One Man's Quest to Make Business Travel a Lot Less Awful • Hacker News Board

Re: One Man's Quest to Make Business Travel a Lot Less Awful

#21

Post by cflee » Mon, Apr 21, 2014, 7:13 AM UTC

josai wrote: post #15

Thiz wrote: post #8

Great idea. At first, by reading the title, I thought it was about making flights more comfortable. I really would like to see planes where instead of selling 200 seats at $500 each, they sell 100 seats at $1000 with double leg room and bigger seats. Or even 50 mega seats at $2000 each. First class seats go for 10k a pop which makes them really expensive only affordable by big corporations. So something in the middle…

All business-class planes (and airlines) have been extensively tested as an idea. They tend to only work on the longest routes (1). I too try to get business class on anything above maybe 6 hours and certainly on overnight flights, but I think you'd have to be pretty rich to not flinch at spending 2x or 4x your normal fare just to sit in a larger seat for a couple of hours on a domestic flight. (1) http://www.singapo…

Singapore Airlines' all-business-class flights (Singapore to to Newark or Los Angeles) have been withdrawn at the end of 2013 [1], but probably also due to fuel consumption of the A340-500, not just due to the all-business-class yields not quite working out.

[1] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-25/singapore-air-to-en...

Re: One Man's Quest to Make Business Travel a Lot Less Awful

#22

Post by danieltillett » Mon, Apr 21, 2014, 8:10 AM UTC

MarkTee wrote: post #11

danieltillett wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have always wanted to see those capsule boxes that the Japanese salarymen use when they miss the last train home installed in airports and the like. Why can we have a small quiet box to lie down in and rest between flights?

Some North American airports have sleeping pods. I think I last saw them at YVR (Vancouver).

Does anyone have a list where they all are? Actually this sounds like a great application idea.

Re: One Man's Quest to Make Business Travel a Lot Less Awful

#23

Post by vl » Mon, Apr 21, 2014, 8:17 AM UTC

danieltillett wrote: post #7

zemvpferreira wrote: post #3

I'd be very surprised if less than half the bookings were for sex, amateur or professional.

If these are in commercial buildings I am wondering if this couldn't be solved by installing security cameras?

But why it even has to be solved?

I was intern at research facility that had this story as part of the local folklore: male researcher and female researcher stayed the night to supervise long-lasting experiment, fire inspector was doing rounds and walked upon them having sex. He reported this to the director of the facility. Director said "I don't see how fire safety was affected" and dismissed the complaint.

Re: One Man's Quest to Make Business Travel a Lot Less Awful

#24

Post by adrianhoward » Mon, Apr 21, 2014, 9:02 AM UTC

cylinder wrote: post #14

Regus already does this, without the mobile app front-end. You can book offices on an hourly basis starting around $30/hr in Manhattan.

If it's anything like Regus in the UK it looks like a very different experience. The offices are part of a larger group office. You need to check in at the front desk. The environment is much more "corporate" - office desks and chairs, plus no en-suite toilet, etc.

Very much not "your" space.

I'd love something like this in London. I live about 2.5 hours out of London, and when I come in for client meetings or on-sites having somewhere to decompress for a couple of hours, grab a shower and a nap, and get some work done in the quiet, would be fantastic.

Re: One Man's Quest to Make Business Travel a Lot Less Awful

#25

Post by jpalomaki » Mon, Apr 21, 2014, 9:19 AM UTC

I imagine there could be an opportunity for AirBNB/Über style service here. Maybe not for individuals, but for companies that are anyways offering office space for rent and who already have reception facilities (for giving access) etc. Or maybe even hotels? Re-decorate few rooms to serve specifically this purpose (remove beds etc).

The main challenge I can think of is related to getting access to the space. With this kind of service I would not be interested in making appointments with somebody to get access to the place. Too much trouble if I only plan to spend couple of hours there.

Would be also easy to tie additional services to the experience. If there's some catering services available at the location, those could be made available via the app. Book a room and request a light lunch delivered there.

And of course these could also expand to airports. With some good design one could probably fit in a decent room in pretty small place. Knowing that I have my personal space booked at the airport, I could actually go there a little bit earlier instead of trying to kill the time at the city.

Re: One Man's Quest to Make Business Travel a Lot Less Awful

#26

Post by danieltillett » Mon, Apr 21, 2014, 10:05 AM UTC

vl wrote: post #23

danieltillett wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If these are in commercial buildings I am wondering if this couldn't be solved by installing security cameras?

But why it even has to be solved? I was intern at research facility that had this story as part of the local folklore: male researcher and female researcher stayed the night to supervise long-lasting experiment, fire inspector was doing rounds and walked upon them having sex. He reported this to the director of the facility. Director said "I don't see how fire safety was affected" and dismissed the complaint.

The only reason is because your other clients might object - they might not want to be put in the position of having to ignore what is going on next door in the middle of a meeting.

Re: One Man's Quest to Make Business Travel a Lot Less Awful

#27

Post by kalleboo » Mon, Apr 21, 2014, 10:06 AM UTC

Thiz wrote: post #8

Great idea. At first, by reading the title, I thought it was about making flights more comfortable. I really would like to see planes where instead of selling 200 seats at $500 each, they sell 100 seats at $1000 with double leg room and bigger seats. Or even 50 mega seats at $2000 each. First class seats go for 10k a pop which makes them really expensive only affordable by big corporations. So something in the middle…

> First class seats go for 10k a pop which makes them really expensive only affordable by big corporations. So something in the middle may be a good thing to explore.

Most airlines have an "Economy Plus" type class nowadays, which is usually economy-style seating with more legroom. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premium_economy

Re: One Man's Quest to Make Business Travel a Lot Less Awful

#28

Post by rm445 » Mon, Apr 21, 2014, 10:10 AM UTC

adrianhoward wrote: post #24

cylinder wrote: post #14

Regus already does this, without the mobile app front-end. You can book offices on an hourly basis starting around $30/hr in Manhattan.

If it's anything like Regus in the UK it looks like a very different experience. The offices are part of a larger group office. You need to check in at the front desk. The environment is much more "corporate" - office desks and chairs, plus no en-suite toilet, etc. Very much not "your" space. I'd love something like this in London. I live about 2.5 hours out of London, and when I come in for client meetings or on-sit…

There are such places already in London, though you might not like the prices. The more business-focused private members' clubs typically have offices, meeting rooms and bedrooms available (for rent) as well as the kind of bar, restaurant, reading room facilities you might expect.

Re: One Man's Quest to Make Business Travel a Lot Less Awful

#29

Post by inthewoods » Mon, Apr 21, 2014, 11:37 AM UTC

Not sure how they make a lot of money on this. At $15/hr, and and average of 10 hours of booking, that's $150/day. 20 days a year (you can only book on weekdays), that's a total of $3k a month per space. In NYC, I've got to figure at least $1500 a month, probably higher. Furniture and app development is a relatively fixed cost (maintenance), cleaning after every appointment can add up if you've got a lot discontinuous, small appointments. Doesn't seem like there is a lot of margin - or margin for error if you don't fill the rooms. You've got a large fixed cost that's paid up-front on one side and no guarantee of selling that space - so the business has a lot of risk. Interesting but challenging.

Re: One Man's Quest to Make Business Travel a Lot Less Awful

#30

Post by inthewoods » Mon, Apr 21, 2014, 11:43 AM UTC

jpalomaki wrote: post #25

I imagine there could be an opportunity for AirBNB/Über style service here. Maybe not for individuals, but for companies that are anyways offering office space for rent and who already have reception facilities (for giving access) etc. Or maybe even hotels? Re-decorate few rooms to serve specifically this purpose (remove beds etc). The main challenge I can think of is related to getting access to the space. With this…

Businesses generally aren't interested in taking on the risk of having random, non-vetted people in their space. Too many potential legal problems. A former boss of mine said it best when he said that companies don't want to be landlords. But they will sublet to another company when forced to (took on too much space as a common issue).