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Cake day: August 6th, 2023

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  • bcgm3@lemmy.worldtoComic Strips@lemmy.worldOf course
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    7 months ago

    Right? There was a window of time where it felt like the free market doing it’s thing and presenting a more desirable option at a greater value. Anymore it feels like AirBnB and hotels have reached equilibrium in their efforts to provide as little as possible at the greatest price.

    We opted for a big name hotel last time we traveled, got a discounted rate that was close to any AirBnB after all the taxes and fees settled, and the experience was for shit. There was 1 person working the check-in counter, the lobby cafe, and answering the phones. The room was dirty and nobody answered the phone or returned the call about it. Food from the lobby was crap and cost more than going out would have. Check in and check out times were ridiculous.

    We’re back to AirBnB this time around. I’ll say that it matters a lot who the owner is, but at least we get a shot at a decent accommodation… We don’t stay anywhere that has ridiculous “rules” or chores or looks like an IKEA inside.



  • Tangentially related memory: In the early nineties, my grandparents took my sister and me to their favorite Cracker Barrel (and we went to a lot of Cracker Barrels with them), somewhere in or around Pennsylvania.

    It was more or less the same, notably bigger, and right when you walked in, there was a big, old busted barrel, with a plaque that claimed this to be the cracker barrel for which the chain was named. It had several broken planks, and if you looked inside, you could see chewed-open boxes of crackers… And as soon as you looked, a mouse would zip out of the cracker box so fast it’d make you jump, and everybody in the gift shop would laugh their asses off.

    Then they let you in on the joke, and the cashier showed you they press a button behind the counter that triggers the mechanical mouse, and you join the in-group of people in the gift shop waiting for the next unsuspecting victim to walk through the front door.