Seems like basic economics to me.
I believe that the US has a great shortage of cheap housing. I mean affordable houses. I mean affordable apartments. And I guess I would also throw in affordable hotels in Las Vegas.
Why aren’t things affordable?
At least sometimes it’s because someone gets their knickers in a bunch complaining about dirty sheets, falling tiles and lines at the elevator. OK, OK, We can fix those problems. Your room will now be $200 a night, and clean sheets are guaranteed.
Is that a good fix? Do we absolutely require nice things? Some people really cannot afford “nice things”. They don’t have $200 a night for a hotel. They have — let’s say — $25 a night for a hotel. And it’s going to be a crappy hotel. Maybe they find that acceptable.
But if you get all upset about it, you will take away their $25 a night hotel. And then where will they be?
We ought to make it acceptable to be crappy. That is a kind of freedom too.
Some years back I had planned a grand wilderness vacation for the family.
Shortly before we were to leave one of the daughters was seriously injured. There went the hiking, kayaking, and camping. For the most part all her injuries left for her to do was sit in the woods acting as bear bait.
At the last minute I came up with an entirely different urban vacation. Being next to more capable medical centers than we had in our hometown was at this point probably a good idea anyway. Museums, galleries, and hotels, here we come.
Over the course of the vacation we stayed in nicer hotels and it cost a fortune for 5 people. I had packed as much into our time away as I could and one event was scheduled close to the end of our time away leaving just enough time to speed back with no unnecessary delays at the end.
Since we only needed a mattress to crash on for a couple of hours at that point I took a super cheapo crappy motel for the last night on the way back. The best appliances available in the US...in 1974. The carpet hadnt been cleaned since then either. The door had been rigged for ease of robbery by sticking some carboard in the bolt hole and after I removed that we went went to sleep. For the price I paid they offered me nothing (other than the mattress) and I received it in abundance.
Of all the hotels we stayed in the last place was the only one with comfortable beds that we could actually sleep on. Here I had spent a fortune on “nice” hotels, the majority of the money spent on this vacation, and all I really got was ripped off. Sleeping in the car would have been more comfortable.
Never again. A good mattress and no bedbugs will be my only criteria going forward leaving much more money for the events.