Lucadg

The Eastern Bloc was a big bloc. Some countries are completely changed, some not that much.

last time I was in Macedonia I saw a man pulling a big plough by hand. No horse or tractor. Unrelated, I know.

Everything which makes life easier to people who move a lot has potential because people will move more and more. Good idea

Could you suggest a good one for Android? Most in Play Store ask these permissions

Here in Bangkok when I wait for the sky train I find myself trying to avoid advertisement. I end up looking at people or at the sky (I stopped the data plan to avoid being dragger to my phone). There is basically advertisement everywhere, plus sound for the biggest screens. So unless I do a conscious effort to avoid, I'm 100% of the time looking at some kind of ads. Ads are fine, but yes, this is too much.

Why ad blocker apps require so many permissions as my photos, camera and microphone?

Every country is a platform. When it attracts the best users it succeeds. When it doesn't, or even worse rejects them, it's bound to fail.

I read it as a teenager and keeps coming back to me in many ways. Suggested read for adults.

thanks, I checked them out and they seem to be interesting

I also think that both capitalism (or better, consumerism) and government (with its need for control) actively push us to isolate yourselves. A divided society is easier to sell to and to control. So, while we need to actively find and nurture new friendships (and we mostly don't) these forces actively want to keep us separate. I know it sounds like a conspiracy theory, but it's pretty obvious to me.

yes, I'd be annoyed for sure. Imagine that it's a well known fact that italians in the US always complain about the espresso because it's too watery (this is pretty likely actually). The owner kicks me out saying "I've got enough of you italians, you always complain! Get the espresso in your own country!". I'd be upset with the owner at first but then realize the fault is mostly with those bloody italians...

no because that would make it a racial discrimination. Ours was more a cultural one.

A few years later I worked in Benidorm and I know what you mean :) Only it turns out those Germans in the camping were a different sort: zero problems, ever. I'm sure we would have been told to refuse Germans if they had been noisy/impolite. I'm also pretty sure 90% of the south italians we refused would have been nice and polite and more friendly that the average German. That's why I said I didn't like it. But it's the other 10% they were trying to avoid. 10% bad guys can easily spoil the holiday to 90% good ones.

Not an easy business to be in, but sometimes you don't have a choice.

I think the decision to pre-filter was based on the fact that kicking someone out was extremely difficult. Police had to be involved or some really bad thing had to happen. So the approach "ok we let anyone in, these are the rules, if you don't respect them you are out" is for sure more fair but it just wouldn't work. Theory vs Reality. And when you have 2000 people in a tight space you kind of want to avoid these situations.

I have no statistics but we can safely assume that 30 years of experience have taught the camping managers what works and what doesn't. I think it was in their right to decide who comes in and who doesn't.

I'm Italian and if you won't let me into your crystal shop because I wave too much my hands when I talk and you're afraid I'll break something (I personally don't wave hands), I'll understand. I will be angry sure, but not with you: with the other hand waving italians.

I wonder which right should prevail in general: a) the right to host people I like and don't host people I dislike in my home b) the right to be what I want and be accepted everywhere.

Again, I guess A should probably prevail and the Internet should take care of matching who I am with the hosts happy to have me.

"regardless of their race, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or age"

We also manage bookings for apartments on the beach and openly write "Apartment for families. Groups of young people up to 30 years are not accepted." in Airbnb and other portals. So, is Airbnb saying we'll be forced to accept noisy and unruly drunk groups who will probably bring drugs and extra friends in the middle of the night damaging the newly build apartments? This just makes no sense.

So it will be either: - This is not real, just some facade for political correctness - We'll get customers from other portals

> Nobody is going to admit to discrimination, even if they do agree, people will come up with alternative reasons for not allowing the people they do not wish to stay in their private homes, so nothing will change but Airbnb will look good.

Correct. That's the whole point. It's basically just a political/marketing move the were probably forced to take. Nothing will change.

I used to work in a camping site in Northern Italy many years ago. We were openly told not to accept people from the south of Italy as they statistically were more noisy. I didn't like it but it actually made sense. It just wasn't viable to mix Germans and Napoleteans in a tight space. I guess Germans earned that right with politness. Then one day I let gipsies in and I almost got fired.

same in Italy. Nobody wants to rent long term anymore and lose the apartment to someone who can't pay but can stay for a year or two. I personally met owners who had to pay gas, electricity and water to a tenant who didn't pay rent for 3 years. As soon as she left they went on Airbnb and didn't look back. Managing an Airbnb is not simple many people would prefer a long term tenant but it's just too risky.

rencently Airbnb introduced Smart Prices. It's an optional automated system which allows the host to accept prices suggested by Airbnb's algorithm. They prices are usually very low and I have the feeling they'll make it less interesting for many renters to stay on the market. Maybe it will bring some balance. It's completely counterintiuitive but I'm afraid they are destroying the market. I already know some people going off Airbnb and moving to other platforms because it only brings cheap bookings.

I found that the Airbnb Price Tips feature works pretty well in mature markets but not in new locations. In some apartments we manage in Kenya for instance, there are two apartments which are exactly the same. One has no reviews and the suggested price is around 48 €. The other one has 3 reviews with 4.5/5 ratings and the suggestion is 30 €. So, it's good to look at but you always need to see if it makes sense to you. Anyway, amazing job, they left the competition 10 years behind.

I don't like to be the "I told you so" guy. But I told you so.

I wrote this a couple of years ago:

"All Eggs in One Airbnb" http://www.adormo.com/blog/marketing/all-the-eggs-in-one-air...

because I keep meeting hosts who say "I'm fine with just Airbnb". The build a whole business based on a single website, a single failure point.

Disclosure: we help hosts be present in several platforms, including Airbnb.

In the meantime you may upload your apartments in Housetrip, Wimdu, Booking.com, Homeaway and so on. None is as good and smooth as Airbnb but they work. When hopefully Airbnb reopens your account, keep these portals too, so you don't have all your eggs in one basket.

> what was the experience like?

life changing, in a good way.

> What were you able to do?

Travel for 10 years instead of the planned one. On the way I created vacation rentals booking site, like Airbnb, (in 2001) and that financed my travels.

> How did you choose to budget?

You kind of start as cheap as possible and slowly adapt to the situation, spending a bit more if you can. But mind, the more you spend, the more you isolate yourself. Stay cheap and you'll be forced to meet people.

> What moved you to this decision, and how was the process of finding work again after your travels, if applicable?

the decision was easy: I felt I either did this or wasted my youth. After that I never needed to find work again. Travel opened my eyes and changed my perspective. Also, it forced me to make some money fast and that gave me the drive to try the Airbnb thing. Without that drive I would have probably been overcome by fear.

> If you were to do it all again, what would you do differently?

nah...it was just perfect :)

Since all is about meeting people, if you are an introvert, make sure you'll try to be more open, otherwise I guess you'll have a bad experience. Travelers are very open, you can easily meet people and travel for weeks together in total intimacy (same rooms etc..) but you have to be open too, don't bullshit them, they'll stay with you only if the like you. It's so easy to say "ok, I'm gonna go to Bali, see you around"

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this may be true in some cities and for some top hosts, but for the rest of vacation rentals owners Airbnb is just another provider. It's an extremely fragmented space.

> "we haven't found anything, but since we have been checking for two days, we have to find something"

as crazy as it may sound, this is true and happens all the time. I've got countless similar stories from friends who went through it.

I'll reply with a metaphor:

- taxes or regulations in Germany are like OS x

- taxes or regulations in Italy are machine code written by monkeys in the 50s based on 2000 years old Roman code and the last monkey who knew how to read it died 10 years ago. Now there's more monkeys writing on top of it not even pretending to make it work retroactively.

If you find a bug you must guess what to do and hope for the best. You can ask for a monkey machine code expert to decipher it for you but not even he knows how to do. He's just better at guessing. If you make a mistakes due to the bugs they send the Gorillas.

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As an Italian running a business focused on Italy I can only agree: RUN. I basically begged to be able to run my online company in Italy. No way. I had to emigrate to Germany instead and I've paid taxes there for more than 10 years. Hell, I even paid for the reconstruction of Eastern Germany. Just go to some Selection Day in any Italian incubator and you'll witness how fiscal and regulatory issues are discussed more often than the business model itself. Or try to discuss a start-up idea with an italian and count the seconds before he tells you "how about taxes? how about the regulation?". It's a broken platform.

After learning 6 languages and teaching some, I came to the conclusion that what works for me doesn't work for everyone. It's very subjective. There is no secret way. There's your own secret way. It's up to you to find it out.

My personal trick is comics. Asterix and Tin Tin were great for me.

It's spoken language written down with drawings to help along the way.

All you find there will be needed on a daily basis so it's very efficient.

a non-religious religion is what I dream about too! After many years despising religion (I am Italian, I know what Rome actually means) I traveled the world and learned that religion actually serves some high purposes. I really miss being religious, so if you build a non-religious one, count me in! sounds almost like a good start-up idea :)

another alternative: http://www.filement.com/ I don't use it but friends do and are pretty happy with it. From their home page:

- Combine devices and cloud services into a single interface. - Transfer data between computers, smartphones, tablets and clouds. - Manage and use data directly on the device or cloud it is stored.