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bestcee

bestcee

In love with places I've never been to
Joined
Dec 18, 2013
Messages
19,337
I am currently staying in a room that we found on AirBNB. We've used Uber before to catch a ride home. I haven't used a dating app, since I'm married. But I'm curious. Do you use any of the online/app based ride share or house share or dating services or etc?

Have you had a good experience? Or a bad one?
 
I've used Lyft, like Uber and it was good. I love AirBNB and have had mostly good experiences. with them. Haven't really used anything else.
 
We use Uber nearly daily here. Just set my kids up with the family share plan and they can now request their own. Clara gets home from dance via Uber Black Car most nights and Alex used regular Uber X to get to Riot Fest over the weekend. In over a year of heavy use, we have only had one not so great experience. However, as it gets more popular, there are more and more suburban drivers coming into the city to be Uber drivers, which is fine, except they don't know their way around as well.

I ordered Clara some possible homecoming dresses from Bloomingdale's last week and was given a same day delivery option for $5. They were delivered by Deliv, which seems like a delivery version of Uber... regular people with cars who pick up and deliver stuff for stores. It was amazing! For just $5, delivered to my door during a delivery window I got to choose!

We haven't used AirBNB yet because my traveling husband has an obnoxious amount of hotel points. However, he and our son will be staying at one in a few weeks when they go to the University of Illinois for a campus visit (it's a game weekend, so the hotels were sold out).
 
I used an online dating thing once... 15 years ago. LOL. My co-worker and I were secretly conspiring against Tim (who also worked with us). Luis was trying desperately to be a matchmaker between us. We knew Tim was on some online dating service (based on limited info provided by his daughter), so we researched the sites we could get on (through the firewall at work), and then looked until we found a profile that fit him (back in the days when there weren't photos and just weird user handles). Luis's big idea was to pretend that I didn't know it was him, and then we'd set up a date and Tim would realize I was the love of his life when we met at our date.

The problem? We didn't really find him. From the general description it sounded just like Tim, but was definitely not. LOL. I set up a date with a guy we thought was Tim. We figured it out after Luis was bragging to Tim that I had a blind date over the weekend, and Tim was talking about the plans he had (not a date). :giggle It was awful. Luis tried to spin the dreadful situation and get Tim to sweep in and rescue me from the date (it was a block from his house), but I wasn't so lucky. I ended up with a bad date, and then had Tim ask about it and laugh at me the following Monday at work. :giggle
 
This is a little different, but after DD was born I used meetup.com to find a mom's group in my area because I didn't know any women with babies. It's touted as the "online place to make real friends" or something like that. I ended up co-running a mom's group after the original creator had to step down. It was a great way to meet people of similar lifestyle and kids' ages. I'm still great friends with the first woman I met via the group (who co-ran it with me, and continued to run it for a long time after I moved out of state).
 
scrapsandsass said:
I used an online dating thing once... 15 years ago. LOL. My co-worker and I were secretly conspiring against Tim (who also worked with us). Luis was trying desperately to be a matchmaker between us. We knew Tim was on some online dating service (based on limited info provided by his daughter), so we researched the sites we could get on (through the firewall at work), and then looked until we found a profile that fit him (back in the days when there weren't photos and just weird user handles). Luis's big idea was to pretend that I didn't know it was him, and then we'd set up a date and Tim would realize I was the love of his life when we met at our date.
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This made me laugh! What a great story!!

tkradtke said:
I ordered Clara some possible homecoming dresses from Bloomingdale's last week and was given a same day delivery option for $5. They were delivered by Deliv, which seems like a delivery version of Uber... regular people with cars who pick up and deliver stuff for stores. It was amazing! For just $5, delivered to my door during a delivery window I got to choose!
Click to expand...
$5 delivery? That's awesome!! So far, both times I used Uber I had to tell the driver how to get to my place. Their GPS had them going a really long, and not right way. Neither of the drivers was familiar with my complex street, even though the 1 told me he lived 2 doors down! I can imagine it would be crazy to have a not familiar with the area driver in a big city.
 
I've never really used any of them. One of the things about living where I do, we just don't have any of those services like Uber or Lyft. I did look in to being an Uber driver myself at one time. The only place we really vacation, we already have a condo to use. I would definitely use any of them if I needed to.
I have dated a few people I met online, it wasn't a "dating service" or app like Tinder, just online chat rooms and not even really dating chat rooms. DH and I met in one of them :)
 
Tree City said:
This is a little different, but after DD was born I used meetup.com to find a mom's group in my area because I didn't know any women with babies. It's touted as the "online place to make real friends" or something like that.
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Not that different. It's still online strangers! :-) I think it's awesome you found a mom's group that way!
 
bestcee said:
So far, both times I used Uber I had to tell the driver how to get to my place. Their GPS had them going a really long, and not right way.
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I haven't really had that issue yet, but for some reason the Uber app directs drivers to the alley behind our house about half of the time... it makes zero sense.

I forgot something about online strangers... this morning I got to have breakfast with @HollyGenc! It was our first time to meet in person!
 
I have met a lot of on-line people via the internet, all from groups I joined with mutual interests. The first was through Utne magazine which I didn't get but they had a forum/chat room back in the 90s - men and women.With the magazine's close, the forum closed too. I also am part of an Artist Way group that started via MeetUp but we took it off there when we reached a good number to meet in our various houses. It was a lot of fun for me because most of them had much more in depth artistic talent and skills and I was exposed to a lot of things I really didn't feel like trying myself but enjoyed them and their enthusiasm.

Recently I've used AirBnB when there were no places to use Marriott points and when I wanted to get a good feel of a new place. Only one slightly 'different' lifestyle experience but it really wasn't a big surprise seeing as it was in Taos. Dick and I used an Air BnB in San Francisco and it was great to be in a neighborhood. No Uber etc yet because I usually drive myself places but had the app on my phone in NYC in case I was tired of walking or using public transportation. Most times I didn't have a specific place I was going...just urban wandering!
 
Tree City said:
This is a little different, but after DD was born I used meetup.com to find a mom's group in my area because I didn't know any women with babies. It's touted as the "online place to make real friends" or something like that. I ended up co-running a mom's group after the original creator had to step down. It was a great way to meet people of similar lifestyle and kids' ages. I'm still great friends with the first woman I met via the group (who co-ran it with me, and continued to run it for a long time after I moved out of state).
Click to expand...
I did the same thing when I moved coast to coast. It was beginning of the summer and my oldest would just be going into kindergarten and I thought it would be difficult to meet people during summer so I used meetup and joined a few local mom's groups too. It was a great experience.
 
I've never used Uber before. But I have met people that I met on-line (mainly digi-scrapping friends!), and I have bought a few things from facebook sale pages (local stuff) and had to meet people to pick them up. I'm really not that adventurous when it comes to that sort of thing...makes me a little nervous.
 
I've used AirBnb once and will never use a hotel again if I can help it. The experience was just awesome! I was in Anaheim for a Star Wars convention and wanted somewhere convenient to the convention center and Disneyland but didn't want to pay $150 a night or more for it. I found a couple on AirBnb who lived a mile from Disney and 2 miles from the convention center who rented out their spare bedroom for a little under $60 a night. I walked to Disney every day and used the bike the hosts provided to get to the convention center. They were very sweet and helpful (the husband worked at Disney), and it was so much nicer than a hotel. I'm going to the same Star Wars convention next year, but in Orlando this time, and will be doing the same thing there (love my Disney/Star Wars trips).

I have yet to use Uber or Lyft because I usually just walk to places when I travel, and when I go to Orlando next year I'm driving, so I'll have my own car. I've heard enough horror stories about them, though, that I'd be a little nervous to use them.
 
I've not used anything like that, but I did open my house once for a fellow quilter who I had "met" through one of my online quilting boards to stay with us while she was visiting Washington, DC . She was from Sweden and was traveling the States by herself, mostly staying with people she had met online. It was fun. I just had my DS at the time, who was about 1-1/2. I played tour guide from the car - dropped her off at the different monuments and sites, waited while she looked, then were on to the next place.

Maybe someday I'll venture into AirBnb - I'm just too chicken to try in case it didn't work out.
 
I've been scouring VRBO lately for our disneyland trip next spring/summer.

My father in law is driving for Uber, I think.

I did join a mom's group from an online site when K was little and I was pregnant with R. Turns out, two of the ladies I met in that group knew my husband - 1 from high school, and the other from MySpace back in the day. Lol!

I almost met Maureen (cookingmylife) from here at the Pad when she was visiting AZ, but we couldn't quite get the timing right.
 
Nope, and I never would. I suffer from severe anxiety and the thought of being in a stranger's house or one in mine is just a no go for me. As for Uber...meh. I'd rather support the local taxi companies if I need a ride.
 
I haven't used any of these things (uber, air bnb or online dating) but mostly because I live in a small town where it's easy to drive myself everywhere, we rarely go on vacation and I'm already married.

I have met quite a few people that I know from here at the Lilypad and it has always been a super cool experience! I even flew with a group of the Chicago girls to Kansas City where we stayed in the cutest little house/cottage and got to meet Laura too! :)
 
I've used Uber, and would again, but not AirBNB. I'm a little on the leery side of using services like this and AirBNB alone. I am too much of a worrier, but with friends or family, I would do it.
 
The standard at my work is to use uber when traveling, so I've used it a lot. One bad experience in Indianapolis with a car that looked like the driver lived in it, but otherwise all good in multiple cities.
When my son got a divorce I helped him set up a few online dating profiles, but that was pretty much a waste of his time. I booked one vacation through airB&B On the Oregon Coast, but haven't used it since, not cause it was a bad experience, just not convient. More and more I do buy online, and find Amazon in Canada is using private drivers for delivery. All good.
 
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