I have experienced this exact same scenario. I recently started a new job and want to keep my work stuff completely separate and off my personal phone. I fired up my old iPhone 7 and can't even use the Google authenticator app for 2FA to get into my work accounts!
Me too! I thought it would be somewhat gimmicky but I use my Garmin flashlight all the time. For instance I was just trekking in South America and at camp while everyone else was using headlamps to get around at night, constantly shining lights in each others' eyes I could use the more subtle watch light to get up and find the toilet, etc.
Yes, that is their business model -- it's surprising more people don't understand this. I know from experience regarding Trustpilot and Glassdoor specifically. FWIW, in my personal experience TrustPilot seemed to be a touch more interested in accuracy on managing the reviews, but that was a few years back.
As a marketer who helped manage various companies' reputation online, I can tell you that Glassdoor is pay-to-play. If you pay them the subscription fee, and you get negative reviews, whether "true" or not, you can challenge most and get them removed. I thought most people would understand their business model explicitly relies on getting companies to pay a fee to own their page (and in turn they have to keep those customers happy by removing reviews they don't like) but I continue seeing recruits relying on this site as if it's some unbiased source of info.
I can confirm this experience. At a previous job the management team (of which I was a member) would regularly review glassdoor reviews as part of our employee and candidate feedback. We had a healthy attitude toward employee satisfaction, but someone noticed you can flag a review as disputed (or "under review" or whatever the term is) and whilst it remains in this state, it is hidden from search results. Even for what I considered a team with a good attitude toward company culture, the temptation was too much and it soon became standard practice to flag every negative review asap. Some were unflagged after we reviewed them and we literally couldn't dispute the review but lots were just left as flagged.
The same practice is true of yelp and tripadvisor reviews.
For Tripadvisor, I see that my negative reviews from years ago (not that many - I am pretty easy to please, but occasionally a hotel or restaurant falls below even my low standards) are up and visible. It could be the owners just don't care but I also see a number of negatives on other properties I looked at. So I don't think this is the same.
Having lived in both Sevilla and Barcelona, the high speed lines (until very recently only operated by RENFE as the AVE service) are really amazing and a great value. Also, RENFE has a media-distancia service that isn't quite high speed rail but still pretty fast and efficient, that serves routes like Barcelona-Valencia in ~3.5 hours.
I only wish the international high-speed routes in Europe were easier to book and the prices were lower. It's still at least 2-3x the price to take a train from Barcelona-Amsterdam for instance (which I recently did) then to fly. I have no problem with the much longer duration of the train journey but they need to do something to get trains more competitive price-wise with air, perhaps by increasing taxes significantly for short-ish (<2-3 hours?) plane trips when a viable rail alternative exists, and using that to subsidize the train tickets? I don't know what can be done but it's going to be impossible to convince the public to go on a train for longer trips when both driving and flying are way cheaper.
The whole "Eurorail" "pissing match" between jurisdictions/countries, where you have to confirm/book everything, sometimes manually, ostensibly because of "interoperability" issues ...
... is sad.-
It would be a gamechanger for Europe, were it to function in a frictionless, integrated, simple way.-
$850 / $12 hour (current hourly rate for Honda CRV in SF) = 70 hours. I wouldn't call that minimal time for a month. Is there a more affordable option for on-demand car rental in SF than $12/hour all-inclusive? Seems quite reasonable to me.
+1 to this recommendation! I binged the entire 150+ episode series during various lockdown periods and found it fascinating. It's so well researched and despite covering some potentially very dry topics the host, Kevin Stroud, manages to weave in interesting facts that keep my attention engaged throughout.
AirBnB already is limited in Amsterdam:
"According to Dutch regulations, you can only rent out your entire home in Amsterdam for a maximum of 30 nights per year, unless you have a specific permit that allows you to rent out your home for more nights, such as a short term stay license."
Lived in Amsterdam a few years back, the AirBNBs made it freaking torture during summer.
The old wooden buildings where one could hear everything, people arriving and talking loudly in the stairwells then banging their suitcases up the stairs etc.
I feel your pain, it's definitely a big problem in many places in Europe. Bad construction + overcrowded = Noisy.
That said I grew up in a concrete high-rise 'high density' building in Eastern Europe, and I can't recall that I ever heard any neighbor.
But still the problems are not solved, it is not only airbnb, like many places we are in the endgame of neoliberalism which is the wholesale of other peoples property to rich people by the corrupt political class.
Cyclists take the lane and "block vehicles" as a safety measure, not for some hatred of cars.
"...cyclists drive in the middle of the lane because it actually protects us against the most common motorist-caused crashes. Our top safety priority is to ensure vantage and visibility (to see and be seen). Bicycling in the middle of a lane is our #1 tool for defensive driving."
The last vehicle I owned about 15 years ago was a late 90's model Rodeo and I absolutely loved it. I hope you take yours out for a spin every now and then!
I love mine, and refused to trade it for the Subie. Unfortunately, the transmission is leaking, and the engine burns oil pretty excessively. Plan is to swap the engine and transmission out of a manual Subaru Outback or Forester and make it a more weekend oriented SUV.
