5 ms·
I will always love AirBnB for driving down prices by breaking the hotel cartels in major cities. Over 10 years ago I rented a folding couch right off of Pearl
by fellowniusmonk 1y ago
I will always love AirBnB for driving down prices by breaking the hotel cartels in major cities.
Over 10 years ago I rented a folding couch right off of Pearl ST. Boulder, CO.
I stayed in the living room of someones 1 bedroom apartment for $300 a night instead of 1k+ a night for the equivalent at what amounted to a travel lodge motel. The prices there were out of control, no inventory, just awful.
There are "plausible deniability" cartels everywhere, it's and it's always nice to see their grip on a region drop.
- infecto 1y agoYou paid $300 to stay on a fold out couch in a strangers living room. $1000 sounds like market price for a hotel room then.
- nine_k 1y agoThis is fair. But the market of barebones $300/night sleeping spots was underserved by hotels, and likely even hostels.
- singleshot_ 1y agoCouldn't you stay in a nice $300/night hotel and just close your eyes when you walked by the pool?
- lumost 1y agoWas there an event? I stayed at the historic Boulderado hotel for 350/night 13 years ago when Airbnb was getting started.
- donnachangstein 1y agoYou could have saved yourself $300 and slept on a bench in the central bus station for approximately the same level of accommodation.
- handoflixue 1y agoCan you actually? Every major city I've been to in the past five years is pretty harsh on that sort of thing. I'd happily pay $300 to avoid the risks of arrest and having all my stuff stolen.
- rightbyte 1y agoIf you don't look poor it is considered normal to sleep on public coaches in terminals. You might need to sit up though.
- jazzyjackson 1y agoFunny but couches can be pretty comfortable, and in the days of Airbnb being a monetized couchsurf, you'd at least wake up to fresh coffee Safe place to stash your luggage is another matter, there's a dozen apps that cater to this need now too so if you are sleeping in the bus station at least you can put your baggage behind a locked door
- donnachangstein 1y ago> there's a dozen apps that cater to this need now Before someone declared a need for buggy and unreliable locker apps, for decades prior you could deposit something called a "coin" into a slot which would allow you remove an equally archaic object called a "key" from the lock, which you would deposit in your pocket and be on your merry way.
- satvikpendem 1y agoAnd have someone take your luggage wholesale and later clip the locks? What a steal!
- lmm 1y ago> Before someone declared a need for buggy and unreliable locker apps, for decades prior you could deposit something called a "coin" into a slot which would allow you remove an equally archaic object called a "key" from the lock, which you would deposit in your pocket and be on your merry way. Back in the '90s, sure, but then some people flew a plane into a tower block and apparently this meant we need to pay $20 for some minimum wage dude to put our bags on a shelf that's only open 9-5 instead.
- lispisok 1y agoWhat you described is an experience I would expect using couchsurfing.com which was around long before airbnb. Source: Have hosted couchsurfers very long ago
- buerkle 1y agoI find this hard to believe unless some major event was occurring while you were staying in Boulder and you purchased at the last minute.