Jump to content
Create New...

Leaderboard

Popular Content

Showing content with the highest reputation on 06/07/2025 in all areas

  1. Ok, a few things to address, but I agree with most if not all you've said. My only Air B&B experience in Italy was in July 2023, in Bari (southeastern on the boot; top of the heel). The only caveat of the whole thing was an elevator issue, which was rectified (it was on the top floor, and one day it wasn't working so we had to walk down all the stairs, and it was 115F outside, and you know the interior of the building doesn't have a/c). Since I broke my leg falling down a flight of stairs during lockdown, I still get anxiety on them today. Everything else about the experience was perfect. My only experiences not in the south are limited to 25 years ago... I've spent a few trips on the bottom of the heel at my in-laws homes, and the south in general, is opposite of the south of the US in terms of being progressive. When it comes to more liberal topics such as homosexuality, the south is surprisingly friendly. Even the town priest walked up to me and was very welcoming. The places you may come across more right-leaning ideologies are in central Italy and the north. Of course it's not everyone, but in general, you'll see more bigoted people in central/northern Italy. It's tricky for me to give an accurate, unbiased reaction to the country though because when I go there, I am fluent enough to be confused as a native, and they always peg my accent as southern (which has to be from my late fiance's and my grandmother's/father's influence). You will still get the reaction from northerners that are against the south... just like southerners who are against the north, but I'll save that history lesson for class. Small towns in the south are incredible.. I stayed in this tiny hotel... 40€ a night, air-conditioned, breakfast included (granted in Italy that's just a cornetto and a cappuccino, but that's all I eat anyway), WiFi, so clean you could eat off the bidè, and the hotel owner's wife treated me like her child. I came home one night and she washed and folded my dirty laundry (seriously). I approached her about it, which, I understand most might find this a huge invasion of their privacy, but when a man is traveling alone (and she knew I was a widower), the "mother" in them comes out. In fact, she didn't think I was taking good-enough care of myself, so she'd tell me to go into the kitchen and help myself to peach juice, taralli (for those who don't know, they're the Italian versions of pretzels but have a texture of like a cracker), cookies, etc. Southern Italy has become more like home to me (aside from my fiance being buried there, it reminds me of my own family). My only hatred is for the blistering sun and summer heat.
    3 points
  2. Yeah, my sister has done Airbnb several times w/ condos in Miami Beach and Myrtle Beach...mixed results. She's had places with bad lighting, very uncomfortable beds, leaking ceilings, failed furnaces...others have been spotless and very clean and tidy, with comfortable beds.
    2 points
  3. Sadly, I think both are bad and good, really depends on where you are going and the people as I have had both ends of the experience spectrum with these two services.
    2 points
  4. I had a good and a mixed Airbnb experience in Sicily and East Central Italy, respectively, lately. In Sicily, they were just cool people. In East Central, they were nice but a little stiffer. The condo was sort of a loft where a curved standard staircase went up to the sleeping area. Grand total about 600 s.f., but the floor to ceiling windows kept me in an upbeat mood. The mom of the owner would bring stuff weekly and, when I extended, she quipped that I was getting it for a steal of a price. Considering that it was spring and not summer, it did not command the summer price. All she needed to do is take my nightly price and multiply by 30 to see they didn't do so bad and how that looks vis-a-vis the debt service, if any. I also did okay, so win-win. She didn't understand the common sense concept of market equilibrium, which is intuitive but studied in school. I think the unit would have gone for 125 to 150 K Euro if for sale. Italy may not have white trash as we know it in the States (sorry), but when you explain our social systems, educational systems, etc. to give nuances as to how they differ, reasonably educated people there can be just as obtuse as our basket of deplorables. Also, when I read reviews, many hosts give foreign guests a ride to the train station. It was 2 to 3 miles away. They saw I had beaucoup luggage and did not offer. The bus line serving the train station was luckily there in 5 minutes and I had a pass. Different region from Sicily and a little more insular, too. I have friend who has an Airbnb in San Diego and he says hosts love it when guests don't cook in the Airbnbs. Well, I don't cook. Beyond breakfast, I eat out. She shouldn't have looked a gift horse in the mouth. Bleh.
    1 point
  5. I have used both. I have a couple of favorites on AirBnB that I return to. Turo needs to be the right situation. There's a guy who rents out his Model-3 near me who I've used because renting his car is cheaper than fueling my truck.
    1 point
  6. I'm on some AirBnB host facebook groups and it is really location dependent. If you host Airbnb or Turo in an area that gets a lot of international/canada vistors, you're down. If you host in an area that gets a lot of domestic travel (think Smokey Mountains, Interior of the country), you're not seeing a change. That said, Turo is screwing it's hosts lately and a lot are leaving the platform.
    1 point
  7. You're correct, it's the V6. I was thinking Tacoma and got my engines mixed up. The Crosstrek doesn't offer one, but generally with Subaru, you want the turbo models for reliability. The non-turbos aren't bad, but they've had head gasket issues some 10 years ago. I don't know if those are resolved or not.
    1 point
This leaderboard is set to New York/GMT-04:00


×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.

Hey there, we noticed you're using an ad-blocker. We're a small site that is supported by ads or subscriptions. We rely on these to pay for server costs and vehicle reviews.  Please consider whitelisting us in your ad-blocker, or if you really like what you see, you can pick up one of our subscriptions for just $1.75 a month or $15 a year. It may not seem like a lot, but it goes a long way to help support real, honest content, that isn't generated by an AI bot.

See you out there.

Drew
Editor-in-Chief

Write what you are looking for and press enter or click the search icon to begin your search