AirBnBobby

The Title is a name I gave for my fantasy baseball team a while ago because my leaguemates think I am always just sleeping on an airbed and never settled down......which is kind of true due to the kind of work I do. I have stayed at a lot of AirBnB's in my life......and I must say, I don't think it's worth it. Have you ever seen the cleaning fees the AirBnb's charge? AirBnb gets a large fee for connecting buyers to sellers.......wasn't Craigslist invented many years ago and essentially free? Why add the middle-man cost to everything? I wince whenever I hear people go "just Uber it" or "just Lyft it" almost as much as I wince when people say "just get an AirBnb it."

Now, granted, hotels are not cheap, especially in a place like New York City, where I am now. Many people have said it before me, but it's amazing how much can be concentrated into one 22-sq-mile island, how many people come be gathered, how many buildings and skyrises they can build, how many cool museums (art, history, you name it) you can have, how many subway lines can criss-cross underneath, how many great shows on Broadway and performances at Madison Square Garden, how much stock trading activity can be done on Wall St. and the NYSE.....

....and unfortunately how much more expensive everything is. Chipotle prices automatically go up $1, $2 (which is like 25% on a $8 chicken burrito!), how much subways cost ($2.75 v. $1.75 in L.A......like 40% increase! On some smelly trains!) how much taxis cost, how much hotels cost......it's just an expensive city, and kind of in an artificial way. It's kind of an old city too, as one can tell by its subways, its roads, many of its buildings......you would think it'd be a little more impressive as one of America's top attractions and one of the most prestigious cities in the world. When I was a senior in high school and applying to schools, I wrote my high school essay on how I liked New York and why I wanted to be there.......it seemed like the big city with all the glistening lights and important people, that seemed like such a destination for a kid who grew up in suburban Chicago never having gone to any cultured places in his life except occasional visits back to China. Looking back, boy was I misinformed writing college essays on that irrelevant topic, but also boy has my perspective on New York changed. I always thought I'd go from Chicago to L.A. to New York (No. 3 biggest city in U.S. to No. 2 to No.1) but that 3rd leg to New York might not happen. It's a fun city to be in for awhile, but I regret to say I wouldn't really like living here for too long. (It's a little bit like Vegas in that way, a bit of a trap for your money).

Back to Airbnb, Airbnb is a very interesting technological advancement and in an interesting stock whenever it goes on IPO....lots of IPOs happening this year in the similar share-everything way like Lyft (just debuted this week), Uber, Robinhood (the trading app that I use that charges $0 for trades, incentivizing customers to make more trades, which has risks of its own, etc.), Pinterest (I never figured out what that did, except it was somewhat helpful to give MJ some "inspiration" for our wedding).

I've never come out an AirBnB thinking, "wow I got a great deal out of that!" Usually its "ah, OK, they rented out their home to us for the weekend and we paid a price for it," or just simply, "wow that was kind of expensive. It's the millenial generation's way of doing things.......make new experiences, borrow other people's things for a short period of time, don't worry too much about the cost.......but things like lodging and ride sharing add up since you need them every day (in lodging's case, literally ONCE every day).

The Verdict for AirBnb? Not surprisingly, AirBnBobby (usually, I'm StingyBobby) does not approve.