Category Archives: Travel

Farewell AirBnB

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This won’t happen everywhere, but in many cities that are popular with tourists, the rise of AirBnB has coincided with chronic housing shortages and low housing affordability.

These are not actually a coincidence, they are both the result of worsening economic inequality. More people with money are travelling, and that will keep getting worse with time, unless inequality is seriously and properly addressed.

Taxing or effectively taxing tourists will help. It will directly take money from the rich and distribute to the poor, if done correctly.

That means government taxes and tariffs on hotels, visas and the like, as long as it is redistributed to social housing. That means no AirBnB, or at least limiting it to leasing a single room within a residential home on a temporary basis.

Cruises are booming, so increase their port charges dramatically. Their appeal fades once desirable ports are off the menu.

Countries that do this first (yes countries, because it doesn’t work as long as individual destinations are vying for the tourist dollar and will fight to the bottom), will benefit soonest.

Dual-Battery Phones

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I was slightly disturbed to read that Emirates are switching to digital-only boarding passes. What if your phone dies?

Which got me thinking – your phone is becoming more and more necessary for everyday life, and everyone has battery issues. Yet your phone’s functions can be divided into essential (paying for things, being an actual phone, messages) and non-essential (games, Tik-Tok).

Whether actually having two different batteries and perhaps even operating systems, or whether virtually doing so, I think splitting the two types of function could become necessary.

Very simplistically, when your battery gets down to 30%, games and so on cannot be run, and only essentials will. It won’t be told to you like that – you will be told that your gaming battery is empty.

The other option could be two phones, an essential phone, and a game/social/camera device. They could even be joined together, two different sides of the one device, with screens front and back.

Podcast / Navigation

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People listen to podcasts while driving.

People use navigation apps while driving.

Combine them. The voice of the podcast interrupts the podcast to announce you need to make a turn. Casually, conversationally, like a passenger who knows the way and was telling you a story.

Unlikely to happen if the podcaster needs to record all the navigational words.

Can easily happen if that voice can be synthesised.

Specialised Business Clusters Post-COVID

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We already have clusters of like-minded businesses, but most of them are just tech, following the lead of Silicon Valley.

The trend recently is for smaller cities to get more start-ups, due to lower costs and perhaps local government incentives.

COVID-19 will mean less business travel, because of the prolonged nature of the pandemic forcing us to get used to connecting remotely.

At the same time, people are using Uber/bikes/scooters more than ever before, but not to the other end of a city.

We will still want face-to-face meetings, we just won’t put as much effort into the travel as we used to.

Prediction: like-minded industries, and subsets of those industries, will over the next 10 years congregate in suburbs of specific cities. Imagine half of a country’s FinTech businesses not only being in the same city, but the same suburb.

  • Easier to change who you work for – interviews, no need to move home, already socialise with them
  • Socialising (or living) with people in your industry
  • Industry-specific co-working spaces
  • Scale efficiency for supporting businesses
  • Industry-specific training and schools

 

AirBNB+ with Experiences

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AirBNB is primarily a room rental service, and it is slowly trending towards being just like every other accommodation service – bland, repetitive, same-priced, unexceptional.

What if you could

  • wear the host’s clothes
  • use a kitchen that is fully stocked
  • get tips about the best local bars and restaurants (with discount vouchers)
  • even rent their friendship (or one of their actual friends)

Basically you become them for a short while. A truly unique experience.

Example… my family live in Huntly, NZ. It’s quite an ordinary, small town. I would venture it would be totally unenjoyable without any guidance. But with guidance, you could get a very real experience of small town NZ life… your guide booklet suggests:

  • buying a 12 pack of DB Draught from the local New World
  • getting fish and chips from the Chinese takeaway
  • the best local TV shows to watch
  • buy veggies from a roadside stall, and meat from the butcher, and use the included BBQ and marinades to cook a great dinner
  • getting a Lotto ticket
  • the pool comp at the pub
  • a bush hike
  • a drive to Raglan, hippie surfie town

And, and, and, if there is a party happening, the hosts can earn points for letting you hang out. This would obviously be the hardest part to make happen…

Regardless, beats staying at a hotel and eating at the hotel restaurant.

The target audience is the people who pay $500/night to stay in a yurt. They will pay for an authentic experience that represents where they are through a locals eyes, and is a unique experience that nobody else can replicate.

Call it…. XP