MKS Travel

NYC: HouseTrip.com

Tue, 29 May 2012 15:25:12 +0100

My friends and I are currently in the process of planning a trip to New York for next year. While looking for accommodation, we found HouseTrip.com, a website that enables you to rent houses, apartments, etc all over the world.

Sounds great, right?

We thought so. We looked at our options and picked out a choice of three, which met our budget and location needs.

Soon enough, the requests for availability came back and we were set to book.

That is, until I decided to have a look for reviews of HouseTrip.com, my quick google search didn’t yield much apart from a bunch of TripAdvisor links.

I’m not the biggest fan of TripAdvisor, while they are a good source of knowledge, a lot of the time you have to wade through a lot of crap to get to the answers you want. Most things have a negative slant on them. Which is a shame, because I know from experience that some places that have bad reviews on there, don’t deserve them - the reviews having been left by grumpy customers who feel the need to have some kind of revenge.

As I said though, the Google search didn’t return a whole lot, so I started to trawl through TripAdvisor and see what was being said about the site we were about to drop a bunch of money on for our New York trip.

As predicted, things started off negatively. However, there wasn’t any let up, negative post after negative post kept appearing and then, after all the negativity, the word “illegal” appeared.

Illegal? How could a site as big as HouseTrip.com be illegal? It’s being advertised all over the place. On my computer and my TV.

A law came into effect last May, which made apartment renting in New York City, for less than 30 days, illegal. The thread on TripAdvisor linked to this post on the Wall Street Journal website: Illegal Hotels in New York City Will Be Policed by Mayor’s Office - Metropolis - WSJ

Upon learning this, I messaged the appartment owner on HouseTrip.com to question them, on whether or not what they were doing was legal. Maybe they had a way around the law? I also sent a message to HouseTrip.com’s customer support team, asking them the same basic question. Was it illegal? Did they have a way to make it legal?

Dear Martin,

Thank you for contacting us at HouseTrip.com.

To answer your enquiry, our website serves as a platform connecting registered users wishing to offer their rental space to potential guests looking for rental accommodation.

According to our Terms of Use, hosts and the properties they rent should comply with any applicable local law requirements for short term stays.

Local laws on rental accommodation in New York City are complex and are currently under review by the local legislature. It is the owner’s responsibility to be aware of such local laws and to stay compliant. HouseTrip cannot and does not check every property listed on the website but will investigate any specific report on non-compliance.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions, or there’s anything else I can do to assist.

Best regards

Sarah Stotz

Customer Care Assistant

That was the response I received. (I actually sent the same email to HouseTrip.com twice, thinking the first had been deleted. I received two emails. Both with exactly the same response, the only difference being “Hello,” instead of “Dear” and the name of the “Customer Care Assistant”.)

For me, that email can be summed up as “Not our problem, Lolz” - which is why we won’t be using HouseTrip.com any time soon.

Oh, and I’ve yet to receive an reply from the appartment owner. That seems legit.

Today, HouseTrip.com emailed asking me to review their support, starting with “Good, I’m satisified” or “Bad, I’m unsatisfied.”

I clicked “Good, I’m satisfied” and it then allowed me to add a comment.

I appreciated the quick response and particularly appreciated the quality of the copy and paste work involved. It answered all my questions and confirmed that I won’t be using HouseTrip on this occasion.

I doubt anyone will read or reply to the comment I supplied, but oh well.

In short, I don’t trust HouseTrip.com and doubt I’ll ever use their services in the future.

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Paris: Au revoir!

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 07:52:00 +0000

July 4th, 2011

The alarm went off at 5am. By 6:30 we were at Joinville-Le-Pont RER for the last time.

We got to Charles De Gaulle in good time, and so we sat for a bit before saying our goodbyes.

From Charles De Gaulle, I went to La Défense, to see the Grande Arche and ended up sitting there for a while utilizing a WiFi hotspot I found. The whole défense area is pretty nice, if you can see it through all the suits. On the train to La Défense, I was the only one in the carriage not suited up, by the end.

After, I headed to porte maillot, to find out the times of the bus and also buy a ticket. The metro stop is a lot bigger than I remember, but last time I was there, it was packed out with frustrated italians.

Once I had my ticket, I went to Musée De L’Armée, which was only €7. It was pretty cool and most importantly, killed a few hours… Oh, and while there, I managed to get myself another bloody nosebleed. Ended up wandering around half the 1900’s with a blood soaked tissue.

Paris, you have not been kind to my nose.

After that, I hung around the carousell de Louvre and used its many free WiFi locations, killing time until I got the bus.

I headed back to Porte Maillot at around seven, and got a bus out to Beauvais at around half past, getting me to the airport for around 8:20pm. All straight forward, so far.

I decided, once I arrived to take the opertunity to change my tshirt. I had a clean one in my bag and I felt kind of sweaty, so I figured it was a good decision. I went to the toilets and did that and started making my way to the security line.

On the way, I felt something, it felt like my nose was running — but given what happened earlier, and what happened on Saturday night, I kind of knew better. I reached up and sure enough, more blood.

I made my way back to the toilets to grab some tissue, and got it seemingly under control. At least, enough to make my way through security — still holding a tissue to my nose. It wasn’t until after I was through the metal detector that one of the french security people asked if I was OK.

Well, that was the jist of what he asked. First he asked if I spoke French, to which I told him no. Then he asked the woman behind me in line if she spoke french, she did. Did she speak English? Barely. But she was able to translate enough to ask me if I wanted someone to have a look at my nose. A first-aider. I was given a seat and the guy went off to look for the first aider and soon enough, he came along and took me into his first aid room.

He was also French and had limited English. So he went off to find someone to be a translater for him, coming back with a woman from the airport.

I was asked if I wanted to go to hospital, but if I did that, I knew I’d miss my plane. So, I said I’d rather just get home. Which they were understanding of. However, when the nose bleed still hadn’t stopped properly after over half an hour, they started to get more concerned. Suggesting that I may not really have an option but to go to hospital.

If the bleed didn’t stop, I wouldn’t be able to fly, because, if anything, the pressure in the cabin would only make it worse.

While none of that is a good thing, it’s only made worse by the fact that the next flight I could get on wasn’t the next morning, it wasn’t even the next night. It would have been two days later.

I asked them for a cut-off time, a time by which, if my nose hadn’t stopped bleeding, I would have to stay and hoped that it would stop bleeding.

The first aider guy was on the phone to the hospital, essentially getting an ambulance when he asked me to take the gauze away from my nose, to see if the situation had improved. I went into the little toilet, and took it off over the sink. And… Nothing. There was a little bit of blood, but it wasn’t soaked. I shouted out, “Wait!”… and wandered out of the bathroom, almost confused. He looked at the lack of blood on the gauze strip and canceled the ambulance.

He let me sign the refusal of assistance form — I say let me, because he had talked about it earlier and asked me if I’d be happy to sign it, when I had said I’d rather go home than go to the hospital, when it was looking like I had a choice, but I didn’t see it again, until after I’d produced a blood-free gauze strip.

In the midst of all this, he took my heartbeat, which was apparently at over 120bpm. Which, considering I hadn’t been running around or anything, is very high. I suggested that it was probably, in part at least, something to do with the fact that I was being told I might not get home and would be stuck in France for another two days.

His English wasn’t that good though, so I don’t think he understood.

Anyway, after all that, he let me go back through to my gate, accompanying me through security — To which one of the security guys remarked “look who’s back!” — I’m guessing he’d radioed through to them about me possibly not making the flight. He left me saying that if it started to bleed again, even a little bit, that I had to find him again.

Thankfully, it didn’t (and hasn’t).

All the staff I interacted with at Beauvais with regards to the all the blood I was leaking were really nice though, the translater for the first aider kept reiterating that they weren’t trying to keep me, that it was for my own good. Blood loss is never a good thing.

I got back to Glasgow late (the plane was late in taking off from Beauvais) and my mum drove me home - She was already half way to the airport (a 4 hour journey) when I was told I might not be getting back to Scotland. I ended up sleeping in the car on the way home, which is something I never usually do, but I was exhausted, then I went to bed pretty much as soon as I got home.

Where I still am just now.

Still blood free.

Paris - July 4th, 2011

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 07:45:35 +0000

Paris - July 4th, 2011

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Paris: Mona Lisa's Smile

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 07:26:00 +0000

July 3rd, 2011

I woke up, happy to see that I wasn’t in a pool of blood, and waited for Emily to finish getting ready before getting ready myself. Once in the bathroom, I looked in the mirror, decided my hair was fine and threw on my clothes.

The plan for today was to go to Notre Dame, the Louvre, get some pictures at the Moulin Rouge and Sacré Coeur, then go to Père Lachaise cemetery before hitting they Eiffel tower.

A packed day, sure…

We got to Notre Dame, and joined the line to go inside. There was a service going on, and I always find it kind of were that they allow people to go arouse taking photos and film when that’s happening. It’s also jarring to see little shops at the side of the church.

We then letter with the aim of joining the queue to go up the towers. The queue stretched the length of the cathedral and eventually, we decided against it.

We then walked across the river and visited Shakespeare & Co. Bookshop, which was pretty cool. Emily played some piano before we left.

From there we headed to Saint Michel metro, stopping briefly to take pictures of the fountain, before going to The Louvre.

We made our way to the pyramid, only to be met with a queue that stretched from the pyramid entrance, through an arch, into the other courtyard, through another arch, and put onto rue de Rivoli. There was no way we were joining it, so I went onto my phone to see if there was another entrance.

A couple minutes later, we had found it. Through the shopping mall.

Once we found they entrance to that, we strolled into the museum, no line, nothing. Ending up under the pyramid like everyone in the massive queue above us.

It was a free day at they museum (hence the massive queue), so we just made our way to the Mona Lisa (obv), grabbing a drink and a snack en route.

After seeing Lisa, we continued down the Grand Gallery. Then went room they food court for does food and free WiFi.

After food, we went to check out the Egyptian stuff, seeing the medieval part of the Louvre too.

My memory card became full mid-egypt, 4gb/845 pictures. I swapped it out with my video camera card, as I’ve barely taken anything on that the entire trip.

We exited the Louvre through the pyramid. The queue was still going on as far as they eye could see, and we headed for the big red windmill.

The metro was crazy crowded, so after some photos of the mill, we walked down to Sacré Coeur.

It was busy, but not too bad. The string guys did try and force their stringy ways on me.

We then tried to go to Père Lachaise, but we arrived just as it closed. Who knew cemeteries closed?

We walked until we found a metro, which ended up being Voltaire and got off at Trocadero, where we sat for a while.

We left at around 8, and elles along they river toward a metro stop. Getting the metro to étoile and then to joinville le pont. Emily was hungry, so we went in search of somewhere that would serve food.

There were several restaurants on they street we walked down, none of them open. Which was useful. Eventually we found a vietnamese place or something and she got some takeaway.

Back at the hotel, I put the tv on and we watched Finding Nemo in French, followed by what it turned out a CSI marathon - also in french.

Needing to be up at 5am, it was perhaps silly of us to stay up talking about the inside and outs of tv and film…

Oh well.

Paris - July 3rd, 2011

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 07:23:56 +0000

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Paris - July 3rd, 2011

Paris - July 3rd, 2011 Be not inhospitable to strangers, lest...

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 07:09:27 +0000

Paris - July 3rd, 2011

Be not inhospitable to strangers, lest they be angels in disguise.