My circle has all turned on Airbnb. It’s a gamble. It used to be the gamble was worth it because it was cheaper than hotels, but now that they’re the same price, it’s not worth it.

Last time went great, the time before was not properly cleaned to guest standards, and they restained the wood walls in the kitchen so the whole place was permeated with an awful chemical smell that kept me from sleeping. At a hotel, you can just switch rooms if anything is suboptimal. At an air BNB, you’re stuck. Everyone in my circle has had half good half bad experiences and it’s just not worth risking your trip over.

The problem with this is that if a non-manufacturer sells the “same” product, and they both use the same warehouse, Amazon keeps both versions of the product in the same bin, and there’s no way to guarantee whether you’re getting the real product or the knockoff.

If you buy post-it notes from the official post-it’s Amazon store, they’re not necessarily giving you post-its from the official post-its stock. You could be getting post-its from seller A6Zodiyn which were never stored properly and several years old so the sticky note glue doesn’t hold anymore. But both sellers were selling post-its in the same packaging, so they’re in the same box in the warehouse and what the pickers grab is random.

But also the completely fake post-its are in that box too, and they don’t stick as well plus their color is off, and there are fewer sheets per pad. But because the outer packaging is the same, same same warehouse box.

You said that you don’t get it. The point isn’t that people are evil for helping their kids, the point is if the housing market is running on the assumption that houses are worth what a family plus their parents will pay for them, regular families won’t be able to afford houses. If everyone agreed that regular young families should be able to afford a house and didn’t rely on older mom and dad for money, houses would be more affordable for everyone.