So instead of paying $1,000 a month to share a studio with 1 person, this person prefers to pay $1,400 to share a room with 5? This is essentially a glorified, overpriced hostel.
"Oh my gosh," she said, "I've looked at studio apartments in this area, in Hollywood, downtown. I mean we're looking at almost $2,000 a month."
So instead of paying $1,000 a month to share a studio with 1 person, this person prefers to pay $1,400 to share a room with 5? This is essentially a glorified, overpriced hostel.
Well, that's basically the idea. They run it basically the same way as a hostel; you can even book a 'pod' online. But if you actually get to their website, it's strangely cult-like. I mean, there...
This is essentially a glorified, overpriced hostel.
Well, that's basically the idea. They run it basically the same way as a hostel; you can even book a 'pod' online. But if you actually get to their website, it's strangely cult-like. I mean, there are photos of people who have tattooed themselves with the logo.
The fact that people are pushing them as places to live speaks to how bad the housing market really is in the LA area, though.
It seems to me that this is more a marketing scam. I've seen these in a few places: companies that call their hostel/room/dorm-buildings "co-living" spaces and market them as trendy and more...
The fact that people are pushing them as places to live speaks to how bad the housing market really is in the LA area, though.
It seems to me that this is more a marketing scam. I've seen these in a few places: companies that call their hostel/room/dorm-buildings "co-living" spaces and market them as trendy and more affordable, when they are actually far less affordable than normal rentals, while trying to hide or justify this by citing the "experience." I expect that it is a quite profitable experience for the companies.
That this is all but an advertising piece that could have been copied from a press release is particularly embarrassing for KCRW's reputation. Even if the numbers are trusted, they make no sense, as novac noted. Yet I also would question them: cursory searches suggest that studios in the areas cited are quite often going for far less than the cited $2k, something one would have expected the author to check rather than accepting uncritically.
The article did remind me of a BBC article on co-living, however, which I remember as involving a bit more actual journalism.
Yeah, I definitely got that impression too. Their spiel on the types of people using pods practically made me roll my eyes.
Yeah, I definitely got that impression too. Their spiel on the types of people using pods practically made me roll my eyes.
"We kind of have four different customer types," he said. "We have a 'starter,' who's just coming to a new city and wants to grab life by its horns. We have a 'restarter,' somebody who's 30 to 40 who maybe had a divorce or had a really tough roommate situation and is tired of running a home."
"Then there are the "life shapers," who Dishotsky describes as champions of co-living as a long-term lifestyle.
For a short-term stay, it may not be a bad proposition at about $46/day, but it seems crazy for anyone who is looking for anything longer than a month or two in one place.
For a short-term stay, it may not be a bad proposition at about $46/day, but it seems crazy for anyone who is looking for anything longer than a month or two in one place.
So instead of paying $1,000 a month to share a studio with 1 person, this person prefers to pay $1,400 to share a room with 5? This is essentially a glorified, overpriced hostel.
Well, that's basically the idea. They run it basically the same way as a hostel; you can even book a 'pod' online. But if you actually get to their website, it's strangely cult-like. I mean, there are photos of people who have tattooed themselves with the logo.
The fact that people are pushing them as places to live speaks to how bad the housing market really is in the LA area, though.
For the curious: podshare.co
It is bizzare, they have a whole section dedicated to tattoos.
It seems to me that this is more a marketing scam. I've seen these in a few places: companies that call their hostel/room/dorm-buildings "co-living" spaces and market them as trendy and more affordable, when they are actually far less affordable than normal rentals, while trying to hide or justify this by citing the "experience." I expect that it is a quite profitable experience for the companies.
That this is all but an advertising piece that could have been copied from a press release is particularly embarrassing for KCRW's reputation. Even if the numbers are trusted, they make no sense, as novac noted. Yet I also would question them: cursory searches suggest that studios in the areas cited are quite often going for far less than the cited $2k, something one would have expected the author to check rather than accepting uncritically.
The article did remind me of a BBC article on co-living, however, which I remember as involving a bit more actual journalism.
Yeah, I definitely got that impression too. Their spiel on the types of people using pods practically made me roll my eyes.
For a short-term stay, it may not be a bad proposition at about $46/day, but it seems crazy for anyone who is looking for anything longer than a month or two in one place.