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.