Living out of Hotel Rooms

In multiple posts you wrote more about it than I did, so you must care about it. And I wasn't the first one to comment that KewlJ was out of line.

Quote: mcallister3200

It is a surprise you didn’t interject a half dozen ridiculous “when did you stop beating your wife” type questions

I don't ask those type questions.

It's clear that you're a fan who's been following me here, but I don't recall ever reading any other post of yours before this thread.

Quote: Mission146

The Admins certainly can make their decision without the input of those of us sitting here (including me) in the peanut gallery.

Are you discouraging members' input in this matter, or are you just commenting on the Admin's capabilities?

Let's be honest here. Alan and I have a history on several forums. Alan has challenged numerous things I have said and do in regards to my blackjack play. A few of these things and concepts are Tracking a second table when conditions are right. Partial counts and how missing seeing a few cards and/or seeing a large number of small cards mid-deck (partial count) is still an advantage for the player (a concept proven by Stanford Wong and the basis of Wonging), and my comments about expected value and variance that he as a non blackjack AP cannot grasp.

So Alan has challenged me repeatedly over the years on these things as recently as a few months ago on this forum, when he wrote that he had read "an article" about a card counter that said this and that, when what he had read was a discussion on another forum by me the very day before.

I consider it a friendly enough back and forth. I try to explain some of these concepts that Alan as a non blackjack player, no card counter, Non-AP doesn't understand and well....I never seem to get very far.

None of that really pertains to this situation, but I am just saying, lets be honest. Alan and I have for years engaged in some back and forth. I have always felt like he was trying to discredit me about topics that he admittedly knows nothing about. Now again that is not what this is. I genuinely have concerns about a 70 year old member, knowing what we know about him, because he has shared much of it, who says he "looked into" or considered" giving up his home to live and bounce around casinos. It doesn't matter that it is Alan or someone I have no history with. I am going to express that is a terrible idea.

And Mission146, I see no or little difference in the terms "I looked into", "I thought about" or "I considered". Bad idea, stop considering, thinking about or looking into. :/

A discussion about doubting the ability to count two tables is far different than accusing someone who has a business and posts using his real name of having a gambling problem.

I offered to meet you kewlj so you could demonstrate your ability and you refused.

Prove your allegation I have a gambling problem.

Quote: kewlj

Let's be honest here. Alan and I have a history on several forums. Alan has challenged numerous things I have said and do in regards to my blackjack play. A few of these things and concepts are Tracking a second table when conditions are right. Partial counts and how missing seeing a few cards and/or seeing a large number of small cards mid-deck (partial count) is still an advantage for the player (a concept proven by Stanford Wong and the basis of Wonging), and my comments about expected value and variance that he as a non blackjack AP cannot grasp.

So Alan has challenged me repeatedly over the years on these things as recently as a few months ago on this forum, when he wrote that he had read "an article" about a card counter that said this and that, when what he had read was a discussion on another forum by me the very day before.

I consider it a friendly enough back and forth. I try to explain some of these concepts that Alan as a non blackjack player, no card counter, Non-AP doesn't understand and well....I never seem to get very far.

None of that really pertains to this situation, but I am just saying, lets be honest. Alan and I have for years engaged in some back and forth. I have always felt like he was trying to discredit me about topics that he admittedly knows nothing about. Now again that is not what this is. I genuinely have concerns about a 70 year old member, knowing what we know about him, because he has shared much of it, who says he "looked into" or considered" giving up his home to live and bounce around casinos. It doesn't matter that it is Alan or someone I have no history with. I am going to express that is a terrible idea.

And Mission146, I see no or little difference in the terms "I looked into", "I thought about" or "I considered". Bad idea, stop considering, thinking about or looking into. :/
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Copied again to preserve his statements.

Quote: Mission146

The Admins certainly can make their decision without the input of those of us sitting here (including me) in the peanut gallery. If they do take action detrimental to KewlJ, then that is what the Discussion About the Suspension List thread is for. I purposely avoided comment on whether or not KewlJ should be Suspended specifically because I am not an Administrator here and the altercation doesn't involve me, thus making it none of my business what Admin does.
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Thread closed.
Plenty to work back through here. I'm going to ensure that we moderators give the thread appropriate attention. Since there have been no suspensions. YET, I do not anticipate any discussion of this spat until we publish our conclusion.

Quote: OnceDear

Quote: Mission146

The Admins certainly can make their decision without the input of those of us sitting here (including me) in the peanut gallery. If they do take action detrimental to KewlJ, then that is what the Discussion About the Suspension List thread is for. I purposely avoided comment on whether or not KewlJ should be Suspended specifically because I am not an Administrator here and the altercation doesn't involve me, thus making it none of my business what Admin does.
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Thread closed.
Plenty to work back through here. I'm going to ensure that we moderators give the thread appropriate attention. Since there have been no suspensions. YET, I do not anticipate any discussion of this spat until we publish our conclusion.
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Thread is reopened, due to multiple requests.

No discussion of the kewlj-AlanMendelson dispute, please. Keep conversation about the topic, not about each other.

This is probably a ‘me’ problem…. but when I am in a hotel and eating on someone else’s dime, I tend to eat quite unhealthily. I also am around cigarette smoke (if it’s a casino) way more than I’d want to be. I also tend to be more sedentary, sitting at a table for hours on end if I’m winning or treading water. Give me a free casino room for 3-5 days, maybe a week. Then get me home!

Let's go over the economics of staying in a hotel room. This comes from my looking into it in April 2021.

First, the cost of my apartment. I had a 2 bedroom Summerlin apartment with two swimming pools and washer, dryer, dishwasher, and AC. Nice place. Because of my lease I was paying $1200 per month plus about $50 utilities. Because of the pandemic new tenants were paying $1500 for a two bedroom with my floorplan.

I found casino hotel rooms at off Strip properties for about $30/night for at least ten nights. Another ten nights would have cost $60-80 per night. The remain 5-10 nights could not be reserved under this plan.

But the total for twenty nights was 10 X 30 = 300 plus 10 X 60 = 600 (using the low end).

That's $900 for 20 nights vs $1200 to rent for a month.

Add in that the hotel has no kitchen which would mean no self preparation of meals (there were laundry machines available) and renting beat out hoteling.

I've already mentioned the lack of closets in hotels. I can't imagine substituting a hotel room for an apartment.

I have looked into it, and not from a theoretical exercise. My lease is up soon and while I can go month to month for a few months, my landlord wants me to either sign a retroactive year lease in June or be gone..
I wasn't looking at Las Vegas only, I looked in Arizona and New Mexico and even looked in the El Paso region.
My baseline was this- An apartment is going to run $800-1,000 a month plus cable, internet ,utilites, garbage, ect.ect. for a total of about 1200 a month.
Could I find cheaper living in weekly or monthly hotels? In Arizona, the answer was yes. There were many a $199 a week motel, a few in some almost nice neighborhoods.
I found one for $259 a week with a gym, pool, free breakfast in their dining room and a free fish fry on Fridays.
Using my secret criteria, there were three in Las Vegas that I looked into further. One was on Las Vegas Blvd down near Cancun so I thought it might be nice. Ten minutes of reading reviews and that was out. There was one just north of the Orleans that looked okay but they didn't respond to my emails and the phone would either ring or go right to voicemail.
Extended Stay America has some fantastic values, although not in Las Vegas. Some of them will give 40% off for three month stays plus they rebate you your sales and hotel taxes
I could easily stay in Laughlin but I'd have to move every few days and that would get old pretty fast.

Did that $1250 include internet and cable? Renters Insurance?
Most people pay electricity, gas, sewer, trash. When I lived in Henderson, all that was extra although the internet/cable package was offered at a great rate.

Extended Stay America is very “hit or miss”. On road trips I’ve stayed at some fairly nice new ones and also some run-down ghetto ones. I generally won’t stay there anymore since it’s not a reliable standard

It's been more than 20 years since I worked in the storage business. You would be surprised at who rents out these units.

Many small businesses rent out these for their equipment.

We had one woman who rented a 10 x 20 unit and furnished it like a small apartment for herself and two school age children. They had electricity but no running water. Every morning she would drive her children to school and return in the evening. They slept in the unit. At the time the unit cost about $200 a month.

We had a couple who arrived by train every Friday evening from NYC. They stored all of their summer clothes, bikes, beach chairs, beach umbrella in the unit. They would rent a nearby motel room for the weekend and go to the beach during the day. If it wasn't a sunny beach day, they would ride their bikes to the local bars and restaurants. Sunday evening they would take the train back to NYC.

I don't know what the storage units rent for in Vegas, but if you really wanted to try to live at the casinos with a few none casino nights, I think renting a storage unit for a "Home Base" is the way to go.

Just make sure you pay the monthly fee or you might have your unit being auctioned off.

Quote: FatGeezus

It's been more than 20 years since I worked in the storage business. You would be surprised at who rents out these units.

Many small businesses rent out these for their equipment.

We had one woman who rented a 10 x 20 unit and furnished it like a small apartment for herself and two school age children. They had electricity but no running water. Every morning she would drive her children to school and return in the evening. They slept in the unit. At the time the unit cost about $200 a month.

We had a couple who arrived by train every Friday evening from NYC. They stored all of their summer clothes, bikes, beach chairs, beach umbrella in the unit. They would rent a nearby motel room for the weekend and go to the beach during the day. If it wasn't a sunny beach day, they would ride their bikes to the local bars and restaurants. Sunday evening they would take the train back to NYC.

I don't know what the storage units rent for in Vegas, but if you really wanted to try to live at the casinos with a few none casino nights, I think renting a storage unit for a "Home Base" is the way to go.

Just make sure you pay the monthly fee or you might have your unit being auctioned off.
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No toilet? No bathing? Can't wait to see the brochure.

You can join a nationwide gym for a few bucks a month. I knew a bunch of young wrestlers who lived in their vans in Vegas. It's not for me, but I had a helper for a few weeks who lived in his van and bathed and showered every day at a gym. You'd never guess he lived in his van. He was just focused on saving money.

Quote: billryan

You can join a nationwide gym for a few bucks a month. I knew a bunch of young wrestlers who lived in their vans in Vegas. It's not for me, but I had a helper for a few weeks who lived in his van and bathed and showered every day at a gym. You'd never guess he lived in his van. He was just focused on saving money.
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Aren't you better off in a Vegas hotel than a van/gym/storage space?

Quote: AlanMendelson

Quote: billryan

You can join a nationwide gym for a few bucks a month. I knew a bunch of young wrestlers who lived in their vans in Vegas. It's not for me, but I had a helper for a few weeks who lived in his van and bathed and showered every day at a gym. You'd never guess he lived in his van. He was just focused on saving money.
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Aren't you better off in a Vegas hotel than a van/gym/storage space?
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Dumb question maybe…. A storage place will allow you to live there? AC/ heat? What if you need to take a crap in the middle of the night? Must also be problematic to bring a date ‘home’!

About ten years ago, there were people living in storage units but most places cracked down on it big time. A lot of people used them as crash pads. I know at least one card game that was held in one.

Not many people choose to live in a storage unit but it is better than living in a box. People are making tiny houses out of shipping containers. Maybe storage unit condos will be the next big thing.

Quote: SOOPOO

Dumb question maybe…. A storage place will allow you to live there? AC/ heat? What if you need to take a crap in the middle of the night? Must also be problematic to bring a date ‘home’!
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The last three storage units I rented were very explicit that sleeping on premises was strictly forbidden, in that "we'll (try to) have you arrested, cancel your lease, and auction off your belongings" tone of voice.

Fire code probably requires more egress paths for rooms people sleep in. There are probably tenancy laws that penalize the landlord for knowingly allowing residency in an unfit space, without water, sewer, and air conditioning.

Living in a van down by the river isn't glamorous, but I think I'd prefer it to camping in a storage unit.
Storage unit life seems far less desirable than how it was portrayed in Snow Crash.

Quote: SOOPOO

Quote: AlanMendelson

Quote: billryan

You can join a nationwide gym for a few bucks a month. I knew a bunch of young wrestlers who lived in their vans in Vegas. It's not for me, but I had a helper for a few weeks who lived in his van and bathed and showered every day at a gym. You'd never guess he lived in his van. He was just focused on saving money.
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Aren't you better off in a Vegas hotel than a van/gym/storage space?
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Dumb question maybe…. A storage place will allow you to live there? AC/ heat? What if you need to take a crap in the middle of the night? Must also be problematic to bring a date ‘home’!
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You’d need a climate controlled one. An indoor unit probably has public bathrooms

I knew someone who managed a storage unit in another state for multiple years. They were evicting short term tenants with some frequency on a persistent basis. They had at least one instance of a prostitute using her storage unit as a place to hook up with her clients.

Environmentally-controlled storage units have air-conditioning - but, in my experience, never have heat. So, these kinds of problems don't occur in storage units in Alaska or Minnesota.

So the ideal would be set up your storage unit like a man cave to hang out all day, shower in the gym, and sleep in your van. The best of all worlds.

Let's not forget the tunnels: always an option for those whose dreams are dashed on the rocks of The House Edge.

In a few years, I suspect self-driving RVs will eliminate the need for houses all together. Your "house" will drop you off at work, and then find a place to park until it swings back to get you after work. While you sleep and watch tv, it will make endless loops of the 215.

Quote: billryan

In a few years, I suspect self-driving RVs will eliminate the need for houses all together. Your "house" will drop you off at work, and then find a place to park until it swings back to get you after work. While you sleep and watch tv, it will make endless loops of the 215.
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Best idea yet. I can visualize this as an episode in a new Jetson's cartoon.

Even a Tesla's windows frost over when you sleep overnight in the car when it's sub-zero outside. But you could stay warm as long as your battery lasts.

The last thing anyone needs is more RV’s trying to drive around anywhere near semi populated civilization.

Quote: mcallister3200

The last thing anyone needs is more RV’s trying to drive around anywhere near semi populated civilization.
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These will be self-driving RVs. Ma and Pa Kettle won't be anywhere near the steering wheel.

The thing about RV’s is that they are the only type of vehicle that large or larger that really has little to no benefit to anyone but the occupant and the business renting them the parking space, or dealer/service shop.

Any other type of vehicle that large or larger benefits a number of consumers as well beyond business interests.

Quote: mcallister3200

The thing about RV’s is that they are the only type of vehicle that large or larger that really has little to no benefit to anyone but the occupant and the business renting them the parking space, or dealer/service shop.

Any other type of vehicle that large or larger benefits a number of consumers as well beyond business interests.
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If these are supposedly EV RV's, I doubt they will be much larger than a Sprinter.

I expect the Amish craftsmen in north central Indiana will still do the builds, whether the chassis is EV or ICE.

I would not want to go boondocking in an EV. I take great comfort that liquid fuel can be readily delivered by a service truck.