Weirdest Shit Out of Silicon Valley
Weirdest Shit Out of Silicon Valley is a weekly series from The Bold Italic documenting the bizarre news, gadgets, and developments in the tech world.
For the last few years, the digital nomad lifestyle has appealed primarily to the 20–to-30-something crowd. You know, the backpacker adventurers who love the idea of living luxuriously and working remotely in a Thailand paradise (or other cheap, warm, beautiful locations), while being paid a Western salary. For entrepreneurs, living abroad can help prolong their burn rate. Those savings then translate into even more adventures, or a down payment on a house.
Covid-19 has created a spin on things. Now it appears well-heeled professionals who are over the confines of home life are opting to stay in a series of luxury hotel rooms as a new-age digital nomadism, reports Nancy Keates at The Wall Street Journal.
Essentially, these folks have given up their leases for a boutique hotel bender.
“Less backpacker in hostels, more middle-aged worker with a global hotel subscription,” Keates writes.
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Companies are stepping up to fulfill the demand. CitizenM hotels offer a “monthly passport” for $1,500 that includes unlimited stays at their 21 boutique hotels (locations include London, New York, Paris, and Seattle) for around $50-ish-a-night plus tax. The only caveat: You must spend 7–29 nights per hotel at a time. Only 1,000 “passports” are available in the company’s first rollout. To lure people in, they redesigned their lobbies to act as co-working spaces with super-fast internet speeds. “Lock in the price now — 50 EUR / GBP / USD per night, it won’t be available forever as global travel returns,” their website says.
Then there’s the MintHouse hotel chain, which will soon roll out a subscription-stay service that, for a lump sign-up fee, will give guests a guaranteed nightly rate on stays. The chain reports that guests now average a 29 night stay, up from a three-night stay in March.
While everyone should FOLLOW THE GODDAMN STAY AT HOME RULES, and prioritize health over travel or a luxury ender, this could be a good idea for those who HAVE to travel (essential workers, supply chain CEOs, and so on).
