
Roam has constructed an international housing network for digital nomads - kawera
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/08/magazine/when-youre-a-digital-nomad-the-world-is-your-office.html
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venantius
I've stayed at a Roam before in London. On the upside, it was pleasant, clean,
quiet, and conveniently located. The room was a bit small and the in-room
fridge was tiny, but those are common traits for temporary housing in London.

The real downside to me is a conflict inherent in Roam's branding and
strategic positioning. They position themselves as being for digital nomads
(i.e. people who are working as permanent travelers) and assume that what I
want as such a person is to actively engage and spend time with other people
doing the same. To that end they're aggressively friendly, which I found a bit
off-putting. I travel to be integrated into the communities in which I am
traveling, not to hang out with other travelers.

~~~
xya3453
That is Roam's entire value add. The large majority of digital nomads are
looking to find likeminded individuals with the same constraints in the same
foreign city as they are. Similar to hostels when backpacking.

If you want to be integrated into the communities of whom your traveling you
want to be crashing on their couches or in the very least renting a local
Airbnb.

~~~
venantius
That may be. But what I'm looking for is a quiet environment with high speed
internet and dedicated work spaces. Most hotels are a poor match for one, if
not both parts of that equation.

"Crashing on couches" or using Airbnb are both high-variance options - you
don't have a guarantee of quality, quiet, or internet, let alone separate
dedicated work spaces.

~~~
xya3453
Thankfully affordable co-working spaces offering a quiet environment with high
speed internet and dedicated work spaces are abundant.

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adamcharnock
As someone who is living in a community in London, and building a community-
based house in rural Portugal, the comments here feel somewhat relevant.

My ideal is a situation where people can freely move between both houses (with
some element of planning/booking). However, in our case only about 30-50% of
people in our community have a work-life that could support this. The result
is that the Portugal house could often be somewhat empty.

I would be interested in some kind of digital nomad airbnb. As hosts we would
want to be clear about what our community is about / expectations etc, and
also be able to be selective above those who may join us.

Couchsurfing is another option that we could look to, but I'm not too keen on
that demographic (or at least my experience of it). How about couchsurfing for
professionals, with actual bedrooms, longer says (1 month+), who are maybe a
bit older / more mature etc?

Please forgive the rambling. Maybe this exists already?

Edit: tomcooks's rant has given me something to think about.

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a13n
As a digital nomad, we decided not to use Roam because of cost. It's basically
like paying SF rent, but in countries with a third the cost of living.

Being a digital nomad is definitely stressful. You have to constantly look for
a good place to work. It's hard to meet like-minded people. Roam simplifies a
lot of that, and I see the value.

It's like the WeWork of co-working / co-living spaces. I'm sure they'll do
well as the movement grows.

~~~
virtualwhys
> It's basically like paying SF rent, but in countries with a third the cost
> of living.

Come to Chiang Mai and pay 1/20th :)

Asia is incredibly inexpensive, can't believe how much money I've blown on
rent in the western hemisphere over the last 15 years.

> Being a digital nomad is definitely stressful. You have to constantly look
> for a good place to work.

Indeed, finding the next spot is typically time consuming and hit or miss,
particularly when trying to do so via the internet.

~~~
freakz
Is there good internet throughout Chiang Mai? I had a friend stayed there for
a week as a guess in a house with a 50/50 up and down internet connection. He
couldn't tell me details because such a brief stay and the house owner not
being there. I'm surprised there's such speed there. Would love to relocate to
Thailand if I could have such stable fast speeds.

~~~
virtualwhys
I get 50mbs/20mbs here in my apartment for $20/month; connection is solid. If
you need a really fast connection you can get 500mbs/200mbs, residential no
less.

Also have unlimited mobile data plan with AIS for $20/month, which is really
surprisingly fast given what you're paying.

Thailand's been an eye opener on many levels, will definitely be heading back
here next winter if I'm able to.

~~~
tmrhmd
As someone who is prone to seasonal unproductivity, I wish to travel somewhere
warm and sunny during winter months. What's the weather like during winter
months (I'm on the east coast of North America)? Also, what's the living cost
in addition to uitilities such as internet? Thanks.

~~~
virtualwhys
I've been in Chiang Mai for about 3 months now; it's rained literally once.
"Winter" lasted for maybe 10 days, which meant evening temps in the high 50s
I'd guess.

The only real gotcha is now, when the "burning season" begins. Farmers across
the north of India and SE Asia start torching previous season's fields, which
leads to poor air quality. Up until February you're basically good, it's after
that that you start seeing people (myself included) donning the wearable
breathing masks.

Here's how things are now, just look at all that fresh air[1], you'd think the
earth was a tail pipe.

[1] [http://berkeleyearth.org/air-quality-real-time-
map/?z=4&x=10...](http://berkeleyearth.org/air-quality-real-time-
map/?z=4&x=107.07813&y=31.13512#links)

~~~
tmrhmd
Wow, I didn't know it was that bad! Thanks for the tips.

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eps
It's a bit of a stretch to call 4 cities they have a presence in an
"international housing network."

~~~
tomcooks
Hey cut them some slack, PR articles got to follow certain grammar standards!
/s

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stupidcar
The Roam site seems to require you to book at at particular location, with
check-in and check-out dates, and a per-day pricing structure. How is that
really any different from a traditional hotel/hostel?

It'd be more interesting if they were offering, say, the possibility to get a
6-month tenancy agreement with the option to freely move between locations
during that time. But that doesn't seem to be the case?

~~~
a13n
Logistically I don't that what you describe would actually work. What if you
show up and a place is fully booked?

As a digital nomad myself, the difference I see with Roam is it comes with a
working space and therefore a network of like-minded people. At a hotel your
Wi-Fi might suck, you'd still have to scramble to find a coffee shop to work
from, and other tenants would likely be people on holiday rather than digital
nomads.

~~~
stupidcar
Well, obviously there has to be _some_ kind of booking system, but it could
work on a more ad-hoc basis. You can stay in your current location for as long
as you like, or you can login and see which other locations have capacity,
then let them know you'll be coming in day or so.

Would this be less convenient in certain situations, where you had definite
travel plans in advance? Sure. But it'd also encourage and enable the kind
"nomadic" approach they claim to be delivering, and you could always use a
regular hotel if you absolutely had to be in a particular city one a
particular date.

As it stands, "business hotel with guaranteed decent wifi" might be a useful
market niche, but it's a far cry from the kind paradigm-shift this seems to be
being spun as. And I think there _would_ be something quite interesting in
doing it for real.

~~~
fyfy18
I’ve found Airbnb to be the best way to deal with this. Book for few weeks,
then talk to the owner about staying longer. If there is good supply in the
area, then you have a good chance of being able to stay longer as it won’t be
booked. Alternatively they may have other properties you can stay in.

Having guaranteed WiFi and a desk would be good though. Even in hotels
designed for business use it’s often hit and miss.

~~~
dazc
'I’ve found Airbnb to be the best way to deal with this.'

You've had better luck than me then. I've got places with good internet but
lots of noise; the one place that was quiet had no internet. Quite frustrating
really.

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cseelus
$2373.00 for March 1st till March 31st in Miami and $1650.00 for Ubud (Bali)
seem quite expensive.

~~~
sethhochberg
I did a month at Roam Bali last year and it was super common for folks to show
up for a couple weeks, meet people around the place, and then all rent a
bungalow somewhere nearby instead of staying at Roam for the rest of their
journey. They're really going to have to do something to encourage people to
stick around if they want to avoid that happening (lower rates? better
community?)

It was a good experience overall but if I were ever back in Ubud I'd go out on
my own now that I know the area a bit better instead of paying Roam rates for
the package deal.

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beatpanda
If you're paying for this, why bother traveling? If you just want to be
surrounded by like-minded laptop-bound people that are just like you, why
leave home?

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friendly_chap
Shameless PR piece. I wonder how much do you have to pay to get fluff articles
in the NY Times? Does anyone know, even if just approximately?

~~~
pjc50
This is the NYT _magazine_ ; I see it as more like travel writing than
anything else. One of the downsides of digital articles is that it's no longer
clear which section of the paper they're in and therefore whether they should
be considered reporting, investigative reporting, reprinted press releases,
"lifestyle", or whatever.

I suspect they "paid" simply by having an interesting enough story, giving
free accomodation to the writer of the article, possibly other expenses
included, and giving access to the founder.

It's not exactly a pure puff piece either. The writer
([https://twitter.com/chaykak](https://twitter.com/chaykak)) puts in subtle
clues that he regards it as a Ballardian dystopia, and has retweeted someone's
description of his article as "The Talented Mr Ripley, but with digital
nomads"

~~~
ghaff
Exactly. I don't write a lot of reviews and other pieces that are mostly
disconnected from my day job. But I still get maybe 50 pitches a day. Most are
shotgunned crap that have nothing to do with what I write about. And most of
the rest just don't interest me. But every now and then, I get a pitch to
review a book or gadget or service that looks interesting and I take them up
on it. Absolutely no guarantee of a positive review but, if they get me to
look, it's just PR doing their job.

Too many people here have this ivory tower fantasy of writers sitting in their
offices thinking great thoughts and coming up with ideas about their next
article out of the aether.

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neonate
[http://archive.is/WtX8f](http://archive.is/WtX8f)

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devgutt
I think every nomad had thought a solution about housing because this is a
real problem for us and really annoying. I have my own house back in my
country that I rent. I would be more than receptive to lend my house to a
service so I could rent someone else's house somewhere in the world. Growing a
network of houses by yourself, as Roam is doing, is costly and I think
inneficient.

~~~
kaybe
House exchange services are well-established, though mostly used for holidays.
(eg homexchange.com)

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NiklasMort
Way too expensive (those are 4 Star Hotel prices, at least for Bali and
Tokyo)...might as well just stay in a hotel? The only advantage maybe is you
meet fellow nomads but one can do that anyway.

~~~
Mediterraneo10
> The only advantage maybe is you meet fellow nomads.

These coworker/coliving spaces advertise heavily in the digital nomad
community and there’s often a suggestion that hanging around fellow nomads
will magically make useful new connections and boost their businesses. Maybe
there are some entrepreneurs who benefit from that kind of socializing, but a
lot of digital nomads are a solitary bunch – if not outright hostile to other
nomads who, they fear, might compete with them for clients.

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lostmsu
Does anybody know pricing? That article omits it, or I missed it.

~~~
kiwidrew
The Miami location is $120/night for 7-29 nights, and $79/night for 30+
nights.

The Roam website [1] falls into the standard "travel booking site antipattern"
of not giving any sort of pricing overview and instead forcing the user to
randomly throw dates into the booking form.

[1] [https://www.roam.co/places/miami](https://www.roam.co/places/miami)

~~~
tim333
Bali $62/night for shorter stays about $55 longer. Which is kind of upper end
for Bali. I was recently there in a nice hotel for $35.

~~~
lostmsu
So, basically, too expensive for what it gives.

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zerostar07
Someone needs to make an an airbnb for this maybe? this looks expensive

~~~
Tade0
I wonder how much market research did they do before releasing this.

Or maybe this is aimed at a very specific group within the nomad community,
but you have to be in it to know?

~~~
1337biz
Some people like to spend their holidays in all-inclusive resorts where they
never really have to leave the hotel area. Sometimes I think these digital
nomad offers target similarly minded people.

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spodek
The "digital nomads" I know fly more than anyone I know. The discounts they
find make them beneficiaries of our not accounting for externalities of the
pollution from flying.

Does anyone know the carbon footprint or pollution levels their lifestyle
causes? My intuition may be off, but they would seem high.

~~~
MagnumOpus
Carbon footprint of flying is around 0.2kg CO2/mile, carbon footprint of
commuting by car is around 0.4kg CO2/mile.

So a car commuter with a 20 mile commute emits 2 tonnes of CO2 per year; a
digital nomad without a car commute would need to fly around 20,000 miles a
year to get the same amount of carbon emission -- which is the equivalent of
two return flights from London to Bangkok, or 10-11 return flights from London
to Lisbon.

So they are roughly on the same order of magnitude as a suburban car commute,
but could go substantially higher with weekly return flights...

~~~
spodek
Thank you for the comparison. According to this site
[https://co2.myclimate.org/en/portfolios?calculation_id=10570...](https://co2.myclimate.org/en/portfolios?calculation_id=1057086),
London-Bangkok round trip by coach is 3.6 tons of CO2, so two r/t flights
would be 7.2.

The ones I know travel that much several times a year, which puts them over an
order of magnitude above a suburban commuter, at least for travel costs.

So compared to most of the world, who don't have cars to commute, they're
multiple orders of magnitude over.

Darn. I had hoped they weren't polluting so much. I hope they enjoy the
environments they are helping pollute before they're gone.

~~~
xya3453
Seems ingenuous to compare digital nomads that are flying around the world
several times a year to commuters who never take vacations or fly for
business.

