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Show HN: Elevators

1668 points · 413 comments · Jrh0203

  1. woeh · · focus · HN ↗
    I am currently staying in an AirBnB of a 60 floor tower, and the three elevator shafts definitely cannot handle this (I don't think the building was designed with renting to tourists in mind). The elevators are frequently completely saturated during weekends, meaning that the elevator stops at each floor, but noone can get in because the elevator is already full. This means the backlog of people wanting to use the elevators is increasing until after rush hour, and I have at one time experienced a waiting time of over half an hour.

    What I take from this is, elevators need a proper check to see if they are full, and if so skip floors.

    1. ehsankia · · focus · HN ↗
      I don't understand why the fact that it's an Airbnb really matters here? Unless a large number of apartments are meant to be empty, why does it matter if the tenant is short term or long term? Is it that short term users leave and enter their apartment more often?
      1. csomar · · focus · HN ↗
        Because they are short-term and many are staying just for the day + bringing family (like kids, which is why they use AirBNB instead of a hotel). The check-in/check-out already add an entry-exit if the user is staying 24 hours only.
        1. close04 · · focus · HN ↗
          It’s not super common to stay in one place only 24h when traveling with kids. Other than the luggage, tourists and residents move in an out of the building just the same. People who live there also need to go to work or school every morning, and come back in the afternoon creating choke points. And these people are there every day, not a handful of seasonal tourists.

          The problem is probably the same as every other super tall building. It was impressive for the potential buyers but designed poorly and this only became apparent after they lived there a while (crappy elevators, probably often defective, building sway, plumbing issues, etc). So the owners started to move out and it’s possible the building is mostly short term rental now.

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