| To: Cogito Ergo Sum who wrote (10114) | 1/1/2023 4:50:23 AM | | From: elmatador | | | | I made a generalization. I think disruptors' money suck capital from the old economy with negative consequences.
I elect electronic banking and mobile money as the greatest improvement disruptors.
And crypto as the stupidiest money pit ever known to man. |
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| To: Cogito Ergo Sum who wrote (10114) | 1/2/2023 12:00:24 AM | | From: elmatador | | | | WELCOME TO YOUR AIRBNB, THE CLEANING FEES ARE $143 AND YOU’LL STILL HAVE TO WASH THE LINENS
Growing to-do lists despite soaring charges stress travelers; ‘This kind of changes the whole vibe’
By PREETIKA RANA
Mon, Sep 19, 2022 8:51am 4 min
 Copyright 2020, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. LEARN MORE
ELMAT: disruption is always about passing the costs to someone else.
Christina Marie spent her last vacation day fretting over finishing her chores. Vacuum? Check. Laundry? Check. Dishes? Check.
Her Airbnb in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., had an exhaustive list of cleaning requirements and she wasn’t going to let her guest rating dip over it. Cooking breakfast for her family of six would mean more cleaning, so everyone ate bananas and Pop-Tarts that morning. When one of the kids reached for a cup after she loaded the dishwasher, Ms. Marie roared: “Put the cup away. No more, no more!”
“You don’t want to wake up at 6 a.m. to do chores when you’re on vacation,” said Ms. Marie, a Sacramento school teacher. “This kind of changes the whole vibe. It’s stressful.”
Longtime Airbnb users are angry about lengthy—and, sometimes, absurd—chores set out by some Airbnb hosts. Hosts say they need guests to do more as Covid-19 has changed sanitation expectations and inflation has boosted the cost of cleaners.
Airbnbs have been in high demand so hosts are getting away with charging higher nightly rates and tacking on bigger cleaning fees. Guests have been striking back on social media, complaining about being asked to mow the lawn or feed farm animals.
Many travelers spent part of their summer breaks deep cleaning vacation rentals to avoid extra charges and bad reviews. Some are switching back to hotels to avoid the hassle and the clean-up fees that can be hundreds of dollars.
Melissa Muzyczka was planning a romantic getaway at a lakeside cottage in Canada’s Quebec province, but ended up booking a spa hotel after reading through the chores. The rental property didn’t have garbage pick-up so guests were expected to take their rubbish with them when they left.
That’s not how she wanted to spend her first vacation in two-and-half years.
“My husband and I would be freaking out, carrying trash and trying to locate dumpsters,” said Ms. Muzyczka, a 31-year-old graphic designer.
She posted a TikTok video about her experience. It went viral, drawing about 5,000 comments.
Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. channeled this angst in an online ad this summer with a family entering a spooky rental with a long list scrawled on the wall: “NO WHISTLING…NO FEET ON FURNITURE…NO SANDWICHES.”
“Wow, that’s a lot of rules,” says the renter in the commercial.
Guests say they are frustrated because the cleaning fee has gone up while hosts have tacked on extra chores. They say some hosts don’t list cleaning requirements online, surprising guests after they book.
Necole Kane wasn’t expecting to do a thing. Her $299 Airbnb in Sedona, Ariz., came with a $375 cleaning fee. Then the host piled on a laundry list of chores.
Ms. Kane said she spent so much time running around cleaning like a maid that she was 15 minutes late for a canyon tour.
“It was too much,” said the 41-year-old founder of a feminine wellness brand. “I wanted to leave a negative review so bad.”
She still left a five-star review because she felt bad marking down the property. Its views of the area’s famous red rocks and the visits from wild bunnies, coyotes and javelinas made her stay “magical,” she wrote on Airbnb.
Airbnb lets hosts set their cleaning fees, though the company suggests they do away with it if guests are required to run chores. “Would you like guests to load dirty dishes into the dishwasher or strip the bed linen before checkout? If so, consider charging a very minimal cleaning fee—or no fee at all,” the company advised hosts late last year.
The company said around 55% of its active listings charge a cleaning fee, which on average makes up less than 10% of the total reservation cost.
Airbnb’s cleaning fee across all U.S. properties averaged $143 as of June 30, a 44% increase from five years ago, according to market-research firm AirDNA. Coastal properties with five or more bedrooms had the highest fees, charging $420 on average.
Airbnb ratcheted up its cleaning protocols during Covid-19, with a 36-page handbook requiring that hosts wash all hard surfaces with soap and water, vacuum the floors and disinfect switches and electronics, among other things. The policy is still in effect, Airbnb said, and all hosts are required to declare that they are following them.
Hosts say that a helping hand from renters can go a long way when properties are booked back-to-back. Starting the dishwasher and laundry early means the next guests don’t have to wait even if the cleaners are running late.
“Sometimes guests are asked to do two to three things and they feel like, ‘Oh my God, I’m doing everything,’ ” said Gabby Wallace who runs Airbnbs in Maine, Austin and Kansas City. “There are close to a hundred things I have on the checklist for my cleaners,” like checking couches for lost items and picking hair out of the bathtub drain, she said.
Ms. Wallace encourages her guests to empty the trash, run the laundry and start the dishwasher, though she outlines that none of it is mandatory.
Some hosts aren’t fans of chores. Deric Tikotsky, who runs rental properties in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., tells his guests to relax and leave everything as it is when they leave. He thinks some hosts are squeezing extra labor out of their guests to cut back on the number of hours they pay cleaners.
“This chore business is giving us a bad rep and causing guests to flee to hotels,” he said.
ELMAT: I sayed at one Aibnb once. And that because the company paid for me in Capetown. I was alone. Just made instant coffee. It was attending a trade show. but for a holiday? never.
Last month, Amanda Morari spent her sister’s bachelorette weekend at a lakefront cottage in Ontario province. The washer was out-of-order and the vacuum wouldn’t charge so the women spent their last day “wetting paper towels and wiping the floor,” she said.
The host told her not to worry about it, Ms. Morari said, but then came the unexpected: she got a three-star review because the cleaning wasn’t up to the mark. Her perfect five-star rating dipped to 4.1.
She’s booked her next trip with her boyfriend at a hotel.
“It’s 50 bucks cheaper,” she said. “And we don’t have to clean anything.” |
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| To: Elroy Jetson who wrote (10064) | 1/2/2023 4:08:45 AM | | From: elmatador | | | | Richard “Tricky Dick” Nixon pulled the US from the gold standard; three years later, after the 1973 oil shock, Washington approached the Saudi oil minister, notorious Sheikh Yamani, with the proverbial offer-you-can’t-refuse: we buy your oil in US dollars and in return you buy our Treasury bonds, lots of weapons, and recycle whatever’s left in our banks.
Cue to Washington now suddenly able to dispense helicopter money – backed by nothing – ad infinitum, and the US dollar as the ultimate hegemonic weapon, complete with an array of sanctions over 30 nations who dare to disobey the unilaterally imposed “rules-based international order.”
Impulsively rocking this imperial boat is anathema. So Beijing and the GCC will adopt the petroyuan slowly but surely, and certainly with zero fanfare. The heart of the matter, once again, is their mutual exposure to the Western financial casino.
Xi of Arabia and the petroyuan drive
Xi Jinping has made an offer difficult for the Arabian Peninsula to ignore: China will be guaranteed buyers of your oil and gas, but we will pay in yuan
thecradle.co |
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| From: Elroy Jetson | 1/2/2023 1:45:05 PM | | | | | | During the past year Vladimir Putin has been photographed meeting with costumed members of his own FSB security team in lieu of meeting with ordinary Russians, who would pose serious a security risk.
(clockwise)
Putin celebrates Easter with Russians in a small village,
Putin listens to the concerns of the same "villagers" now dressed as hardworking commercial fishermen,
Putin meets the same group now posing as "regular soldiers" participating in the Ukraine operations,
Putin awards a medal on New Years Day to a member of his FSB security team,
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| To: elmatador who wrote (10116) | 1/2/2023 7:45:01 PM | | From: Cogito Ergo Sum | | | | I stayed a lot in ski hill condos.. when my son was an active racer ... we would get efficiency units.. ie.. a good kitchen ... plus the bedrooms.. and other amenities...
whether going up with son alone for a ski race or say a club training event at Tremblant.. Those were always the rules...
for a better view on AirBNB I would point you to Member 4001528 .. He is spending a lot of time in them.. likes value and is no dope
I was only speaking of the democratizing effect.. what I would like about it as an owner.. is the client rating ... Just like Uber.. if you have a shitty client rating.. you wait longer and likely get a shitty ride... |
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| To: DinoNavarre who wrote (10119) | 1/3/2023 3:31:35 AM | | From: elmatador | | | | Startups spring from ashes of Big Tech purge
Days later he was back working, seeking investment for his own company Nulink, a blockchain-based payment company, and sent pitches to startup accelerator Y Combinator and Andreessen Horowitz's cryptocurrency fund.
Reuters January 03, 2023, 12:18 IST
While overall venture capital (VC) financing fell 33% globally to about $483 billion in 2022, early-stage funding was robust, with $37.4 billion raised in so-called angel or seed rounds, in line with the record level seen in 2021, according to data from research firm PitchBook.https://telecom-economictimes-indiatimes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com/amp/news/startups-spring-from-ashes-of-big-tech-purge/96701960?amp_gsa=1&_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D%3D
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| To: DinoNavarre who wrote (10119) | 1/3/2023 3:42:48 AM | | From: elmatador | | | | 'Big Short' Investor Michael Burry Warns of Another Inflation Spike — Expects US to Be 'in Recession by Any Definition'
Hedge fund manager Michael Burry, famed for forecasting the 2008 financial crisis, says inflation has peaked in the U.S. but there will be another inflation spike. He expects the U.S. economy to be in a recession “by any definition.”
Michael Burry’s 2023 Economic PredictionsFamous investor and founder of investment firm Scion Asset Management, Michael Burry, has shared his 2023 economic predictions. Burry is best known for being the first investor to foresee and profit from the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis that occurred between 2007 and 2010. He is profiled in “The Big Short,” a book by Michael Lewis about the mortgage crisis, which was made into a movie starring Christian Bale.
Burry tweeted Sunday: “Inflation peaked. But it is not the last peak of this cycle.” He continued:
We are likely to see CPI lower, possibly negative in 2H 2023, and the U.S. in recession by any definition. Fed will cut and government will stimulate. And we will have another inflation spike. It’s not hard.
Many people on Twitter agreed with Burry. Lawyer John E. Deaton tweeted: “I believe this is accurate.” Economist Peter St. Onge wrote: “The smart kids agree: lower inflation will be transitory, then Fed cranks up the money printers and does it again.”
Investment specialist Karel Mercx commented: “Michael Burry has a point … Inflation usually comes in waves, and there is rarely one wave (see 1970s CPI chart). The five most dangerous words in investing are still: ‘this time it is different.'”
Investor Kerry Balenthiran concurred with Burry, tweeting: “Agreed, but the next inflationary spike could end in a decade or more. This is very much like the 1947 to 1965 secular bull market. In that case, there was a post-war inflation that quietened down, followed by an inflationary environment that ultimately peaked in 1980.”
Some people offered alternative viewpoints. Former broker Rob Bezdjian, for example, believes there will be deflation. “I will take the other side of his inflation prediction … We will be in deflation for a long time. Bubbles take a very long time to re-inflate,” he opined.
Burry has shared numerous warnings about the U.S. economy. In November 2022, he warned of “an extended multi-year recession.” In May, the Big Short investor cautioned about a looming consumer recession and more earnings trouble. In April, he said the Federal Reserve “has no intention of fighting inflation,” emphasizing: “The Fed’s all about reloading the monetary bazooka so it can ride to the rescue & finance the fiscal put.” |
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