00:01.96 Bill White Yeah, and every time you do that I always think of Wayne's world too. So a mouthing out the countdown as well. Ah here here we are and segment 3 the final segment of our conversation about. 00:07.30 Heather Um. 00:07.47 archpodnet Ah, yeah, are straight. 00:10.44 Heather Um, waynes world Reigns world. 00:14.95 Bill White But party time right? That's the opposite of what we want. We don't want party time at the you know Airbnb right? We don't want that but we are talking about field lodging specifically vacation rentals for the field Doug had something to add from the last segment Doug. 00:29.85 Doug Yeah, um, it was it was a bit rifting off of you bill and Heather um, talking about how the quality of airbnbs have gone down and how that that might affect the ah company. But that's that's not as I say it's not bug but actually a feature of Airbnb's business plan. Um, they're basically doing like ah it's all that you know normal companies dressed up as like ah ah, a technology company that gets billions and billions in investment and the end goal is a monopoly and so. 01:04.38 Doug Their end goal is like uber is to destroy cabs but to destroy hotels and then so that they're the only business left in town. Um, and so they don't really care too much about quality because that's not their their business model. Their business model is to get. Enough things out there that they can basically corner a market and then monopolize it sorry guys my my my toddler needs to be um, ah talked to for just a second apologies. Um, hold on just one second. 01:40.10 Bill White That's all right? That's why we have airbnb in the first place. It's awesome I remember the old days now. But now my kids just watch Youtube the whole time. Ah. 01:41.70 archpodnet Here That's right south. Ah. 01:43.66 Heather Well. 01:47.10 Doug Okay, but so guys. Um, yeah, um I was just gonna say like that's that's the goal is basically to destroy hotels. So If there's only thing left. And then they don't care about quality Uber doesn't care about like if there's suddenly not no cabs and no one doing running their you know the Uber um there and you can't find it because they've destroyed it and that's that's their their value comes from a Monopoly and that's I mean that's that's a huge thing and like there's. 02:12.39 Bill White Yeah, yeah. 02:18.81 Doug A lot of communities trying to do their own sort of Airbnb. So Marse um has ah a huge one. That's it's it's actually really interesting. It's it's interesting things. It's it's a concept of airbnb. But it's community run. It's actually community outside of the tourist areas and where say it's actually the um. Industrial areas. It's it's really interesting. Very community-drive. They have like tours and it's tours about like industrial heritage. Um, and it's an area that people don't go to very often and they're trying to build it out and then the reason people they're able to do that is because airbnb doesn't care about it that area. Um, or or the people that sign up for airbnb. Don't care about that area. So there's there's a lot of stuff but it's about investing back in because like all that money that airbnb makes they they're going to rack up their fees at certain points once they've become a big enough monopoly and I think they've somewhat done that to their hosts. 02:55.37 Bill White You know. 03:13.53 Doug Um, and once they've done that all the fees go up but they don't care and um, all that money is going to flow back to the investors and then eventually I can't remember if airbnb ever went public yet or not I think they delayed it because of Covid and stuff like that. But it's it's just sucking a lot of money out of communities and especially if you know. 03:15.90 Bill White Yeah. 03:24.17 Bill White Yeah I. 03:33.46 Doug We're in archeology and usually if you are having to do away work. You're probably in like ah a community That's that needs that money more than um, a billionaire needs another yacht. Um. 03:49.90 Bill White Um, yeah, yeah, what. 03:50.88 Doug And that that's just another thing to sort of throw on there onto that bonfire of of of of logs of of horrible things that are wrong with Airbnb. Let me just toss that last one in there. 04:01.40 Bill White Yeah, that one's going to burn for a while because it's also small-time hustlers you know Youtube influencers and other goons who are just buying up all this stuff and then pretending like they can actually manage this stuff when they really can't I mean they don't have the capital to back it up. Nobody's responding when there's problems. I mean at a hotel if someone didn't come to see what's up with your thing within you know 30 minutes or an hour something like that that'd be no one everybody would just check out and leave right? but with these things your money's trapped, you're stuck things break. Whatever and also things will break and then they just blame it on you right? like. Weeks later, you get this bill for something that was already broken when you were there that you told them about and then they're oh and it's just a common scam right? This outlet doesn't work. This thing doesn't work you email them real quick. This thing's not draining properly then they send you a bill for it later on and then you send them the email like nahnowyoucan'tgetmeonthisscamialreadytoldyouitdidn'twork. Oh we're sorry we're so sorry it's just another way to gouge you for a few hundred more dollars Andrew 05:04.31 archpodnet Yeah, so I've just been kind of listening to you guys talk about all this and I've had a few thoughts. It's so funny I agree with Heather way back? Um, in terms of I never really feel like staying in someone else's house like that's just an aspect. Ah, the airbnb world that I never really got I'm like this does not sound attractive to me like I get it in terms of the price and stuff and bill like you were saying with kids and stuff but to me personally I don't know in terms of archeology. Um I think when it comes to lodging like this I think there's two separate. Types of projects that we're on for this and I would say it's the short term one and the long term one. You know if if you're there for a week and a half or something then yeah, you know whatever you tried an airbnb try out you just you can try different things. Maybe it works. What maybe it doesn't but if you're like a long term place. 05:44.40 Heather Ah. 05:56.19 archpodnet Or a place that you go back to every year like every summer in June we we work in this place then I think it's worth it to look for other types of lodging like I've had really good experiences even going totally to the flip side of this and asking like the resort you know if there's like a. High end place where you're going. We tend to we tend to not think of that in archeology. You know we tend to think well that's worthless to even give them a call. No I'm serious because sometimes those places will give you massive deals. You know, just just because maybe you're there offseason. 06:17.86 Bill White Whoa. Well many of us don't work with you I Guess that's why I. 06:32.36 Heather Ah, here. 06:34.41 Doug And yeah, offseason's huge. 06:35.11 archpodnet and and archeology so yeah and and maybe archeology sounds cool to them. This has totally happened to me like multiple times and they will give you this like crazy deal and so you're staying at this. Super nice place for not very much money. It's a hotel situation so you don't have to worry about any of that airbnb crap. And again I've just had really good experiences with that where they'll even cut you a deal where maybe like the maid doesn't even come in though because you're there for a month or something you know and so they give you a rate. But I'm not saying it works every time but what I am saying is we as archeologists should always keep that open kind of think. Big because that is a possibility. 07:18.19 Bill White Yeah I totally hear you because I know in Arizona that's a huge thing too because you're going to bring 13 people from ah Monday through Thursday which are their slowest days and you're right, you can get a lot of these resort places with like the lazy river and nice pools and stuff or. 07:28.00 archpodnet Right. 07:33.95 archpodnet M. 07:36.40 Bill White You know 40% of what they would normally rent about in the spring and fall and winter because you're there in July and they can't pay anyone to go to Arizona and July ah. 07:42.46 archpodnet Um, yeah, yeah, right. 07:45.53 Doug I yeah man like living oh sorry Heather go ahead. 07:47.44 Heather Yeah, we have um I mine was kind of sure we have we have people with our company that or 1 person specifically that makes the arrangements. Um. Hotels and stays and and other kind of amenities that are needed and not all of us use her but she's a great resource and she has set you know our company has set up agreements in some areas that we work a lot. That we have you know a hotel chain where we have an agreement or we have one in each um city where we you know work a lot that we have a discounted rate a really good discounted rate and it's you know these hotels. It's worth it for them. To know that they're going to get all of your business and so I would say for those that are listening um, you know, especially with the smaller companies or with companies that don't have something like this if you're not crazy about the you know where you're being asked to stay and you feel like you have. I mean I think you should ask anyway, it doesn't hurt to ask ask if if you can try to make these arrangements I mean they may throw you a little extra money to do it or it just allows you to have some kind of control and I guarantee you most project managers they hate that aspect having to set up the hotel and doing all these. 09:12.23 Heather These you know extra you know tasks if you take it off their plate. They they be thrilled and then you have a little bit more control. Um, yeah, it's just an idea. 09:25.66 Doug I was just going to second the whole um offseason having living basically in a giant tourist trap. It's not tooist trap scotland's wonderful, but it is heavily seasonal tourist like all the hotels all car vehicle rental. About triple right now of what they are but like if you go just off the off seasonson like a car rental. What would be like two hundred a day can drop down to basically like 15 or 20 a day It's ridiculously cheap. Um, if you're doing the offseason. Um, and you're bringing a lot of. A lot of business to places that just are not normally having people there. You can get pretty good deals. Um, and I come ah just off of of heaters is this is not going to apply to probably most people listening but there are still like companies that are. 10:18.15 Doug Basically owned by a University or a department of a university or through a university of of some sort um and commiserations. Um to anyone who has to deal with that because I've never so they always put him out to like some sort of um travel agency that always books. 10:20.70 Heather Here. 10:38.29 Doug Most expensive worst places like the most expensive worst cars flights hotels. Um, yeah, like if you happen to be stuck at ah you I shouldn't say just university I'm sure there's probably some large companies that have similar contracts but um. I don't know a way around that. But if you can do what Heather's suggesting and be able to take that on if you're starting a job out and it happens to be through like 1 of those universities that forces you to book through their travel agency. Definitely 100% ask if you can book your own because your your quality will go up. Like tenfold and the price will come down by fivefold um out of out of my experiences with those things. 11:25.57 Bill White Yeah, that just reminds me of having the folks at the office book the rental car for the trips and um, you know I'm six five and so pretty commonly. You'd see something like an economy size or a mini or I don't know man 1 of those mario cart cars as one of the ones that we're supposed to use for the field. 11:42.71 Heather Yeah, yeah. 11:42.88 Bill White And I can't even get my legs in it in the front seat in the driver's side and so I'd always have to yeah you know we're going out to spend 7 more total dollars to get a standard sized vehicle because I really can't fit inside of this you know fiat. It's not going to work I think we're moving it. 11:55.42 Heather It just goes down to managers I was just going to say it just goes down to managers caring about crew. They really should be like I and understand budget is is important but it's Pennywise pound foolish. When you're only focused on the money part and you're not focused on the quality part because if if I mean it wouldn't even take much to have better accommodations and your crew is so happy and they get you get a lot more They're a lot more willing to work harder. You know when they're being treated like crap. Um, they're not going to work for you so or they're not going to work hard for you. So. 12:36.23 Bill White Yeah, yeah. 12:38.91 archpodnet Man Heather I was going to say the exact same thing I was even going to say the line penny wise and pound foolish. Um, because in my experience. It's always worth it to even spend a tiny bit more on your accommodations. You know what? I mean because it'll be so much better. 12:52.61 Heather Ah, yeah. 12:54.47 Bill White Um, yeah. 12:55.72 archpodnet And you'll just feel so much more comfortable and I know this man when I was young I I penny pinched everywhere like I was that awful guy that bill talked about about oh I'm staying 3 counties over and I'm late because I have to drop an hour in like I will I did that you know once or twice but in my older knowledge. 13:06.17 Heather And. 13:12.95 Bill White Ah. 13:15.73 archpodnet Um, I'm like dude for an extra ten bucks um I can stay in this place. It's much nicer. Oh they have a free like ah brunch every day. Oh you know? So there's there's there's all these extras that come to so it really is worth it to stay at a place that's decent it it just. 13:24.60 Bill White Um, yeah. 13:33.73 Bill White Yeah, I'm glad you talked about places that are decent I'd like to spend the last few minutes talking about the things that we like to see in our field accommodations I mean I'll go first I've already spoken about this before when it comes to hotels. There's the the 3 13:35.59 archpodnet It just makes your life better man. It's worth it. 13:52.96 Bill White Non-negotiables mini fridge wi-fi and free breakfast I mean those are if that place doesn't have that then I don't want my crew to stay there because the free breakfast like you said is an absolute you know Benefit folks don't have to spend their morning preium right. 14:05.86 Heather Is all that starts earlier. 14:07.50 archpodnet So huge. 14:10.77 Bill White Yeah, and and if you're waking up and leaving before they're even setting it out. You know, talking to the people at the front desk will really help because they have all that stuff in the pantry but there's probably not an employee out there to make eggs and bring it all out and everything so you can always talk to them and say well you just let us. 14:12.41 Heather Yeah, yes. 14:16.70 archpodnet Have. 14:25.32 Bill White Get the cereal and the muffins and the bread and whatever else. You know we won't make a mess. We'll just take our things because I know you don't set out the breakfast till six I mean that's yeah in Arizona you're you're going out there way before 6 a lot of times. So those things those were in mini fridge I mean that saves you hundreds of dollars I've talked about it before. I guess I'm one of those sinners that now they want everyone to put in their receipts because I used to pocket as much as I possibly could of the per Dm when I was doing crm um and having that mini fridge meant I could bring things I could have leftovers that wouldn't be you know, full of botulism the next day that I could eat and just those 2 things made it so much more just livable. 14:49.50 archpodnet Yeah. 14:56.44 archpodnet Here. 15:03.45 Bill White And when I when I'm talking about these vacation rentals my list goes way down to they need to have functional air conditioning and they need to have quality quality internet I mean we're working here. It's different when I'm with my kids and um, you know. They they just only want to watch Youtube or Netflix or whatever and it's not working and I'm like so what you know just play a game hang out with each other. But when we're doing work. We are sending files we are uploading stuff. You know we're doing this podcast here. 15:34.67 Heather Ah. 15:36.40 Bill White And it is tragic for them to say that they have wi-fi and then they really actually don't I mean that's that's beyond misleading they need to show the upload speeds and how many you know you know what their bandwidth is on the place and whether you have actual signal in every single room and then like I said about the air conditioning thing man I'm ah I'm big. 15:41.93 archpodnet Yep. 15:55.85 Bill White I way more than I probably should and coming in from the sun after 8 hours of being in the heat and they're not being any air conditioning like that's just kind of that's you know a non-negotiable and then all the rest of it I've seen. 16:04.81 archpodnet Yeah. 16:09.24 Bill White All kinds of shenanigans tvs you know, no pots and pans. No silverware I've seen all this junk that they pull out with these vacation rentals but seriously the air conditioning thing or the heat in the winter and wifi are the 2 that they're just kind of not negotiable. 16:26.70 archpodnet Right? I would just think ah so much of that just boils down to professionalism I need to stay at a place that's professional. It can be pretty basic. It can be pretty nice but I need to know what it is going into it. You know what? I mean I I need to know exactly what's up. 16:36.17 Heather Are here. 16:40.54 archpodnet It needs to be straightforward and then if there's a problem it needs to be taken care of in a straightforward manner. So I just need that like professional aspect. 16:44.17 Heather No, my 2 go ahead. Doug yeah. 16:46.91 Doug Yeah, beds beds. Yeah I have to say like obviously beds are gonna be variable and different people are going to like different things but you want a place where you can actually sleep and sleep well and feel rested when you wake up in the morning and. Just sort of like ah so like yeah obviously Europe a european king is like an american single sizes are very different but 1 of the things they do over here. Is you get 2 single beds which are. 17:15.53 Bill White I. 17:20.70 Doug I know when you were a kid like the bed you might have had that was a very thin mattress that um, actually man even in America like the small sweat doesn't quite work but basically they'll take 2 twins and they'll stick them together and make a full bed. Um, unless you have like that proper little padding down the middle. 17:32.11 Heather Yes, right. 17:34.94 Bill White Um, yeah. 17:39.25 Doug You'll have that little that that divider and that crease and man if you have that you could pretty much just mess up your back. So horribly you sleep wrong. You'll wake up in the morning with like not being able to lift your right arm. Um above your waist or anything like that and that's that's it, You're shot and you're shot for. 17:50.24 Bill White Um, have. 17:58.87 Doug Days with that. So like yeah a bed that like you know the springs all work. There aren't lumps in it. Um, and if it's a those 2 singles put together to make a full like actual proper. 17:58.92 Bill White Yeah. 18:14.30 Doug Padding down the middle so you don't end up with some weird back problems. 18:16.80 Heather Yeah I would say for I mean you guys have all kind of said my has anybody said coffee maker yet. Okay, so oh yeah. 18:24.32 archpodnet No, that's a good one. 18:26.48 Bill White No I don't think so but I mean I always ah I bring my own man I I can't mess around all I need is potable water because I can't handle these the monkey business that happens at these places sometimes. 18:34.52 Heather Yeah, yeah I I mean I Really like the coffee maker I don't mind using and when hotels have the coffee makers I think and I think a lot of them do nowadays I would say I'm going to add something on the bed because the thing is how do you know? you're gonna get a good bed. 18:52.15 Bill White Yeah. 18:52.35 Heather But I actually have found that hotels do hotels that care about beds that um, do have good beds. They say it. They they say it on their it's either on the reviews or they actually say it in their description and they say we have this kind of bed. And we put these kinds of sheets and additions to it pillow toppers and all all that and there are hotels that do that and so I usually look for that and then the other thing is cleanliness like if there's review a multiple reviews I mean there's always a bad day right. But there are multiple reviews I don't wanna't even touch the hotel because to me the cleanliness that just grosses me out and it's so Funny. My Mom My mom was way ahead of her time when we were kids could we stay in hotels a lot because of her work and um, she would always put everything. That's. 19:28.51 Bill White Um, yeah, yeah. 19:45.15 Heather Like community use that's used over and over again. She brought court size and gown size bags and everything you put the Tv controller you put everything in plastic bags. That's 1 thing that I would highly suggest? Um, but because even the cleanliest you know they can't they can't control what. 19:59.52 Bill White Ah, the. 20:03.65 Heather You know the previous guest did. But um I just to me a bed but again, how do you control it. So that's one tip is to to look because usually hotels that care and really do work towards having nice beds um will say it on their website. They'll say it in the description. 20:04.80 Bill White Yeah. 20:12.70 Bill White Um, yeah. 20:22.41 Heather And I mean to me the best bed is our Marriotts I Love Marriott beds but you know how many companies put their people in Marriotts But yeah I like I like the marriette beds. 20:29.80 Bill White I I do love Marriott. Ah. 20:38.81 Bill White Ok Doug. 20:43.87 Doug I Oh man that was just left over I actually have nothing else to say but my hand was just up up from the last one. Ah my toddler is getting hungry and and stuff like that. So ah I'm calling a a day for me as you hear them scream in the background and. 20:47.45 Bill White Ah, ah ah I are. 20:58.49 Bill White Ah, you made it to the end you made it to the end. Well you know I'm glad that we brought this up but I feel like we've talked about this before we haven't really gone into this level of ah conversation though. And yeah, we are. You know I feel like we're kind of done but I want to I want folks who are listening to this to reach out and tell us what they are looking for because once again, we're in different stages in our career. We're. We're the ones we're making the reservations. We're not making them. Um, you know we're staying in the places sometimes we're not right? So we don't actually know the full range of stuff that's out there. There might be something really cool that we've never even heard of like Chris's Mobile Rv um vacation rental service that we didn't know about where there's you know, actually 17 ah rvs. You know, stationed and synchronized moved across the United States just for cultural resources folks I'm kidding that that doesn't exist. But if I know Chris Webster he he thinks that's a good idea and he's he's on it right now as he listens to this. But. 21:53.18 Heather And enter what is that? Um Rv the trailers that us called star something star trailers for in hollywood um, ah what's at star wagons or something like that it was um, it was a. 22:00.90 Bill White Oh star wagons boy oh boy, that's the most California thing I've ever heard. 22:01.36 archpodnet Um, oh yeah, yeah I think that's right, yeah. 22:10.16 Heather It was a ah, an actor who started it I forget who it was like anyway Lee Wagner or something like that. Yeah I'm sure you I'm sure you do ah. 22:13.62 archpodnet Yeah I don't know but I do demand them at all times I definitely demand my star trailer right now to where is it. 22:15.40 Bill White Ah, well yeah, Ah, if if archeologists get involved then I know that C our M companies will start figuring out ways for us to basically. Just live at the site just move a star wagon to the site and then we can just sit there and wake up in the morning and dig and then just go to our little you know vehicle and sleep until it's all over I can I can see how that's the next phase that they haven't yet thought of that we just never leave the site. 22:30.94 archpodnet Yeah, but. 22:33.33 Heather Yep, the Ah yes. 22:36.52 archpodnet There you go? Yeah, totally. 22:45.84 Bill White But also I want folks to you know, not necessarily to share only horror stories but give us a heads up of what lands are getting you know destroyed like Doug was talking about entire towns are getting taken down I mean I was in lisbon and the same thing was happening there where no one could find a place it was taking them six seven months find an apartment to rent because they're all vacation rentals that are just sitting dormant until someone finally clicks by so you know this is part of a much larger thing in the United States and it's something that's going to be with us. Um, so I just hope that folks give us some comments send us some info so that we can. Be more informed or maybe ah you know have you come on the show and talk about some of your experiences with vacation rentals in the field am I supposed to do the outro too. All right? All right? Let me see all right here's the outro. 23:33.98 archpodnet Yeah, yeah. 23:43.26 Bill White Thanks for everyone. Thanks to everyone for joining me this week and also thanks to the listeners for tuning in and we'll see you in the field goodbye. 23:49.54 Doug Okay, goodbye. 23:52.20 archpodnet See you guys next time. 23:52.16 Heather Um, hi everyone. Why do you be Doug you behaving be. 23:56.66 Bill White Um, also everybody laughs when I do the outro. Okay I see how it is now. 23:58.62 archpodnet Yeah, all right.