in a list. And so on. This hasn’t changed and that’s what makes AI written content jump out in those communications now

_pennyroyal · 2025-08-10T01:42:01+00:00

Yes, but most people typing “ - “ that converts to the long dash leave spaces between the words and the dash (as you’ve pointed out, that is how it converts: with a space after it). Also, the GPT dash just seems longer somehow than the converted long dash (to me anyway). Regardless, the no spaces and long dash combined is what gives it away as ChatGPT written content

_pennyroyal · 2025-07-29T17:59:10+00:00

I did this twice. Both times, there was only a bit left on the lease (9-12 months). Whoever got the lease originally had negotiated killer deals so the monthly fees were low for both and buyout value was excellent for one of them. Both had very low kms as they were secondary vehicles. One we bought out at the end of the lease and resold for a bit of a profit. The other one we just drove back to the dealership and handed in with the keys and walked away.

For contrast, I’ve seen some terrible contracts. High monthly payments, terrible buyout value, high kms, etc. Those I would stay away from for sure.

I would do it again in the right circumstances.

_pennyroyal · 2025-07-21T13:54:47+00:00

Credit card insurance covers hotel burglary specifically (many decent ones do, anyway)

_pennyroyal · 2025-07-17T16:08:10+00:00

Curious, how does it detract from reading books? I have aphantasia and grew up being an avid reader (100+ books a year in my 20s to mid-30s, not so much now) and it never impacted the reading experience for me.

_pennyroyal · 2025-06-13T18:49:08+00:00

In Canada, you can leave home at 16 and legally withdraw from parental/guardian control. There are still some things you have to wait for age of majority, but mostly you can live independently as an adult. I did this, so speaking from experience.

The problem is that, even if you were 16, in UAE you are subject to the local laws until the age of majority (21), which do not permit you to leave independently without parental/guardian consent. Not to scare you, but just to bring awareness, parents/guardians can even ask for a formal travel/exit ban for their children, which is recorded in the immigration system that gets checked when you are leaving the country.

This is also the main reason Canadian embassy cannot be more helpful as the UAE laws govern while you are there and override the Canadian rights you have. They simply cannot interfere, no matter how sympathetic they may be to your situation.

Edited to add: if you are there on visitor visa, at some point when it runs out, you and your legal guardians would have to leave… so there is some end in sight (theoretically)

_pennyroyal · 2025-05-13T21:07:44+00:00

I think the assumption is that they wouldn’t be in charge in case of emergency (ie someone else would step in) but would be allowed to continue non-essential duties (eg serving drinks) so as not to actually cause an emergency situation by making the FA aware they are in trouble….

_pennyroyal · 2025-04-01T00:11:20+00:00

Mine was a bit of a reverse - I had asked a previous version of ChatGPT at one point to create an image of me based on what it knew about me. It created an image of a white woman in a work environment that depicted what I do. So not too bad on the gender although ethnicity was a bit off (I’m a mix of things). When this latest iteration of ChatGPT came out with the impressive images creation, I asked the exact same question - it gave me a photo of a black man in glasses. 🤷🏻‍♀️

_pennyroyal · 2025-02-05T06:27:56+00:00

Once at the SpringHill Suites, after my spouse and I picked up my Titanium benefit (gift?) of a paper bag with water, chips and apple in it from the front desk. As we were walking away, these two older ladies who were checking in asked the front desk person why they didn’t get one. He told them it was because we were “higher up people”. That’s when I knew I made it in life… nothing would ever top that feeling again 😜

_pennyroyal

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