Month: July 2024

Airbnb defines its notorious cleaning fee as a “one-time charge” set by the host that helps them arrange anything from carpet shampoo to replenishing supplies to hiring an outside cleaning service—all in the name of ensuring guests have a “clean and tidy space.”

But as many frustrated Airbnb customers will tell you, this feature is viewed as more of a nuisance than a convenience. According to NerdWallet, the general price for a cleaning fee is around $75, but can vary greatly between listings, with some units having cleaning fees that are higher than the nightly rate (all while sometimes still being asked to do certain chores before checking out). And often none of these fees show up in the total price until right before the booking confirmation, leaving many travelers feeling confused and taken advantage of.

However, some hosts are opting to build cleaning fees into the overall price of their listings, mimicking the strategy of traditional hotels.

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Rachel Boice runs two Airbnb properties in Georgia with her husband Parker—one being this fancy glass plane tiny house (seen below) that promises a perfect glamping experience.

@rachelrboice Welcome to The Tiny Glass House 🤎 #airbnbfinds #exploregeorgia #travelbucketlist #tinyhouse #glampingnotcamping #atlantageorgia #fyp ♬ Aesthetic – Tollan Kim

Like most Airbnb hosts, the Boice’s listing showed a nightly rate and separate cleaning fee. According to her interview with Insider, the original prices broke down to $89 nightly, and $40 for the cleaning fee.

But after noticing the negative response the separate fee got from potential customers, Rachel told Insider that she began charging a nightly rate that included the cleaning fee, totaling to $129 a night.

It’s a marketing strategy that more and more hosts are attempting in order to generate more bookings (people do love feeling like they’re getting a great deal) but Boice argued that the trend will also become more mainstream since the current Airbnb model “doesn’t feel honest.”

“We stay in Airbnbs a lot. I pretty much always pay a cleaning fee,” Boice told Insider. “You’re like: ‘Why am I paying all of this money? This should just be built in for the cost.'”

Since combining costs, Rachel began noticing another unexpected perk beyond customer satisfaction: guests actually left her property cleaner than before they were charged a cleaning fee. Her hypothesis was that they assumed she would be handling the cleaning herself.

“I guess they’re thinking, ‘I’m not paying someone to clean this, so I’ll leave it clean,'” she said.

This discovery echoes a similar anecdote given by another Airbnb host, who told NerdWallet guests who knew they were paying a cleaning fee would “sometimes leave the place looking like it’s been lived in and uncleaned for months.” So, it appears to be that being more transparent and lumping all fees into one overall price makes for a happier (and more considerate) customer.

These days, it’s hard to not be embittered by deceptive junk fees, which can seem to appear anywhere without warning—surprise overdraft charges, surcharges on credit cards, the never convenience “convenience charge” when purchasing event tickets. Junk fees are so rampant that certain measures are being taken to try to eliminate them outright in favor of more honest business approaches.

Speaking of a more honest approach—as of December 2022, AirBnb began updating its app and website so that guests can see a full price breakdown that shows a nightly rate, a cleaning fee, Airbnb service fee, discounts, and taxes before confirming their booking.

Guests can also activate a toggle function before searching for a destination, so that full prices will appear in search results—avoiding unwanted financial surprises.

This article originally appeared on 11.08.23

Kids, man. I’m not sure of the scientific way audacity is distributed, but kids have a lot of it and somehow make it cute. That audacity overload is especially interesting when you’re the default parent—you know, the parent kids go to for literally everything as if there’s not another fully capable adult in the house. Chances are if your children haven’t sought you out while you were taking a shower so you could open up a pack of fruit snacks, then you’re not the default parental unit.

One parent captured exactly what it’s like to be the default parent and shared it to TikTok, where the video has over 4 million views. Toniann Marchese went on a quick grocery run and *gasp* did not inform her children. Don’t you fret, they’re modern kids who know how to use modern means to get much-needed answers when mom is nowhere to be found. They went outside and rang the doorbell.

Back when we were children, this would’ve done nothing but make the dogs bark, but for Marchese’s kids, who are 3 and 6 years old, it’s as good as a phone call.

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You may be questioning why this mom left her two young children home alone. She didn’t. Their father was home, likely wondering why the children were playing so quietly. But. He. Was. Right. There. And the kids still bypassed him to talk to their mom through the Ring doorbell camera. It was pressing business, after all.

“My tablet is dead,” the 3-year-old said.

The kids ignored Marchese’s questions about where their dad was and continued to complain about their tablets. The entire situation is enough to make any default parent chuckle and maybe sob a little.

Watch the urgent doorbell call below:

@tinyann22

Moms can never get a minute of peace lol #momsoftiktok #momlife #ring #camera #kidsoftiktok

And if you’re skeptical that dad was within shouting distance, the mom of two uploaded a part two where dad comes into the frame.

@tinyann22

Replying to @iustmerlp part 2… daddy was found! Lol #kidsoftiktok #momsoftiktok #parentsoftiktok #fyp #ring #prioritiesfirst

This article originally appeared on 3.22.23

Actress Julia Roberts was late to the game when it came to joining social media, so she was blown away when she finally saw first-hand how toxic it could be. She started an Instagram account in June of 2018 and, shortly after, was the target of trolls mocking her appearance in a post by her niece.

Roberts was upset about the negative comments people made about her looks and then was gutted when she considered social media’s effect on young women. In a 2018 interview with Oprah Winfrey for Harper’s Bazaar, Julia recounted the story.

“Although something did happen recently on my niece Emma’s Instagram that I think taught me a lot about what it’s like being a young person in today’s society. One weekend morning Emma slept over, and we got up and were having tea and playing cards and having this beautiful morning, and then a couple of days later, she posted a picture of us,” Roberts recalled.

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“And the number of people who felt absolutely required to talk about how terrible I looked in the picture—that I’m not aging well, that I look like a man, why would she even post a picture like this when I look that terrible!” she continued. “And I was amazed at how that made me feel. I’m a 50-year-old woman and I know who I am, and still my feelings got hurt. I was sad that people couldn’t see the point of it, the sweetness of it, the absolute shining joy of that photo. I thought, ‘What if I was 15?’”

Beauty influencer Samantha Marika combined the audio of Julia telling the story, added it to the candid photo of her and Emma, and posted it to Instagram, and it went viral.

See on Instagram

Julia’s concerns about teenage mental health aren’t unfounded.

A 2022 report by Pew Research shows that online bullying is pervasive among teenagers and looks are a common target. “Nearly half of U.S. teens have been bullied or harassed online, with physical appearance being seen as a relatively common reason why,” the report said. “Older teen girls are especially likely to report being targeted by online abuse overall and because of their appearance.”

Even though online bullying is common, those who watched Marika’s video were disturbed by what happened to Roberts and her young niece.

“Before I listened to the whole thing I thought to myself how wholesome this photo was that the two of them are playing cards and look so happy! People are really sad and depressed that they wanna judge on how someone should look it’s the saddest thing about humans. We can’t even see joy anymore,” ChantsBoomBoom wrote in the comments.

Even though Roberts was disturbed by the comments she saw on Instagram, she’s glad that it helped her grasp what’s happening to young people online.

“I was so happy that happened because I had this whole new glimpse into a way of living that I didn’t get at all,” she told Winfrey. “You have to go through things to understand them, and this was just a little paper cut of what can really go on with social media.”

This article originally appeared on 2.16.24

After releasing the number one movie in the country (minus Minions 4), Neon has unveiled the first trailer for Anora.

Written and directed by Sean Baker, the drama is about a sex worker living in Brooklyn, played by Better Things actress Mikey Madison in an “unforgettable” performance, who marries one of her clients (Mark Eidelstein), the son of a Russian oligarch. He doesn’t tell his family about the wedding, however, and they travel from Russia to New York to force a divorce.

You can watch the red-band trailer above.

Anora was the fifth Neon film in a row to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, after Parasite, Titane, Triangle of Sadness, and Anatomy of a Fall. It was also the first American movie to take home the prestigious honor since 2011’s The Tree of Life.

Madison, who has been killing it for years in projects like in Scream and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, talked to Deadline about her role in Anora. “It’s different than any character I’ve ever played before, in every single way,” she said. “It was definitely the most preparation, physically and emotionally I’ve ever done for a character, because Sean likes to mix professional actors with newcomers, and I wanted to be so confident and sure of who I was that I would fit into that environment in an honest and truthful way.”

Anora opens in theaters on October 18.

House of the Dragon’s fifth episode is here to make everyone who’s not a Targaryen feel better about their dysfunctional relationship with their mother. In fact, if you’re not fantasizing about her or skipping over her for a job promotion or getting ignored by her on your deathbed, can you even claim to have mommy issues? Daemon Targaryen would say no.

Speaking of the wayward king (consort), just put an axe in his hand and call him Bob the Builder because he spends yet another hour constructing the walls of a castle intent on putting him in a straightjacket. His inability to do anything productive for Team Black means that his queen and her heir are forced to draft a help wanted sign for potential dragon riders/burn victims. In King’s landing, another bleach-blonde bimbo sits the Iron Throne — or, at least, gazes at it menacingly with his one eye — while a king literally rots in his bed and a dowager queen learns the true definition of sexism in the workplace.

Here’s where every character ranks on the leaderboard after HoTD’s latest episode.

Aemond Targaryen

This might be a little insensitive to say seeing as Aegon’s charred body is fresh off the grill and still giving off smoke, but fratricide really agrees with Aemond Targaryen. He’s practically glowing as he stalks the halls of the Red Keep, counting his brother’s last breaths and sitting in seats he was never meant for, barely giving the maesters time to peel the Valyrian steel from Aegon’s melted flesh before pressing his claim to the throne. He gleefully beats his own mother out for the job and readily flirts with tyranny with his first official act by closing the gates and effectively holding all of King’s Landing hostage. He’s graduated from kinslayer to kingslayer in the span of an episode, but he’s also never looked happier so really, who are we to yuck his yum?

Jacaerys Velaryon

Jace watched that viral clip of Kim Kardashian telling people to get off their asses and work, and he took it personally. The prince who’s single-handedly keeping Westeros’ lip filler industry in business has been sidelined from most of the action this season by his overprotective mother and absentee stepdad, but this week, he decides asking for forgiveness is much more productive than begging for permission. And good for him! He makes headway in the Riverlands, negotiating a deal with the Freys that allows Creagan Stark’s bannermen to pass through on their way to intercept Jason Lannister’s army. He also provides helpful council to his mother, sparking the idea that adding more dragons to their cause might be possible if they start widening the search for riders within their extended bloodline. (Coincidentally, this puts us one step closer to a live-action How To Train Your Dragon montage, which is all we’ve been asking for since this show began.) And he does all this while keeping his skin hydrated, his lips moisturized, and his curls wet. Take notes, Aegon.

Baela Targaryen

With Rhaenys gone, it falls to poor Baela to slap some sense into her self-pitying relatives who’d rather spend their time moping at the marina and contemplating treason than seeking out a grief counselor. Her read on Corlys, effectively dragging him for blaming Rhaenyra for Rhaenys’s death — as if she wasn’t a true dragon rider who fought bravely and earned the right to choose how she R.I.P.ed — was one of the more powerful moments in the episode, as was her parting advice that Corlys quit running at the first sign of trouble and just pick one of his bastard boys to be heir already.

Rhaenyra Targaryen

Rhaenyra is learning that the “how to rule a kingdom” degree she spent her life working to earn is basically useless. She’s on the job now sans a learning curve and her lack of experience is showing. (We love a relatable queen.) As out of her depth wrangling a table of dimwitted humpty dumpties as she is, Rhaenyra proves her resilience this episode, refusing to rise to the bait when the dirty laundry of her broken marriage is aired at her war council and receptive to the risky advice of unexpected allies. She listens when people speak, she considers and contemplates before taking action. Up until this point, that’s been viewed as a weakness, but in welcoming input from the kind of people her “fat old lordlings” would likely scoff at, she’s now one step closer to winning this war.

Mysaria

We hope Mysaria sleeps soundly at night knowing she’s orchestrating the demise of House Hightower from the comfort of Dragonstone while Otto dines on pudding cups and his own tears in an Oldtown nursing home.

Alys Rivers

Alys Rivers is so bored, she’s haunting men’s dreams at Harrenhal, brewing psychedelic teas and listening to whispers on the wind as she conjures sex demons and reminds power-hungry would-be kings of the consort attached to their self-given titles. She would’ve loved Lana Del Rey’s “Born To Die” album.

Criston Cole

Criston Cole is experiencing what medical experts might call PTSD, if medical experts existed in George R.R. Martin’s fantasy series. But, since they don’t, this moody douche-canoe is managing his mental breakdown in the worst ways possible. He’s miscalculating the smallfolk’s idolatry of dragons, he’s putting a murderous mean girl on the throne, and he’s fumbling the bag with the only woman in King’s Landing desperate enough to look twice at his penis. It’s exactly what this sobbing idiot sandwich deserves.

Alicent Hightower

All of that internalized misogyny that Alicent’s been wielding for her own benefit for the last couple of decades is actualized against her in this episode and she’s got the gall to actually be upset about it. One son’s a shish kabob, the other’s a tyrant, she’s surrounded by power-hungry men who’ve constantly degraded the only other woman who’s attempted to seize the throne, and she’s spent an entire season helping them to deny her rightful claim simply because of her sex. Alicent learned something this week that everyone woman should know — it never pays to be a pick-me girl.

Daemon Targaryen

Daemon has gone a bit mad with power – or the illusion of it. It’s like the writers of HOTD saw a few episodes of Nathan Felder’s The Curse and thought, yeah, that’s what the biggest fuck boi in Westeros was probably doing during his sabbatical. He’s renovating and gentrifying and stirring up hungry, malevolent spirits. He’s secretly ordering war crimes and having weird sex dreams about his dead mother at night. He’s utterly useless, to the point he’s become a real threat to his wife’s campaign. At this point, we’re almost wishing that Aemond would put him out of his misery.

Corlys Velaryon

If Corlys wants to do us a favor and get on his tiny boat to sail straight into a hurricane, no one’s stopping him.

Aegon Targaryen

There’s not much to say about Aegon this episode except that he was trotted into King’s Landing in an oversized cat carrier and he spent the rest of his time getting peeled like a boiled shrimp while crying for his mommy. Karma is a doctor and this is exactly what she ordered.

Netflix has released [a behind-the-scenes video of] Stranger Things season 5!

That sentence is a lot more exciting if you delete the words between the brackets, but there’s still some good stuff in the video timed with the eight-year anniversary of the first episode. Especially since it seems like the new season corrects one of the big issues with season 4.

Season four of Stranger Things took place all over the globe: Hawkins, California, Nevada, and Russia. It was a bold story-telling decision that mostly worked, but there was grumbling from fans about characters being isolated from each other; it wasn’t until the finale that nearly everyone reunited in Indiana. So, as shown in the season 5 first-look video, it’s good to see the show’s original Core Four — Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Will — back together.

Eleven’s whereabouts are unknown.

Finn Wolfhard, who plays Mike, talked to The Hollywood Reporter about getting the gang back together “Even when I finally watched the show, my favorite part was watching the other guys in Hawkins. I just liked that storyline so much. So, yeah, not being around everyone all the time was definitely a bummer about filming 4, but 5 is the opposite,” he said. “We’re all together all the time.”

Stranger Things viewers seem pretty happy about this.

Season 5 of Stranger Things will (hopefully!) premiere in 2025.

Historically, very few people can really take on The Devil. Taylor Swift successfully did it last fall, while Patrick Wilson gives an honest attempt every few years. But many seem to underestimate the power of the Minions. Not Satan’s minions, but Steve Carell’s.

Longlegs hit theaters last week and thanks to its disturbing ad campaign and the power of Nic Cage, the flick managed to bring in an impressive $22.6 million over the weekend, a record for its distributor Neon. Still, it wasn’t able to overpower Bob, Stuart, and Kevin of Despicable Me 4, who secured the number one spot. But Neon was a good sport, and celebrated being the “#1 movie in America”….after Despicable Me 4.

Honesty is rare these days, so at least they are open about it!

Despicable Me 4 was released on July 3rd and has since racked up $211.1 million. But that was expected, at least based on the Minions overwhelming and somewhat concerning popularity.

Longlegs stars Nic Cage as the titular long-legged serial killer who worships Satan, who turned out to be no match for the Mega Minions. Of his elusive character, Cage was inspired by his mother. “Not that she was Satanic,” Cage said, of his mother, Joy Vogelsang, who died in 2021. He explained to AP, “In my approach to try and get more personal with my film performances, I’ve been trying to find a constructive place to put my memories of my mother.” Meanwhile, the minions were inspired by Fantastic Four. So…there’s a stark difference there.

Longlegs and Despicable Me 4 are now in theaters. Hail Minions!

On June 14, Don Toliver released Hardstone Psycho, his fourth studio album that topped Billboard‘s Top Rap Albums and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts. Toliver’s Hardstone Psycho tracklist featured Teezo Touchdown, and now, the two Texas artists will take North America by storm this fall.

On Monday morning, July 15, Toliver announced his Psycho Tour, billed as his “biggest North American headline tour to date,” with Teezo Touchdown and Monaleo (another Texas artist).

According to a press release, pre-sales begin on Tuesday, July 16, at 10 a.m. local time — such as the Citi Entertainment Pre-sale — and will run until the general on-sale starts on Friday, July 19, at 10 a.m. local time. Find all ticketing information here.

Don Toliver’s 2024 Dates: Psycho Tour

10/10 — Portland, OR @ Veterans Memorial Coliseum
10/12 — Vancouver, BC @ Rogers Arena
10/13 — Seattle, WA @ WAMU Theater
10/15 — San Francisco, CA @ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
10/18 — Phoenix, AZ @ Footprint Center
10/19 — Los Angeles, CA @ Crypto.com Arena
10/20 — San Diego, CA @ Viejas Arena
10/23 — Austin, TX @ Moody Center
10/24 — Rogers, AR @ Walmart AMP
10/26 — Houston, TX @ Toyota Center
10/27 — Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center
10/29 — Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena
10/31 — Charlotte, NC @ Spectrum Center
11/02 — Columbus, OH @ Nationwide Arena
11/03 — Pittsburgh, PA @ PPG Paints Arena
11/06 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Liacouras Center
11/08 — Fairfax, VA @ EagleBank Arena
11/10 — Boston, MA @ Agganis Arena
11/11 — Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center
11/13 — Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre
11/14 — Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena
11/15 — Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena
11/17 — Chicago, IL @ Credit Union 1 Arena
11/19 — St. Louis, MO @ Chaifetz Arena
11/21 — Denver, CO @ Ball Arena

Don Toliver’s Psycho Tour Poster

EA Sports seems to have a pretty clear understanding that you, and me, and your friends, and everyone else who gets their hands on EA Sports College Football 25 is going to want to play Dynasty Mode. The defining game mode during EA’s previous foray into the sport, EA knew that knocking Dynasty Mode out of the park for the initial version of the game was going to be of the utmost importance — if this sucked, and it’s clear that the goal was to get you to pour money into Ultimate Team, this game would come under a bevy of scrutiny from all over the place.

Uproxx Sports obtained an advanced copy of EA Sports College Football 25, and unsurprisingly, firing up Dynasty Mode was No. 1 on the list of priorities. I was able to start sinking my teeth into a career that started as an offensive coordinator at Akron, and while a full review will come later in the week, here are some early observations of a game mode that I am going to play for months and months on end.

1. Recruiting, in all forms, is remarkably in-depth

As the saying goes, recruiting is the lifeblood of college football, and Dynasty Mode really does understand that. The catch: You don’t just recruit high schoolers. There’s an element of keeping your own players out of the transfer portal. If you played NCAA Football, you remember that there are the various criteria that you sell recruits on — Proximity to Home, Academic Prestige, all that stuff. These still apply to recruits, but they also apply to guys on your roster, and your ability to keep them from entering the transfer portal. Some of your players want to play more, others want to play for a more prestigious coach, and you get weekly updates on the risk that these kids could transfer. And of course, recruiting itself is a gigantic endeavor, as you only get a set number of hours per week to sell recruits on your university. Will you use that time to continue to chip away on the quarterback you’ve ID’d as a gem, or will you use it to start pursuing a backup option at defensive tackle, because you did not make a top-5 for your top target and you’re now locked out? If they ever made an NFL Head Coach version of this game, you could spend hours upon hours on recruiting — both your players and other players.

2. The Coach Skills tree is awesome

It’s such a fun addition to the game. Instead of just getting random attribute points, you get to build out what archetype you want your coach to be: Motivator, Tactician, and Recruiter are the three that you can pick when you start Dynasty Mode, while Architect, Strategist, and Talent Developer also appear on the tree. The latter three are, in part, dependent on the first three — for example, to unlock the Architect archetype, you need to build out the Tactician and Motivator skills and win four rivalry games. We’ll have more on this as the week goes on, but I absolutely love that you can basically turn your coach into whatever you want him to be. A guy who is good at everything but not excellent at any one thing? An insane recruiter who runs into issues on gameday? An Xs and Os genius who struggles when he gets out on the road? There’s a little bit of everything in here. Frankly, I’m sure there is a way to game this that I am just too big of a doofus to understand, but it’s still fun.

3. Coordinator role =/= coordinator responsibilities

I found it interesting that I was able to play offense and defense despite starting my career as an offensive coordinator at Akron. If you’re like me, and your plan is to grind at the lower levels until you get up to a head coaching job at a big school, do understand that you take on everything. You’re putting together the whole recruiting class, you’re calling plays on both sides of the ball. Is it a good thing? A bad thing? Well, your mileage may vary, but I generally wished you had coordinator responsibilities for a coordinator position, just to give it more of a lifelike feel — I, as an offensive coordinator, should suck at calling a defense, and it should be considerably more difficult to bring in a linebacker than a wide receiver. Again, this is a total personal preference thing.

4. It’s hard to be good at a small school

Which is a good thing! I don’t want it to be easy to play a P5 team as a smaller G5 school. As I mentioned, I started my Dynasty Mode as an offensive coordinator at Akron, and my first game against a P5 school was a total disaster — I went to Columbus to play Ohio State and got my ass kicked, 41-23. My quarterback could not stop turning the ball over. My defense kept getting carved up. All the Stadium Pulse stuff led to issues — false starts, guys not knowing the play, etc. — that you expect in this environment. I will say, as a recruiter, you can punch above your weight if a kid’s dealbreaker is something you can offer, like Proximity To Home or Playing Time, although it does seem like that might get patched sooner rather than later.

5. The FCS teams are in the game!

Not actual FCS teams, but FCS East, FCS Southeast, FCS Northwest, FCS Midwest, and FCS West. I missed them dearly.

The Utah Jazz are one of the last teams expected to make a significant move this NBA offseason. While the top free agents have signed and a few major trades have been worked out, most of the league seems to have done most of their major roster work already.

Utah, however, is one of two teams (Detroit) that still has considerable cap space and they also have the biggest name on the trade market in Lauri Markkanen, who is extension eligible on August 6. A number of teams have been linked to interest in Markkanen, but the team that’s consistently been mentioned as the top suitor is Golden State. The Warriors need more offensive firepower from their frontcourt and Markkanen seems like a tremendous fit for a team that still wants to compete with Stephen Curry.

However, they are running into the problem teams have long dealt with when trying to deal with Danny Ainge, which is he starts the asking price as high as possible and is not quick to move off his demands. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, the Warriors have offered a package centered on Moses Moody and picks, but the Jazz want more…a lot more.

The Golden State Warriors have been the most engaged team for Markkanen in recent weeks, as league sources tell The Athletic they have discussed a proposal around Moses Moody, multiple first-round picks, multiple pick swaps and multiple second-round picks. The Jazz, however, have asked for the bulk of young talent and capital the Warriors possess, including Moody, Jonathan Kuminga and Brandin Podziemski, along with picks, which has been a non-starter thus far for Golden State, league sources said.

It’s not surprising to learn the Jazz are asking the world for Markkanen. Ainge and the Jazz front office were able to extract maximum returns from the Wolves and Cavs the last time they were trading stars, and they certainly seem to believe the Warriors are the team that’s more desperate to make this move. We will have to see if either side is willing to budge off their ask in the coming weeks and can find a middle ground to get Markkanen to the Bay. If not, a max extension is a formality tor Markkanen, and if he waits to sign it a couple days, he won’t be eligible to be traded until next summer because of when the trade deadline arrives this season.