News and notes from around the interweb:
- Airbnb added a new junk 2% fee on bookings made in other countries. You can avoid it by changing the default currency in your account to the local currency in the country where you’re making a booking.
This company started out as the underdog, creating consumer-friendly options, and somehow turned into the Death Star of sticking it to their own customers.
- Federal judge in New York rules against cell phone searches at the border
- An Airbnb owner tried this once on me. They hadn’t listed the restriction in their listing. It did not stand. Still, pure pure evil.
Airbnb AC is locked at 80 degrees F
The guest is staying in Jacksonville Florida. Host won't give them the pin for the thermostatI think that’s a win for the airbnb host/owner.
Guest and tenants alike will set the thermostats to 67 degrees F
The more I think about this the… pic.twitter.com/DR6yOLRsry
— FourPlex Guy Carlos Gonzalez (@dig_deeper1) July 26, 2024
- Love this pilot.
- This was old school
when i was in college, Wendy's did a promotion where if you collected enough soda cups you got a free flight on Airtran anywhere you wanted. Max was 128 cups = TWO ROUND TRIPS
couple friends and i started out slow, hanging out in the wendy's dining room, asking strangers if… pic.twitter.com/iySU3QfiGw
— Perry Solem (@PerrySolem) July 25, 2024
- Life imitates Babylon Bee
Southwest Introduces New Boarding Procedure Where Everyone Is Given A Melee Weapon And You Just Sort It Out Amongst Yourselves https://t.co/IAftcrL3z5 pic.twitter.com/jOLbNK10ky
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) December 22, 2023
- Qatar Airways closes in on South African deal: Doha-based carrier in talks to acquire stake in regional airline Airlink
When I was a kid in the 80s Chex cereal had a deal where box tops got you a ticket on Republic. My mom had a side gig selling homemade Chex mix (cereal, nuts, pretzels, all mixed up and seasoned and baked – where I lived it was known fondly as Trash). She started saving box tops and we ended up with tickets for a family trip to Disney World.
Wow! It looks like Airbnb is a bit jealous of the reputation earned by Hertz. Are they looking to take top honors in the worst travel company in the world away from Hertz?
Here os a surefire way to beat this 2% fee from AirBnB……just don’t book with them.
Locking the A/C at 80 Fahrenheit is evil for an Airbnb unit and not disclosing it.
I choose the gladius. Good for close quarters.
You can buy a cheap thermostat from Amazon. Take it with you on vacation.
If the thermostat Demons want to get cute, remove and replace for the duration of your stay.
You truly have to be a glutton for punishment to have any involvement with AirBnB. What’s the attraction?
I’ve seen hotels do this. Fortunately they are easy to override. Started in a Prince Hotel in Tokyo on New Year’s Eve last year. Thermostat wouldn’t do anything and it was over 80 degrees. Asked the front and they said they took over the heating from a central location Nov-Mar and there was nothing they could do about it. Fortunately was moving the next day to a larger western hotel.
I think the whole Airbnb business thing is rather Shady
The air condition game hotels are playing is getting out of control. Sometimes they are perhaps doing it due to government demands supposedly related to energy or environmental concerns, but most times this is all about cost-savings for the hotel owners/operators who happily get on board green-washing to try to reduce customer expectations and short-circuit customer concerns/complaints.
I suppose this is on top of a credit cards foreign transaction fee. So aoirbnb takes 14-23% of a transaction. Expedia and booking.c0n take up to 35%.
Please book your vacation rental hotel directly through a management agency or visitor center website to keep the money from these extractive platforms.
Like @Manny I avoid the Airbnb surcharges by avoiding them like the plague.
If you want to go real hardcore you could bring your own thermostat and just swap it out for the ring/nest, etc. ones and then swap it back. Not that hard on most of them.
The whole Airbnb model seems so dangerous for both sides. I’ve never used it, as you hear so many stories of d!ckead landlords. I’d never list a property, as you hear of even worse renters, including the squatters.