It was a CSX train, which is literally their direct competitor in their duopoly so that both of them can cry about how they’re not a monopoly because they have a competitor. It’s just entirely coincidental that they both behave in exactly the same manner in terms of complete reckless disregard for safety and employee health.
Not in that region, to the best of my knowledge CSX and Norfolk are the ones who control the lines around there and UP and BNSF can only buy passage on the lines, so you can compete on the cost who actually hauling the freight, but not on the cost of passage on the lines.
In this case, it was a Norfolk line being used by a CSX manned crew, but CSX also only holds a very itty bitty tiny stretch of track in PA, connecting Pittsburgh and Philadelphia to out of state branches, while Norfolk operates nearly all the East-West Rail.
In this case, CSX operates as a figleaf competitor for Norfolk to be able to claim they have competition, while it’s pretty marginal rail at best unless your goal is to ship stuff out of state.
Edit: It appears Amtrak also owns some lines connecting Harrisburgh, Philly, and then into the greater Eastern Seaboard passenger lines.
I think the main takeaway from this is that for hetero couples, if the man is harassing the woman for not breastfeeding, she can legitimately look him in the face and say 'do it yourself'
Good. Cleaning fees and booking fees are clearly being abused to game listings to show low prices that instantly double or even triple when you go to check out.
Frankly Airbnb is already pretty scammy.
I have maybe used it 3 times in the last decade. Run into scams at least once where a rental in Denver/Aurora claimed there was AC and the compressor had been removed. But they still had the air handler and thermostats in and turned on. They also put brand new tower fans in each room because it was hot in the house (~87F or 30C) in the sleeping area. Then when we tried to contact them they were suddenly unavailable. So we just left and filed a complaint auth Airbnb which turned into a giant finger pointing session where the owner claimed we cursed them out etc. tried to get the negative review removed with similar tactics too.
Took a lot of effort to recoup the money.
The second rental (well third in the timeline, but second scam) the renter tried to claim we left the place a mess to try and keep the deposit on top of a cleaning fee. Despite they had instructions to do everything from dishes to washing the sheets, not disclosed when we arrived, which we did. But somehow still wanted to hold a 600 dollar cleaning deposit.
Idk what Airbnb does. I will never use them again. Just a total waste of time.
I haven’t run into the same issues as you, but the prices are just silly now. Seriously, why am I shelling out for cleaning fees at a place where I still gotta do half the housework? Meanwhile, hotels pretty much got it all covered for about the same price. It just doesn’t make sense.
Oh totaly agree. Thats why my third visit was like “is this just how people are now?”
I mean, it hit all the feels of a scam, but i didnt feel so much targeted as this was just how they did business. As if they were banking on us just not really having the energy to fight the BS and red tape. We even took pictures of the place at arrival and leaving. Mainly due to the first experience. But even getting someone at Airbnb to LOOK at the photos, and accept them as proof of anything was a tough haul.
The economics just don't work for short stays. It's expensive to clean an entire house, particularly if that involves washing multiple sets of sheets and towels.
Hotels are set up to be efficient at that with commercial laundry equipment and lots of identical rooms with no travel time between them.
Airbnb is almost always better value if you need multiple days and multiple rooms, but if you need one room for 2 nights then it can only really compete if labor costs are really low
For me, the benefit of Airbnb comes when traveling with a couple of younger kids. The added space and roominess + full kitchen is worth its weight in gold vs a hotel. And I say this coming off a recent vacation where we tried hotels again (including Embassy Suites). But if I’m solo, a hotel is often a better option.
Agreed with all your points. I used to love Airbnb because it was so much cheaper than staying in a hotel and would give you access to stay in areas much farther off the beaten path. But the last three times I have stayed in an Airbnb I or someone else from my party ended up on the phone for hours with them because the host blatantly lied about something in their listing or otherwise was inhospitable during the stay. Hotels are just way more consistent and when something does go wrong during your stay, you can at least count on a decent customer service experience.
I’ve never used Airbnb, but I’ve read enough stories like yours that I never will. It seemed okay for the first few years, but then people learned how to take advantage of the system. Now you never know if you’re doing business with an honest, fair person or a scammer… and you can’t count on the company to have your back.
Yes, this is what I thought! Is it because the airlines have lower prices on trips that have a layover? Surely, it would be cheaper still to buy just an individual ticket to a place?
The stat people that punch in numbers find it to be more profitable to offer layover trips cheaper than direct trips.
It costs more to have a plane from Pittsburgh and a second plane from New York fly to London, both less than 100% full of passengers. It costs less to have one plane fly from Pittsburgh to New York, where it will become 100% full on its journey to London.
Therefore, your layover ticket is “wasted” on you when you consider the alternative: you buying a direct ticket while also letting another stranger purchase (and fully use) that layover ticket.
Nearly 82% of home shoppers reported feeling “locked in” by their existing low-rate mortgage, according to Realtor.com, while around 1 in 7 homeowners without a selling plan cited their current low rate as their reason for remaining on the sidelines.
Isn’t this one of the big problems right now? Most of the buying is coming from corporations who turn around and provide rentals at jacked up rates. Even if I wanted to sell now, I would have to settle for one of those rentals or put most of that money back into a new mortgage at an inflated cost and interest rate.
I feel like existing homeowners that feel stuck by their low interest rates are is a hellova better spot than someone trying to buy a home with existing interest rates…
Hopefully, the rest of the EU holds the line on this, so that when the British come crawling back in a few years with their economy in tatters, they're forced to roll back all of this barbaric Tory social legislation as a condition of readmittance.
My dream Brexit outcome is that Scotland eventually gets a second referendum and leaves, then joins the EU by itself, then vetoes the rest of the UK when it tries to rejoin.
I’m not Scottish and this outcome would kind of fuck me over personally as well, but it would be hilarious and we’d fully deserve it.
I’m glad they’re doing this! I hate finding AirBnbs for less than hotel rooms only to discover the $200 in hidden fees bumping them above the hotel’s cost. I wanna see the all in, taxes and fees included, always.
Nothing can fix Airbnb. It used to be a cheap alternative to hotels but now they are around the same price range (especially with the cleaning fees). If you are going to stay a couple of days then Airbnb starts to make sense but for short stays it’s just pointless. The biggest difference (and the reason why I stopped using Airbnb altogether) is that if you stay at a hotel or even a motel, you are treated like a guest a customer. But Airbnb hosts treat you like they are doing you a favor by letting you stay there even though you’re paying for the place. They make up 20 chores like you have to put the towels in the washer, you have to put the dishes in the dishwasher. Then what was the whole point of the cleaning fee. Just stay at a hotel.
Airbnb really needs to crack down on chores, and start treating hosts the way ebay treats sellers. If you wanna run an unregulated hotel you’d better fucking act like a hotel manager, not somebody’s mom. They’ve got people climbing over each other to be hosts, so they can afford to give bad ones the shaft.
I tip for service normally. When I’m at a self serve market you’re not getting a tip, but I’ll tip well at a restaurant or (previously) for delivery drivers.
The current culture of tipping for self service and non-service things is what’s getting out of hand.
I travel a lot and used airbnb for a year or so during their heyday, I greatly preferred them to hotels. I would never go back to them now though. Ever since they started going crazy with the fees and chores, I prefer hotels where you know what you’re getting.
A while ago I got an email about my “planned trip” where I was added as a guest by someone I don’t know to a house on another continent… Because they speak another language there, everything in my email was also in that language I don’t understand as a bonus
It’s been years since I used Airbnb, just never deleted my account.
Apparently anyone can add anyone as a guest to their booking. There’s no way to decline being a guest, it just automatically accepts. There’s no way to cancel on the app yourself. And customer support kept alternating between “there’s no way this could have happened” and “anyone can do it, just block all emails from Airbnb if you don’t want to see it”.
Like, I still can’t get over how they could suggest the fix was just block all emails from their company.
So now my account is fully deleted, and Id advise anyone else with an old account to do the same.
The last thing I need is Airbnb coming after me for damages to a property someone unilaterally decided I was a guest at.
Yeah, like maybe the booker just mistyped someone’s email and somehow got mine? I’d be surprised since my email doesn’t have random numbers or anything that would make it an easy mistake.
But also, if it was a scam to trash the house and have random people on the hook for damages, I have no idea how they got my email.
I have no idea what was going on, just reminded me how bad an idea it is to have an account like that with my personal and financial info just hanging out because “maybe some day Airbnb will stop sucking”.
If that every happens, I can just make a new account. That would be much less of a hassle than fighting a fraudulent charge from another country because Airbnb told me I stayed there.
Indeed. Loved the concept and have had some really great properties. If I can sus out the specific property now, I'll see if they have a direct book and use that instead. I don't mind the simple stuff on exit, that's just polite, nor a small cleaning fee if the nightly cost is low (I think of it as a turning fee), but I hate having to play whack-a-mole on the site to find a property in budget when half of the fees aren't included in the top line.
Except for large parties (me and the parents, or another family joining) in the same location, or the need for a full kitchen, there are few places where ABnB/VRBO has better pricing than major hotels with suites.
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