Air BnB Reviews

 

I had started to write this early on in our travels because the reviews and ratings that users were posting on AirBnb did not make sense. They would rate an accommodation 5 Stars but their review was less then glowing. So why a 5 Star rating?

Before I had completely written my post, we stayed at a place that had a sign that said what the rating system means. Apparently, the rating system is not the same as other rating systems and anything less than 5 stars is not good. If the accommodation is as expected then an overall 5 star rating is what you are supposed to give. Which makes a mockery of the whole system as how can you distinguish the superb from the ordinary? It also makes the number rating system meaningless if every rating is 5.

Of course I did some internet searching and came up with a subreddit – which was eye-opening (not related to ratings). There are claims, and at no point has anyone provided evidence, that anything below an average 4.3 rating gets your property removed from AirBnb. And yet there are many people who save their 5 stars for top notch properties which seems fair as why should a no-frills place be the same rating as a luxury home with top of the line amenities and a fantastic location?

What this means when searching for somewhere to stay, is that the number rating is meaningless. Are previous guests 5 star raters for everything or 4 star raters for everything except for the best of the best? And you have to hope that the written reviews are honest.

We stayed in some amazing places and some basic places, and I would reflect this in our reviews.

Why I Won’t Use FlixBus in the Future

 Caveat: all opinions are my own based on personal user experience.

There were some journeys where going by bus was the better option and FlixBus was a good price, assigned seating and amenities. The first time we used them was travelling between two Danish cities. Shortly prior to departure time I received a notification that the scheduled bus would not be a FlixBus but a local bus with a sign in the window. Check with the driver if you are unsure. One of the reasons for choosing FlixBus is their bright green livery. So here we were at a bus station with unmarked bays hoping that we didn’t miss the bus. It all worked out.

This didn’t put me off using them again. The next time was between Estonia and Latvia. Once again, shortly before departure time received a notification that it would be a local bus not a liveried FlixBus. At least this time we were at a large bus station with all departures and bays clearly signed. But the bus that turned up was a very basic bus without the amenities described on the app. The seat numbering was different and as we were not the first stop people were already sitting in the seats and area we had booked and paid extra for. The driver had blocked off two seats for his own belongings and moved them for us.

Two sub-par experiences equates to using other companies for future travel and our next bus journey with a different company was in a marked bus with no surprises.

Travelling from Belfast to Glasgow

 

I am writing this as a separate post in case it helps someone in the future. There are flights between the two cities but we eliminated this option due to timing and cost. We decided to go the ferry route but it was frustrating that the options I kept coming up with involved having to get to Belfast Harbour, take the ferry to Carnyran, then coach to Ayr, then train to Glasgow. This seemed like too many changes and it wasn’t clear what happened if any of the transportation was delayed would the coach and/or train would wait.

Eventually in my searching, I came up with an option to get on a coach at Belfast Bus Station that would take you to the ferry and then in Scotland the same coach would take you to Glasgow Bus Station. The advantage of this in addition to not having to worry about connections, was not having to carry luggage. The downside was having to leave Belfast early or arrive in Glasgow late – we went for the leave early option.

WIP Situation

 A little interlude in the travel stories to talk about my WIPs as it is that time of year when the Ravelry group finishes all their projects ready to start the next year fresh.

Although I have been trying to keep my WIPs low this year, the long trip caused a buildup. I had some projects that I didn’t manage to finish before the trip and didn’t want to take with me and there are some projects that I didn’t quite finish while I was away. So I am starting this WIP season with nine projects. Which is the same number as last year, the difference being that last year I had started a few projects to take on a trip.

Three of these projects are blankets and were on the needles last year; one of the blankets is an ongoing project and will not be finished anytime soon which leaves me eight projects to finish in three months. Usually I would work on the projects in order of cast on but two of the projects have a small amount of work required to finish, so I will work on those first. Then I will finish the mitred squares blanket. I am on the last border and it is all knit but it is big so have to be in a comfortable position to work on it. Four of the projects are relatively easy knitting, although one is a fingering weight double layer hat so although the knitting is easy there is a lot of it. I will probably leave that one to last or second to last depending on the other blanket. This is one of the year long blankets I made last year. It is in three strips which need to be joined, and I haven’t decided how I want to do that. I know I don’t want to sew them together and I don’t really want to pick up stitches and join them. I’m thinking of some sort of crochet join. But what sort has not been decided.

Hopefully by the end of the year I will have completed six of the eight projects.

Choosing Modes of Transport

It is unnecessary to list all the different modes of transportation but I had wanted to write in this blog about some of the choices we made in choosing our travel options. Obviously, if you are on an island the choices to get off that island are limited, otherwise there is not only the choice of how to get from A to B but also which company to use.

Once we were on mainland Europe we travelled by train or bus (coach). This is because the depots are in town, usually within walking distance of the center and you don’t need to get to the station until 15 minutes before departure. Compare that with a flight. The airport is usually a little out of town so you have to add on the time to get to and from the airport plus however much time you need to get to the airport in advance, bus or train makes more sense.

So how to choose? Sometimes it was easy, sometimes it was toss a coin. Although you would think that Google Maps would be a great resource, it wasn’t as useful as you would expect. And using it on a phone was a different experience to using the web version on a laptop. And ferries were not included as an option in most cases. Results differ if you input address to address or station to station. But Google Maps is a good starting point as you can see how far apart two places are and if there are any places between your A and B that you might want to stop at.

An internet search will come up with many blogs/websites/YouTubes of people’s travels, which can be interesting if they are relating their experiences or really want you to use their affiliate links or use their travel services. Through searching I found a travel blog describing a couple’s experience of the Flam Railway which impressed what I was beginning to think that it wasn’t going to work for us this trip. But searching also came up with a better way (for us) to travel from Belfast to Glasgow. I did find that individual blogs were train centric.

The first thing I would look at is if the journey is direct or requires a change. A direct journey should have less problems. After that I look at total journey time. For shorter journeys, there is often not much difference between the travel time by train or bus. I will also look at departure and arrival time and how that fits in with our accommodations. And then I look at cost. Yes, cost is not my first thought. You’d think that as the mode of transport is not changing (i.e. the train is the same regardless of price) that cost would be my first consideration but all the other factors are important considerations in choosing if it is worth paying more.

Technology and Transportation - A Good Thing

 In my last post I talked about technology and why it might not always be the answer. Transportation is definitely an area where technology is helping the traveller. Firstly just being able to check different routes and different modes on your internet enabled device. (That sounds old-fashioned but so many options now.) makes it easier to pick the right one for you, rather than the ticket office giving you one option because there is a long line behind you. With the added benefit that most transportation websites have an English option.

Tickets can be purchased and sent to your phone. Nothing to print which is difficult when you are not at home. Although I have been surprised by how many people have printed tickets. But it is a good back up. What if your phone loses power or you can't access the app? I take screen shots in case of an internet problem but that doesn't help with the power problem; so you have to keep an eye on battery level if you've been using your phone throughout the day.

Now at railway stations not only do they have the information on the next trains arriving at the platform, when the train is about to arrive the screen will indicate the number of carriages, which are for bicycles and first class and where they will be at the platform and in the UK the screen shows how full each carriage is. 

But even with all this information at your point of departure, you can follow the journey of your bus or train to see where it is and follow along once you are on. This is very useful when buses do not have information inside to indicate the next stop.

Although all this technology can cause angst, like when we were waiting for a bus in Finland at a stop with no screen just the timetable and the bus stop sign. The website had been very helpful in getting us from our hotel to the bus stop but watching the passage of the bus arrive and leave "our" bus stop was very worrying and while trying to decide what we should do, the bus turned up. We were at the stop after the one we thought we were at. We never did find the original stop and wondered if it was one of those places where the locals knew the buses stopped.

Technology and Museums - Not Always a Good Thing

We have visited many museums of many different types and it has been noticeable how they are changing -  the displays are becoming tidier and cleaner and more information is being provided. Quite often you can scan a QR code that takes you to a link where you can hear and/or read about the item. Information is provided in at least two languages - the home country's and English so many more people can learn about the displays.

So why is this not a good thing? Many museums have now added touch screens so that you can read about the objects. The problem with this is that it limits the number of people who can read about the items. You may be able to read over someone's shoulder depending on how the touch screen is placed but that doesn't help if they are reading in a different language than the one you want. Also, so much information is provided on these screens that a person could be standing at one for quite a while.

Therefore you can have two different reviews of the same museum that are both true:- great displays with much information stayed longer than expected; boring museum, not much information, not worth the money we paid.

Like anything, you are not going to please all the people and museum curators are passionate about their subject and want to spread the information and this is an easy end result. Although I am sure that it is much more work than a numbered display.

Personally, this is a dilemma, I appreciate the information but found that sometimes I was spending more time reading than looking. Technology is a good way to provide information but not the only way.