"Looking for a new Netflix show to watch? Something with a late-capitalist theme, perhaps? Something that leaves you feeling just a little bit empty inside? Well, I have just the series. I recently discovered Stay Here, a property programme with a modern twist. Instead of featuring hard-to-please couples searching for their dream home, Stay Here features a couple of extremely irritating real estate experts, who are helping people optimise their homes for Airbnb. The hosts traverse the US giving homeowners design and marketing tips so they can “succeed in the world of short-term rental”. A sample soundbite: “If you can rebuild it, I can rebrand it.”
"What’s so wrong with succeeding in the world of short-term rentals, you may ask? If you listen to Airbnb, the short-term rental market is a brilliant way to foster community, revitalise neighbourhoods, help ordinary folk make ends meet and bring about world peace.
"Not everyone is of this opinion, of course. In recent years, as Airbnb and other vacation rental platforms such as HomeAway have exploded in popularity, there have been increasing concerns that they are exacerbating the unaffordable housing crisis. Various studies support this idea, and there is also plenty of anecdata: I have a friend who was just about to sign a lease on an apartment in Brooklyn when the landlord decided it would be more profitable to turn it into an Airbnb instead.
"...There are a few moments in Stay Here, to be fair, when the show hints at the fact that short-term rentals can do long-term harm to communities. In one episode, set in Bed-Stuy, a rapidly gentrifying part of Brooklyn, the homeowner being profiled makes it very clear that he is trying to keep his rental prices down because he wants to ensure the neighbourhood he has lived in for decades remains a “working-class community”. For the most part, however, these glimpses into the more problematic aspects of the sharing economy are rare. The overall moral of the show is “monetise, monetise, monetise”.
"It’s this obsession with monetisation that bothers me most about Airbnb and other short-term rental platforms. The so-called sharing economy is more accurately the monetise-everything-you-can economy. Your home used to be a place where you lived. It represented security and stability. Increasingly, however, as shows like Stay Here underscore, home is no longer where the heart is; it’s where the monetisation opportunities lie.
"One of the best things about being in a relationship, I have decided, is no longer having to go on dates where you are asked the inevitable question: “What do you like to do in your spare time?”
"It should be an easy thing to answer, shouldn’t it? It’s not as if someone is asking for a mathematical explanation of the mass gap. It’s not as if someone has asked you to describe, in iambic pentameter, why Ed Sheeran is so popular. They are just asking you what you like to do in your spare time.
"The problem, however, is that I have no idea how to answer. When I was a child, I had hobbies. I liked to collect rocks. I liked to go rock climbing. You know, all the normal things a socially awkward child likes to do. But hobbies are more complicated as an adult. The things I enjoy doing most (sleeping, mainly) can’t really be classed as hobbies. They are just normal human activities that normal humans do. When I cast around for the slightly more unusual pastimes I enjoy, they are not exactly things you can share with first dates. For example, I really enjoy making bonfires. But telling a girl you just met off Tinder that you love starting fires generally does not result in a second date.
"For anyone else who may be struggling with this issue, I have got your back! I have recently come up with a brilliant (if I say so myself) hobby-hack. If you want to turn the most mundane of activities into an impressive-sounding hobby, just put the words “intermittent”, “extreme” or “experimental” in front of it. Saying “I enjoy napping”, for example, makes you sound lazy. But saying “I enjoy intermittent napping” sounds science-y and intriguing. Experimental napping is even better.
"Disneyland, it turns out, is not just the “happiest place on Earth”, it also is a very popular choice for the afterlife. According to a recent Wall Street Journal investigation, an alarming number of people want their ashes scattered at Disney World or Disneyland. Apparently, an ash-scattering incident happens about once a month. What’s more, the Haunted Mansion (a spooky ride full of fake ghosts) “probably has so much human ashes in it that it’s not even funny,” one Disney worker told the Journal. I don’t want to take the mickey, but come on – that is quite funny, isn’t it? At the very least, I would say it is ironic."
Comments
Post a Comment