Tag Archives: yuppie

Airbnb – A Peer to Peer Housing Rental Marketplace

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Over the past few months I’ve been doing a lot of reading about this peer to peer housing rental company called Airbnb.  I first heard about them via this weekly email digest that I get from EscapetheCity.org (these guys are also awesome, check them out).  I thought it was a clever idea but I had no idea how enormously popular it actually was until I dug a little deeper into their website.  After looking into more I feel truly left out and I plan to get involved as soon as possible.

What is it?

Airbnb is a peer to peer marketplace for home/apartment rentals.  It’s a great idea that at first I considered to be pretty niche.  How many people in the world would really go stay at a complete stranger’s house?  Apparently, there are a lot of people.  Since the company founded in 2008 there have been over 5 million bookings in 30,000 cities in 192 countries.  Impressive to say the least.

This is the basic homescreen of Airbnb. Just search the city and the dates that you need housing.

How does it work?

As the apartment owner or lessee you can put your couch, bedroom, apartment, or entire home up for rent online.  As the traveller it is very easy to find places to stay because there are Airbnb accounts all over the world.  You can rent anything from a penthouse room in Paris, to hammocks in Hawaii, to igloos in Alaska, to treehouses in Thailand, or even Castles in Greenland.  You can also rent fairly normal places too but where’s the fun in that?

Why not stay in a tree house next time you're in Thailand?

 

This is probably my favorite booking that I've found so far. An igloo in Germany? Do it for the story (DIFTS).

Is it affordable?

If you’re simply traveling for business or going on a weekend getaway, it’s very easy to find an affordable apartment or room to rent for a few nights.  Unless you’re looking for something super exotic, the prices are far cheaper than staying in a hotel.  I think that this is a major selling point for a lot of people.  When looking around Boston I found hundreds of properties under $100/night which is far cheaper than staying in a hotel downtown.

Here's an example of a very nice place in Boston's South End that runs for $86/night. The apartment owners have had 62 five-star reviews. I'd say their trust-cred is pretty high.

What about trust?

The prices are a nobrainer but where most people get concerned when I talk to them about it is with the trust issue.  Couldn’t Airbnb be a great place for rapists, thieves, and generally bad people to hang out and stalk their prey?  Maybe, but as a 6ft tall 180lb man who doesn’t really own anything of significant value, I’m not overly concerned about theft or safety.  Rightfully, most people are concerned about those issues so Airbnb and other similar companies in the sharing economy have developed great ways to instill trust in their systems.

For example, each property listed not only includes the host’s picture and their bio but it also includes reviews and ratings from people who have stayed there in the past.  This goes both ways so the property owner can also see the profiles, ratings, and reviews of the renters themselves and can choose to deny them if they don’t like what they see.  As a renter, I am much more likely to stay in someone’s apartment who has had 100 positive reviews than someone who has had 10 positive reviews and 5 bad reviews.  This is not much different than buying something on ebay or Amazon where online reputation is either a deal maker or a deal breaker.

You can also sync your Airbnb account with your Facebook account so you can see how you’re connected to that person.  I was surprised to see how many bookings in Boston were connected to friends of mine.  You could easily then contact your friend to ask about the property owner.  Additionally, concerning the theft issue, Airbnb offers $1M in insurance in case there is an incidence of theft or vandalism.  If you’re not convinced then take a look at their Safety Page or just do your first few rentals with a friend.  Travelling alone is lame anyway.

Thiago and Niles have had 86 five-star reviews and they're actually friends with one of my friends on Facebook. After doing some due diligence I feel pretty safe about staying with these guys.

Why am I interested in Airbnb?

I am a yuppie 20-something who has high rent, likes to travel, and has student debt.  If I could rent out my room a few nights each month and offset the cost of my rent or reduce my student debt than that’s a win in my book.  Conversely, when I’m traveling I live by the mantra “Do it for the Story” or DIFTS so I would have a much better story to tell if I rented a treehouse in Thailand than if I stayed in a resort.  Also, I’m just really interested in the whole concept of peer to peer marketplaces so I’m excited to start experimenting with Airbnb.  It’s a bandwagon I should have jumped on a long time ago.

Lifestyle Experiments in the Sharing Economy

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Over the last year I did a series of 30 day lifestyle experiments covering everything from nutrition to minimalism.  Starting fresh in 2013, I’ve decided to refocus my efforts on a new topic: the Sharing Economy.  I had trouble finding a decent definition on the internet so I’ll describe it my own way: If a local commune of hippy entrepreneurs made babies with social media platforms then it would be this phenomena we’re currently seeing called the Sharing Economy.

I have been a part of this sharing “revolution” since back in college.  In 2007 out of necessity (a mostly broke and entirely car-less student), I jumped at the chance to join Zipcar, a company that offered a car-sharing service where you could rent cars by the hour (~$7/hour) instead of owning one. Considering that I was hardly making any money at the time and that my parents weren’t going to finance one for me, having access to a car when I needed one was a huge improvement to my daily life.  It allowed me to get groceries, run errands, and all of the other things that are difficult to do via public transit.

Zipcar makes it very easy to find cars near your location. I frequently will find a car on the fly and rent it using my smartphone. It works great.

Even after graduating and attaining a decent income, I’m now car-less by choice because the car-sharing programs have been very convenient, accessible, and cost effective for me.  After accounting for monthly payments, parking ($100-200/month), auto insurance, excise tax, snow tires, repairs, and other various expenses, the math just makes it a no-brainer for me to participate in car-sharing instead of ownership.  All that money that I would be spending on owning a vehicle, I’m dumping into my student loans instead, not a bad tradeoff if you ask me.  I still do a fair amount of mooching off my friends and their vehicles but that’s only because our plans frequently line up (mostly weekend outdoorsy shenanigans).

Since Zipcar, I’ve been involved in other sharing programs like RelayRides (similar to Zipcar but peer-to-peer car-sharing instead) and organic farming programs like Community Supported Agriculture (CSA, aka farm-sharing).

The best part about not owning a car is getting to drive other peoples expensive cars, thanks @RelayRides #thanksgiving

First meal of my Enterprise Farms #CSA: penne pasta w/ tomato sauce, red kale & baby bok choi, simple and delicious

So far, these experiences have been economically viable for me which is a major driving factor to me participating in them.  Secondly, they are more environmentally sustainable than their alternatives (taking cars off the road and eating local produce).   Also, each of these platforms creates a global (ish) community but at a local level so you have access to a wide range of geographic data while still being able to operate within your neighborhood.  It’s a win-win on a lot of levels, or “We’re checkin’ a lot of boxes here” as my friends and I like to say.

Over the past 3-4 months I’ve started doing more research into the dozens of other programs and companies involved in the Sharing Economy.  My mind is continually blown not only at the number of companies and services that exist but the level of engagement throughout the world.  For example, Airbnb is an online housing rental platform that allows you to rent private rooms to/from people in 192 countries and over 30,000 cities!  It’s a fantastic idea that I feel like everyone is participating in and that I’m being left behind.  With that being said, it’s time for me to get involved.

I’m excited to dive head first into anything and everything that I can find in the sharing world and my 30 day lifestyle experiment blog will be a great mechanism to explore the topic.  I don’t think I’ll force myself into the frequency of doing a new concept every 30 days but I still have a lot of interest in the idea of lifestyle experimentation.  It has been a route toward self improvement for me so experiments in the sharing economy is certainly a logical extension of my last project.

So please feel free to suggest new topics for me to explore.  If you’ve had good/bad/indifferent experiences with the Sharing Economy please share those as well (pun intended).  My first experiment will be with Airbnb so look out for future posts in the apartment-sharing theme.  I’ll be blogging at least weekly but tweeting as often as possible/tolerable.  So if you’re Twitter-savvy check out @YoungandUrban, if you’re Facebook savvy check out My Facebook Page, and if you’re neither then wake up and get with the program or you can sign up for an email digest of my blog’s content (see right column of my website). Wish me luck as I spend 2013 doing lifestyle experiments in the Sharing Economy.

Guided Meditations on YouTube and a Healthy Dose of Skepticism

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Completely ignorant of various styles of meditation I decided I would do my first week using guided meditations to get myself in the zone if you will.  Having just concluded my first week of daily meditation I have a mixture of emotions towards it. On one hand, it has been great to calm myself for 30-60 minutes daily, I really feel relaxed and peaceful.  My day to day activities are pretty high speed so forcing myself to slow down and silently turn my thoughts inward has been really great.  On the other hand, I find it extremely hard to let my mind submit to the guided meditations I found online.

Like any good young 20-something would do, I consulted YouTube for guidance.  I’ve found videos on YouTube for everything like how to fix my guitar, fix my bike, make hummus, learn climbing technique and literally hundreds of other useful things so I felt like it was a sure bet for meditation as well.  However, due to the totally overwhelming amount of material and complete lack of governance/accountability, I had a hard time finding videos that I trusted as being legitimate. Should I really trust Username: ‘TheDazBar’ who uploaded a guided meditation to YouTube?  Should I submit my subconscious to this freely or should I be skeptical as to its legitimacy?  Am I going to be brainwashed?  I found it hard to let go of my mind and submit to something I knew nothing about.  It was like having a sketchy adult in the room who may or may make me try to drink some Coolaid.

Regardless, I did a two 60 minute sessions, one 45 minute session, and four 30 minute sessions.  On my first day of meditation I hadn’t yet formulated a plan for how I would go about this month.  So I found some grass at lunch during work and meditated for almost 45 minutes going through my recent trip to Kauai Hawaii.  I walked myself through every step of the journey from the morning I left my apartment at 4:30am to the morning I was leaving Kalalau Beach heading back into civilization.  Frequently my mind drifted to other things but each time I tried to bring my focus back.  It was a good mental exercise but unfortunately I was really fidgety and both my feet fell asleep while sitting cross-legged.  Also, my poorly timed phone alarm went off in my pocket halfway through the session, totally killing my zen-buzz.  Note to self: turn your phone on silent during your meditation practice.

For each subsequent day last week I did guided meditations that I found on YouTube.  I’m not quite sure I liked them though to be honest.  There was a lot of talk about aligning your body’s energy zones through the use of white light and also about finding the truth of the universe.  I’m not really interested in the truth of the universe, nor do I believe that aligning your energy zones is even a thing that exists.  So I found minimal value in the videos I watched.  One video had a disclaimer in the video’s caption that said something like, “This meditation is not meant to be used in the place of standard medical practice.”  Yet in the guided meditation itself the speaker comments that, “The mind can solve any type of illness.”  As an biomedical engineer, I find this kind of stuff hard to swallow.

Here are the links to a few of the videos that helped me through my guided meditation:

I would only recommend guided meditation to a friend if they knew a lot of info about who was doing the guiding and what their background/goals/bias are.  It has become clear to me that my subconscious is something I’m protective over, I’m not just going to let any ideas or people that I don’t know have some sort of subliminal influence on it.  I think if I could find some good/reputable guided meditations I could be interested but until then I’m going to avoid YouTube and stick to my own thoughts.

Next week I’ll be practicing reflection meditation where I’ll read a journal entry from my trip to Israel last year and meditate on that experience for at least a half hour each day.  It was an amazing and deeply spiritual trip but I haven’t afforded myself the time to truly sit down after the fact and soak it all in.  I’m looking forward to being alone with my own thoughts outside of the guided meditation setting.

Zen and the Art of Yuppie Meditation

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Like any other young urban professional (yuppie) with high aspirations for life, I’m usually firing on all cylinders most of my day/week/month/etc.  My busy schedule is mostly self-inflicted but I think it’s less out of a need to stay busy and more out of a need to take advantage of every ounce of life that I can out of my day (maybe those are the same thing I don’t know).    Whether it’s professional responsibilities (working), personal intellectual growth (reading books, playing music, etc), social events (parties, bar, Social Boston Sports), fitness activities (running, lifting, sports, etc), scheming future ventures (I’ve got my hands in a bunch of possible future opportunities), planning my weekend adventures, or anything else, I’m always on the move.  My landlord has actually nicknamed me “Speedy Moses” because the only times we see each other I’m rushing off to one thing or another (not sure about the Moses part but oh well, he’s elderly so I don’t ask too many questions).

A typical day in the life looks like this:

  • Wake up 20-30 minutes before the train leaves for work (having taken a shower the night before… hopefully)
  • Hastily get dressed and eat a bowl of cereal (maybe)
  • Buy a coffee on the way to the train (if I don’t make it a night ahead of time)
  • Barely catch the train (often running to catch it, although once I’m on it it’s quite peaceful, I love to fly by the gridlock traffic on the highway while I’m reading a book or taking a nap on the train, neither of which you can do while driving)
  • Catch a bus or bike to work
  • Work for 4 hours
  • Workout during lunch for 30-45 minutes and shower
  • Work for another 4 hours (eating lunch at my desk somewhere in there)
  • Catch a bus or bike to the train station
  • Ride the train home
  • Fill in after work social event, fitness event, roommate bonding, girlfriend, music, etc
  • Sometimes I make dinner or do laundry
  • Find some time to write a blog post or two
  • By now it’s at least 11pm and I’m in bed usually before midnight

I’m constantly go-go-go, spending minimal time in silence or stillness.  I imagine many yuppies have a similar lifestyle that is constantly on the go.  During the month of July I’ve decided that I’m going to do a meditation experiment where I’ll meditate every day for at least a half hour.  I don’t really know the first thing about meditation so it’ll be an interesting life experience to slow down and focus my mind for at least a half hour every day.  I’m not sure the last time I spent a half hour in total silence during the week.  On the weekends I do this quite a bit because I escape to New Hampshire, Vermont, or Maine where things slow down and I can be quiet in nature.  The city is a tough place to relax and find peace (are either of those possible?).

To get a grasp on what meditation is and what different kinds are out there I went to Les Internets for some investigation.  I quickly became overwhelmed with the different styles, religious practices, and pure information that’s out there on the subject of meditation.  After spending an afternoon going through internet page after internet page this is what I came up with:

  • They recommend at least 10 days when trying out a new meditation sequence to see if it’ll work for you.  I decided that I would do 7 days and do a different type of meditation each week, it seemed to fit well with my 30 day constraint.
  • Week 1 – Guided Meditation.  I’ve found a bunch of YouTube Videos and free MP3s for guided meditations where a voice will walk you through different meditation sequences.  I figured that this would be a good place to start considering my ignorance toward meditation, it could help me get my bearings on this new activity.
  • Week 2 – Reflection Meditation.  It seemed that all religious practices had this aspect where you would read a passage and reflect on it during the meditation, really focusing on that experience, walking yourself through it and thinking about what it meant to you.  I went on a religious pilgrimage to Israel last year and kept a pretty detailed daily journal.  I plan to read one different entry each day and meditate on that experience.  In this way I’ll mix in some religious aspect to it as well which seems to be very common among meditation practices.
  • Week 3 – Chakra Meditation.  There are 7 chakras on your body so I felt this would be perfect for a 7 day meditation sequence, one chakra per day.  From what I read briefly it seems that you focus on energy points throughout your body (chakras) and visualize white energy (cleansing energy) flowing through each chakra.  It is believed that this helps align your chakras and clean out any negative energy that may be residing in one or more of them.  There’s a lot to learn so I gave myself a few weeks to get spun up on it.
  • Week 4 – Zen Meditation.  Some practices of meditation such as Vipassana aim toward a thought-free mind where you are completely at peace.  Zen Meditation however is all about experiencing what is happening right now, not what you will do or what you have done in the past, but what is happening right now so you’re 100% in the moment.  I’ll be backpacking in the Colorado Rockies during this week so I felt like it’d be a great experience to become Zen with my surroundings and try to be truly present in the moment.

I have to admit that I was completely humbled to find out how little I knew about meditation and how much there is to learn.  People spend their entire lives practicing meditation techniques while I’ll only be trying it out for a month to see if it’s something I’d like to incorporate into my lifestyle.  This is not to mention that there are hundreds of different styles of meditation, how one could possibly get a grasp on it is beyond me.  I don’t expect to fully understand anything but I plan to do a lot of reading, research, and meditating.  If anything, it’ll force me to slow down my life’s pace and take some time each day to sit in silence with my eyes closed and think.  Wish me luck on this new lifestyle experiment and if you have any suggestions or comments please send them my way via Twitter @youngandurban, Facebook, or comment on my blog.