We are a quarter of the way through the 21st Century. Every year brings on something new and we hustle to adapt. One thing that is now ubiquitous, but which was once science fiction, is Artificial Intelligence.

Useful tools

I have had many stories from friends about how much it helps them, and how it has changed many things for the better. Other people criticize it for ethical or ecological reasons. We can certainly see why it can be helpful, and would not wish to condemn those who find it useful in their daily or work lives.

Indeed, we can use AI in its limited forms – like spell-checkers. Not everything has to be handled by a human, because that is exhausting! Even our washing machine is a “smart” machine which knows how much water to use in each load. However, AI often makes things difficult for us and can be frustrating in running our business.

Frustrating!

Some weeks ago, a guest contacted us because she wanted to cancel her reservation due to a change in plans. Since she booked through and Online Travel Agent, we were unable to make the cancellation, but we told her we would be happy to waive any fees if she cancelled the reservation through the website where she made it. Nothing further happened. Maybe she changed her mind? So, the next day, I contacted the OTA about the cancellation. No, she had requested the cancellation, and we confirmed waiving any fees. But nothing happened. The reservation still remained in our calendar and on the website.

After numerous phone calls to many different representatives, and many emails, the problem became clear. The OTA had Artificial Intelligence handling this system, and there was some sort of glitch. Their AI thought that the reservation was already cancelled. We could not convince the AI that the reservation still existed, despite the representatives of the Online Travel Agent being able to see that the reservation was still in place. There didn’t seem to be any manual override to make the cancellation.

You’re always talking to us.

This is one example of the frustrating nature of AI. There are many more. It’s almost impossible now to write emails or messages to our guests without our booking software or our travel agents insisting that we use AI to compose or schedule our missives. The problem, of course, is that our Guesthouse is a non-standard business in a non-standard building and most AI generated content is simply incompatible with us.

Therefore, you can rest assured that any email you get from us will be written and sent by us, personally. While we cannot control everything that the OTAs decide to do, we will do our best to make sure that you have a real human being at the other end of your calls and emails. We are not opposed to technology! Not at all. But there has to be a way to ensure that a real person has override capacity and that a machine is not making important decisions. Especially when those decisions concern our guests.

Okay, this has absolutely nothing to do with tourism, Hamilton, traveling or anything else we usually write about. But it would be utterly remiss of us not to tell you about the amazing month we have had, even though it’s entirely irrelevant. 

We have adorable pet guinea pigs. We have mentioned them before and, if you’ve stayed here, you might have noticed that we use their names for things like wifi passwords. It was a bit of a missed opportunity, in fact, not to name ourselves the Pring International Guesthouse, so we could use “PIG” as an acronym.

Rescuing

As well as our own pets, we volunteer with the Toronto-based rescue organization All Creatures Rescue. In early April, a dog rescue was called in to help with a sad situation in a puppy mill. When they arrived, they discovered a cage with 20 guinea pigs in it, and called in ACR to help. We took in two very young girls, probably not more than a month old, and we named them Martha and Veronica. 

After a few weeks, two things became pretty clear. The first one was that these two girls were not the least bit tame and were quite stressed out. They didn’t seem to get along at all and would squabble and try to bite each other if they got too close. The second thing was that Martha was pregnant. 

It’s not too surprising, since guinea pigs become fertile very early. And the whole group that was rescued was in a single cage, males and females together. But it’s not an easy thing to have a pregnant guinea pig who is barely more than a baby herself. We took the best care of them that we could.

Babies!

On June 10th, just when we thought Martha couldn’t possibly get any fatter, she finally gave birth! Two little babies, one boy and one girl, perfect little twins. We named them Castor and Pollux.

For two weeks, we had the joy of watching these two tiny creatures as they grew. They went from helpless to fearless very quickly! In just a few days the were following the big pigs everywhere, trying to be part of the herd. But, as we learned from their mother, they grow up very quickly. At two weeks, it was clear that Martha was all done with being a mother and would no longer let them nurse. 

That signalled that it was time to separate Castor from the female guinea pigs. This was really difficult. He was still so tiny and would cry very loudly. We didn’t want him to be lonely. But there was a solution. Among the rescued guinea pigs were other pregnant females and one of them had given birth to another baby boy. He was a week older than our babies, and his name was Chestnut. 

We introduced Castor to Chestnut and they got along at once. We made the decision to adopt Veronica ourselves, and the others will be available for adoption with ACR. It will be sad to say goodbye to them, but they will make another family somewhere very happy. 

June is a huge month. It’s Pride month. It’s Indigenous History month. And it’s bike month. Here’s how we at the Pring are getting involved in all three of those. 

Pride Month

We are (half) queer owned and operated, so we take 2SLGBTQIA+ rights and representation very much to heart. We hang our rainbow flags proudly as a message to our guests and our neighbours that this is a safe place were everyone is welcome. And we do our best to point our queer guests in the direction of the best events and venues. 

This month, there are plenty of events on in Hamilton. In fact, there are even more as the summer continues, with the main celebration being August 8-12. This is a great time for us to connect with community. We take the opportunity to celebrate all that we’ve achieved for our civil rights, and fight to protect vulnerable queer people across Canada and the world. 

Indigenous History Month

We think it’s really important to keep learning about the culture and history of the people who have lived here before us. During this month of celebration, education and reflection, there are many events. Not only that, but there are cultural sites that visitors can go to all year round. This way, we can gain insight into ancient and ongoing cultures which have withstood all attempts to crush them. 

Every month, we pay part of our gross earnings to Indigenous groups in this area. We do this as a sort of rent, since we are settlers on this land. It’s important for Canadians and international visitors alike to show respect and deference to the First Nations of this land. 

Bike Month

As part of the necessary care for this planet, we encourage our guests to use active transportation whenever possible. To that end, we provide bike storage and we are happy to point guests towards bike share, trails, and maintenance. We are very happy to be part of the Ontario by Bike network and every year we have many guests who arrive by bicycle. 

We’re very lucky to be located right next to one of Hamilton’s first and best pieces of cycling infrastructure – the Cannon Street bike lanes. These are fully protected, bi-directional bike lanes that span a large part of the city, east to west. It took some fighting to get it done, but these days you can safely cycle to many destinations in the city and beyond. 

Sustainability is a concept that has existed in various forms for generations. Our ancestors probably thought of it more in terms of thriftiness, while we are now aware of our carbon footprint. However we approach the issue, however, it’s an important one. We all want a better world for the next generation, and to do out part to make that happen. 

While we’re at home, we do our best to reduce, reuse and recycle. We compost and we use energy-efficient appliances and LED lights wherever we can. But we have less control over our waste and our ecological impact when we’re on vacation. We have to rely on the places we go to do a lot of that for us. 

In recent years, even chain hotels have started providing greener options, like reusing your towels instead of washing them every day, or having pump-dispensing soaps instead of tiny plastic individual bottles. However, a lot of the travel industry is based on the idea that everything is clean and new, and that you are the only person who has used this room. Of course, this fiction is absurd, but a lot of bleach has been expended to maintain the ruse. 

How Do We Measure Up?

At the Pring Guesthouse, we embrace sustainability enthusiastically. As a hostel, of course, we reject all forms of single-use, over-packaged nonsense. All of our appliances are high-efficiency and all of our lights are low-wattage LEDs. Our shower heads, faucets and toilets are all water-wise and our garden is managed entirely with rainwater. We encourage guests to use public transport and active transport rather than driving. All our soaps and cleaning supply are low-packaging. We have several places in the building where guests can practice recycling. All of these things are obvious and should be standard across the accommodation industry. 

Perhaps most importantly in terms of sustainability, we have the privilege of being located in an old building – in fact, a heritage-listed mansion! The proper name for this – when an old building is used in a new way – is adaptive reuse. It has the benefit of only requiring retrofitting, rather than land being cleared, ecosystem disruption, or buildings to be demolished to make way for a new build.  

How Does That Work?

But when we think of ecologically friendly places, we generally envision something very modern, rather than a huge old house with numerous chandeliers. Grand spaces necessarily want to be seen to be lavish, or luxurious. Conspicuous wealth is a feature of old mansions, and ours is no exception. From the exquisitely turned rosewood railing on the central staircase to the astonishing curved doors on the living room, the Pring family wanted to show off their prestige. 

And who doesn’t want a bit of luxury when they’re on vacation? It makes no sense and it would be visually jarring if we were to take this grand building and make it look efficient and modern. So we have done what we can do to make those grand features work for us. The thickness of the walls (up to two feet in some places) and the shutters on the windows certainly insulate the building as well as any modern building. Furthermore, no trees have been chopped down, no dumpsters filled, and no wrecking balls employed. 

We do our best to walk the thin line. On one side, we have the conspicuous consumption that is expected in the tourism industry and in a heritage building. On the other, there is our sense of responsibility to our planet and generations to come. We are always open to any suggestions about where we can do better. Whether our guests want a comfort and luxury, or whether they want low ecological impact, we will always do our best to be sustainable.