’Denmark Switches.’ A national campaign to collectively move off Big Tech.
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Before we planned our UK trip (England/Scotland) I was alerted by the Rick Steves site that BnBs were vanishing, put out of business by the Air BnB model.
They also reduce housing stock, are horrible neighborhood nuisances, and have all the revulsion factor of private equity funds. So we went out of our way to give business only to real BnBs with onsite owners.
In Rancho Mirage, the CA desert resort town where I live, short term rentals have been outlawed.
@donaldham @hanktank61 This is a fine summation of why AirBnbs are a problem, not a solution. It's good to see an increasing number of places banning short-term AirBnB rentals, thus standing up for the local community. Am glad they dealt with it where you are.
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@CiaraNi It’s a bit like the difference between the carefully staged lives and airbrushed beauty of influencers versus real people and real life. The former may dazzle and fascinate, but it’s a hollow thing. The alternative to Big Tech is tech made with enthusiasm and authenticity. It may not be perfect-looking and shiny, it may even have flaws, but even flaws can be part of the charm.
@stveje Well said.
"The alternative to Big Tech is tech made with enthusiasm and authenticity. It may not be perfect-looking and shiny, it may even have flaws, but even flaws can be part of the charm."
Yes! I enjoy the quirks in small apps I've found via F-Droid. They'll have great features, then one mystery button that makes it freeze if you forget to avoid it. It's like that bockety table in your local café. You know it's bockety, you just have to shove a beer mat under it when it wobbles.
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@notsoloud @stveje 'Surprised by Joy.' Ah, lovely. That gets at what I am trying to articulate here. My joy and surprise at discovering that I thought I was Boycotting Bad Thing, but in fact was Gaining Good Thing.
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@faduda I am definitely enjoying putting a little Lud in my life. The more Lud, the better. I am still reaching for a word that focuses on the fact that I am not Boycotting A Bad Thing but Gaining A Good Thing. If that makes sense. I am having difficulty explaining myself, I realise. This is why I need a word for it!
@CiaraNi
Ludding Up -
I'm enjoying the results of disenshittifying my digital life so much that I need a more celebratory word for it than 'disenshittifying'. So far, every solution I’ve switched to is better than the Big Tech one I left. Not ’better’ as in ’not enshittified’, but better designed. LibreOffice: does what I need and only does what I tell it to do. AntennaPod: much better features than Spotify. Tuta: functional and calm and 10 months later, I still haven’t received a single spam mail.
Cleansing?
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’Denmark Switches.’ A national campaign to collectively move off Big Tech. March 20th is Big Switch Day. I’ve named my goal now. I’m already almost deMicrosofted, except for my photo archive. I moved to Libre & Tuta mail and have been purging photos as I await the release of Tuta drive. Now I’m committing myself to just get the photos off OneDrive and on to my computer, that I own, in my house, by March 20th. Then I’ll delete Microsoft. Then I’ll boast about it on the Fediverse.
#DanmarkSkifter
that's the spirit!
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@grb090423 Agreed!
This is a great thread you started, here!
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I stopped using Booking.com ages ago, tired of the spam and Big Corporateness of it. Now I only book directly with hotels. Every time, it's cheaper and the experience is better. If I need to contact a hotel, I communicate with a human. When I needed to make a date change not covered by the booking: 'no problem!' They changed it instantly for free. I'd forgotten how actual customer service used to be. I also forgot to actually delete my account. #DanmarkSkifter reminded me. I just deleted it.
@CiaraNi I've long been a believer in booking directly, for all the reasons you've noted. I've even stumbled through booking a stay at a French farm via a phone call, relying on my extremely limited French and the structured way such conversations always tend to go. Great place, well worth working through my awkwardness.
AirBnB seemed like a decent idea when it really was "use my couch" or even spare bedroom. In its current form, it just soaks up what should be housing stock. Never used it, never will.
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@hanktank61 @donaldham I've never understood the way that AirBnb manages to retain some of the aura of 'staying on my mate's mates couch', 'sticking it to The Man by swapping with real people' etc. A commercial company monopolising the few AirBnb accommodations in a small place, centralising and monopolising the supporting services around them, is the opposite of that to me. That's just a hotel or B&B, but even more centralised and cartel-ish.
@CiaraNi @donaldham
"Good Old Days" . I lived a while in the UK in the '70''s working at trainstations in catering.
Low pay but free travel. Real B&B, £ 5 a night.
Older ladies having a spare-room. Local Tourist information with real people, phoning " Hi Annie I have a person ( later "a couple" )for you". Then came internet. They had to go by the new rules for info. Otherwise no business. Change was fast. No more "want a cuppa tea? " when arriving after a long trip.
Keybox, that is it. -
’Denmark Switches.’ A national campaign to collectively move off Big Tech. March 20th is Big Switch Day. I’ve named my goal now. I’m already almost deMicrosofted, except for my photo archive. I moved to Libre & Tuta mail and have been purging photos as I await the release of Tuta drive. Now I’m committing myself to just get the photos off OneDrive and on to my computer, that I own, in my house, by March 20th. Then I’ll delete Microsoft. Then I’ll boast about it on the Fediverse.
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️ ️ ️️ ️ 
️️ Walking away from techbros
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@hanktank61 @donaldham I've never understood the way that AirBnb manages to retain some of the aura of 'staying on my mate's mates couch', 'sticking it to The Man by swapping with real people' etc. A commercial company monopolising the few AirBnb accommodations in a small place, centralising and monopolising the supporting services around them, is the opposite of that to me. That's just a hotel or B&B, but even more centralised and cartel-ish.
@CiaraNi @hanktank61 @donaldham
The only time I ever used AirBnB was on a last-minute trip to Berlin in 2019. I had to find somewhere fast so it had to be AirBnB. Turned out that the 'real home' was an ensuite hotel room in a purpose-built hotel. Fine as far as it went but not a home at all. Then they badgered me to give the owner a review, which I refused to do.
I recently got an AirBnB email about T&Cs, which was the perfect opportunity to officially dump them.
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@CiaraNi @hanktank61 @donaldham
The only time I ever used AirBnB was on a last-minute trip to Berlin in 2019. I had to find somewhere fast so it had to be AirBnB. Turned out that the 'real home' was an ensuite hotel room in a purpose-built hotel. Fine as far as it went but not a home at all. Then they badgered me to give the owner a review, which I refused to do.
I recently got an AirBnB email about T&Cs, which was the perfect opportunity to officially dump them.
@riggbeck @CiaraNi @donaldham
Finding our ways , succeeding. -
Cleansing?
@w_b It is certainly cleansing. You get the pleasant feeling like after the nice warm shower you had after being all mucky from a run in the woods. I am reaching for a more postive word that focuses on the benefits, though. It's not just getting away from enshittification, it's gaining a digital upgrade. All the non-Big Tech alternative solutions are actually much better than the ones I left.
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#DanmarkSkifter
that's the spirit! -
This is a great thread you started, here!
@wannabemystiker Tak! It's accidentally evolved into a thread, or into my #DanmarkSkifter diary,
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@CiaraNi I've long been a believer in booking directly, for all the reasons you've noted. I've even stumbled through booking a stay at a French farm via a phone call, relying on my extremely limited French and the structured way such conversations always tend to go. Great place, well worth working through my awkwardness.
AirBnB seemed like a decent idea when it really was "use my couch" or even spare bedroom. In its current form, it just soaks up what should be housing stock. Never used it, never will.
@jeridansky That's it exactly. AirBnB went fast from peer-to-peer couch-surfing to capitalist ventures that are more harmful than regulated hotels and real B&Bs. Soaking up the housing stock: yes, this is a terrible consequence of it.
Encounters like yours, stumbling through a foreign-language booking, are so charming and fun. I didn't use AirBnB either but did use Booking.com for a few years. I am enjoying not using it now. I am glad to be back to direct bookings and direct chats with humans.
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@CiaraNi @donaldham
"Good Old Days" . I lived a while in the UK in the '70''s working at trainstations in catering.
Low pay but free travel. Real B&B, £ 5 a night.
Older ladies having a spare-room. Local Tourist information with real people, phoning " Hi Annie I have a person ( later "a couple" )for you". Then came internet. They had to go by the new rules for info. Otherwise no business. Change was fast. No more "want a cuppa tea? " when arriving after a long trip.
Keybox, that is it.@hanktank61 This is it - the real conversations, the real chats with the B&B owners or with the actual human staff and actual locals working in the hotel. The cup of tea. The 'oh I remember you, you stayed here for your friend's wedding, wasn't it?', etc. The opposite of 'Keybox, that is it'.
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@kevinrns I like that image. There we are, ordinary people, just casually walking away from them, strolling together towards a better, healthier digital life.
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@CiaraNi @hanktank61 @donaldham
The only time I ever used AirBnB was on a last-minute trip to Berlin in 2019. I had to find somewhere fast so it had to be AirBnB. Turned out that the 'real home' was an ensuite hotel room in a purpose-built hotel. Fine as far as it went but not a home at all. Then they badgered me to give the owner a review, which I refused to do.
I recently got an AirBnB email about T&Cs, which was the perfect opportunity to officially dump them.
@riggbeck @hanktank61 @donaldham That seems to be very common now. That an AirBnB is just a less regulated hotel, not even remotely a 'local person renting out their couch peer-to-peer' concept.
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@CiaraNi @hanktank61 @donaldham
The only time I ever used AirBnB was on a last-minute trip to Berlin in 2019. I had to find somewhere fast so it had to be AirBnB. Turned out that the 'real home' was an ensuite hotel room in a purpose-built hotel. Fine as far as it went but not a home at all. Then they badgered me to give the owner a review, which I refused to do.
I recently got an AirBnB email about T&Cs, which was the perfect opportunity to officially dump them.
@riggbeck @CiaraNi @hanktank61 @donaldham
I tried to use them exactly once. I was planning on tacking a visit to Boston onto a trip to New York to visit folks at MIT and Harvard. The little hotel a colleague recommended that was about half way between the two was full, but I found a place on AirBnB nearby and placed the booking. My flight was due in late, so I wasn’t going to get to the place before 11pm. I sent them a message to confirm the late arrival process a couple of days before departure.
They told me I’d cancelled my booking.
I told them I hadn’t and asked them to reinstate it.
They told me they’d already rented the room to someone else.
I contacted AirBnB support and they told me the card had been declined. Rather than asking me for an alternate means of payment or even telling me, they’d silently cancelled the booking.
If I hadn’t contacted the host, I wouldn’t have known and would have turned up at 11pm with nowhere to stay.
At that late time, only one hotel had space left, was on the wrong side of the river (would have needed taxis to get to the places I needed to be) and it was charging $750/night. It ended up being cheaper to cancel that leg of the trip entirely.
Shortly after that, the university’s travel insurance announced that they would not cover AirBnB. A lot of my colleagues complained but I fully understood why.
