What a relief! With Sue back in the podcast saddle, and now that we are very much in holiday season, we can lighten the mood a little – especially since we have just registered our 50,000th download.But first we talk about a block that has a limit on home swaps, where overseas owners exchange homes for a couple of weeks at a time. The restriction may have been legal a couple of years ago but, under NSW Airbnb laws, probably isn’t now.Will the block change its by-law or wait until someone challenges it? It may be a case of “don’t mention the war” at that particular not-very-faulty tower.Then we take a different view of Airbnb from a guest perspective and see how it stacks up against the hotel experience.Sue checks in to the tallest hotel in Europe – and the most expensive she has ever slept in.We both check out the refurbed Rocks YHA with its budget rooms and million-dollar rooftop Opera House views.We compare our hotel experiences with Airbnb stays overseas. And while we’re in the mood, we nominate our favourite hotels in the whole world. Yes, after two weeks of Jimmy’s rants we’ve turned the Flat Chat fury down to a simmer – it is nearly Christmas after all. But don’t worry, we can maintain the rage into the New Year and well beyond.TRANSCRIPT IN FULLJimmy 00:00You're back?Sue 00:00Yes! Back to the warmth; away from the snow.Jimmy 00:04Right, it sounds as if it's getting pretty cold in Europe?Sue 00:07It is. Well, it certainly was when I was there and it's got even colder. I thought I was going to die at one point; my organs started shutting down I think, from the cold. I'm just not used to it anymore.Jimmy 00:16I saw the British comedian, Rob Beckett the other week, and he was saying that Australians don't deal with cold very well. He said he was in Melbourne and it got to 19 degrees. He said people were walking around with full-length puffer coats on. He said 19 degrees in London, you decide you'll take the day off and go to the seaside.Sue 00:37That is so true!Jimmy 00:38While you were away, we had our 50,000th download.Sue 00:42Wow, that's a lot of downloads!Jimmy 00:44It is. I mean, okay, that's over two years. I mean, don't get overexcited; it wasn't 50,000 in one week. But in terms of the success of our podcast, we are up there in the top 30 or 40% in the world. Because there are people out there, diligently producing podcasts, that get about 12 people to listen. We're doing better than that. And the number of weekly listeners is going up; you know, it's getting up above 300-350, which is great. As somebody once said, if you hired a local church hall and arranged a meeting every week, you'd be really pleased if 300 people turned up.Sue 01:28Yes, that's fantastic. And so many of our listeners seem to be really enthusiastic about the subject and really connected, which is great too.Jimmy 01:35We'll see what we can do about that, then. So today, we're going to talk (because we're getting into holiday season), we're going to talk about Airbnb and hotels. I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue 01:51And I'm Sue Williams and I write about property for Domain.Jimmy 01:54And this is the Flat Chat Wrap
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Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.
