Why Don't We Have US-Style Accommodation?

PasturesNew

As some of you know, I'm often "on the move", not sure where to go to next. In discussing similar things with an American it seems over there you can turn up where you like and book into a hostel/hotel at an affordable rate, wherever you want pretty much. He said he'd been confused why Brits he'd spoken to saw moving as such a big deal.

Here, you can't simply "go on the road, turn up in a town, apply for work, look around the area, then move onto another area where there might be work". Here you have to either book into an expensive hotel, try to get a house-share (difficult as that still involves trawling adverts, getting a viewing, getting accepted, moving in) or committing to an AST and not being flexible.

Why don't we have affordable hostels with single rooms for people to be able to move about? You need to be really well off to really be able to roam to look for work as hotels are expensive.

OK, one could try to cut a deal, for a month or so here and there, in smaller B&Bs, but it would still be hit and miss and involve some heavy negotiation and a lot of time.

For the record, I'm talking of something like a Travellodge that would cost you (say) £500/month. My friend's experience is that places like that cost $400/month in the US.

Fire_Fox

Land is plentiful and cheap in many part of the US and minimum wage is low. They have a whole trailer park 'class' that we really don't have here, maybe for the same reason?

LydiaJ

I'm guessing, but I think it might have to do with their property prices being in general much lower than ours. That's because land prices are lower because it's such a big country with loads of space, whereas we are a crowded little island.

In order to make money out of providing flexible accommodation like that, you'd need to have a profit margin that would cover you even if your average occupancy was a long way below 100%. You could only do that and keep fees affordable if the property was cheap to buy in the first place.

Happy to be corrected by someone who actually knows what they're talking about, though.

ETA X-posted with Fire Fox
I take your point about the trailer park class. Perhaps part of the reason we don't have that is because our benefits system penalises you for having no fixed address.

C_Mababejive

America is a BIG country whereas this is an overcrowded rat hole.

G_M

Different country = different economics, politics, laws etc etc.

Thank goodness we're NOT like the States. Would you want their healthcare system for example?

C_Mababejive

G_M wrote: »

Different country = different economics, politics, laws etc etc.

Thank goodness we're NOT like the States. Would you want their healthcare system for example?

Or

All that space
Diverse landscapes/environments in different states
Old fashioned courtesy and family values
National pride
Incredibly clean streets and highways
A Police Force that isnt afraid to act instead of being a namby pamby bunch of social workers
Reasonable property prices giving value for money instead of signing up to a crippling lifetime loan to live in a shoebox
A willingness to give good service with a smile
A can do attitude

duchy

Plenty of things I love about the US but its lack of gun control and its health care system are the two that made me decide not to move there when it was offered to me some years ago.

No country is perfect but those two were the deal breaker for me....... If I won the lottery I might reconsider but for the average working person who can't afford to live in genuinely safe communities or not worry about affording healthcare those are the biggies.

Fire_Fox

C_Mababejive wrote: »

Or

All that space
Diverse landscapes/environments in different states
Old fashioned courtesy and family values
National pride
Incredibly clean streets and highways
A Police Force that isnt afraid to act instead of being a namby pamby bunch of social workers
Reasonable property prices giving value for money instead of signing up to a crippling lifetime loan to live in a shoebox
A willingness to give good service with a smile
A can do attitude

You should emigrate, we'd miss you tho.

PasturesNew

In the downturn in the 70s, Norman Tebbitt said "get on your bike", he meant to look for work elsewhere ... but here it's just not financially viable is it. Our accommodation is simply not flexible enough to wander about looking for work and taking on jobs as/where they are ... not to mention we've no idea where they might be hiding.

dmg24

Is this not what gypsies do? (confused smilie!)

scubaangel

I've been looking at moving myself lately and have to agree, I want to move to an area about 200 miles from where I currently live, but to be able to do that I need to find a job, which entails a whole load of applying online and getting knocked back as soon as people see my address, and somewhere to live which I simply can't afford to do without a job - though it would make getting a job much easier to already be living in the area.

If I could simply get in my car and spend a week or a month in a b&b while I look for/start working the whole process would be so much simpler. That said most employers want 'stable' employee's these days so the sort of person who can up and move on a whim might not be the sort of employee they're looking for anyway.