Why Don't We Have US-Style Accommodation?

C_Mababejive

Wixie99 wrote: »

Showing my age here, but in the 60's when I started work, people who needed to travel for work stayed in "digs". For those of you too young to know what these where, people used to let out a room in their house, usually providing breakfast and often an evening meal as well. And you could stay as short or as long as you wanted.

There used to be all sorts of "rules" - like a male friend who had to be back by 11pm at night, otherwise he would be locked out!

I don't suppose people would put up with that these days, though.

They are called travel lodges now. I wonder how the word "digs" is derived?

Fire_Fox

Digs is nothing to do with Travelodges! Digs is the same sort of thing as being a Monday to Friday lodger in someone's home.

Origin of the word:
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-dig1.htm

BitterAndTwisted

Digs is/was a cross between staying in a B&B and being a lodger

harryhound

I remember a programme about casual work, showing dockers who had not managed to get any work for days, sleeping by hanging over a rope strung across a room - probably better that slumping to the floor, with its flees and the rats. Seem to remember the accommodation cost 1d.

Jowo_2

PasturesNew wrote: »

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.

...
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.

But the blessing of cheap motel rooms or short-stay apartments in the US also have their downside as their ease in securing and cheapness can lead them to be the equivalent of doss houses for the vulnerable, the criminal and the near-homeless. Though you associate them with business users, some end up as accommodation for the destitute.

Remember Mark Beaumont who cycled around the world in the fastest timeto beat the record? He got knocked off his bike in the US and the driver helped him to the nearest motel which turned out to be a place inhabited by crack-heads who robbed him.