All posts tagged: Rental

Coachella Chaos? As Demand Surges, So Do Prices and Rental Rumors

Coachella Chaos? As Demand Surges, So Do Prices and Rental Rumors

Published by Daniella Wilson

The gates are open and Bieberchella, er Coachella, is officially underway. The 2026 edition of the Coachella Valley’s iconic music festival kicked off in the desert Friday with as many as 125,000 people expected to attend each day of the event, headlined by Justin Bieber, Sabrina Carpenter and Karol G. In all, more than 100 acts are set to perform across eight stages. That means lots of news is expected out of Coachella this weekend but even before the first beats hit the speakers, social media algorithms were in overdrive with festival chatter, gossip and controversies. One of the narratives that emerged in recent days came from content creators who claim their Airbnb reservations were abruptly canceled, presumably so owners could rebook the properties for thousands of dollars more due to increased demand amid the popularity of acts like Bieber. Based on the number of posts, it seemed like it was becoming something of a greedy trend. The comments sections under each video quickly filled with others claiming to have experienced the same shock days …

Stop the world, I want to get off and run a video rental store in the 1990s | Simulation games

Stop the world, I want to get off and run a video rental store in the 1990s | Simulation games

Published by Sam Flores

It’s early doors, but 2026 may be the biggest bin fire of a year in my lifetime. Wars starting, then ending, then starting again in the course of a week. People running their cars on hopes and dreams because a tank of petrol costs more than the vehicle. Manospheric morons making millions. Several depressing celebrity deaths before I’ve so much as eaten my first Creme Egg of the year. I had no idea that the antidote to my anxiety and rage would be a cheap little title, made by two French blokes, in what I usually regard as the most turgid gaming genre. Retro Rewind is the moment’s indie darling, selling more than 100,000 copies on Steam in a week. In it, you run a video rental shop in the 90s. You need to buy videos. Display them well. Drop flyers. Serve your customers. Buy more stuff. It’s no different from any other retail sim out there, and I normally shun them because I play video games to escape the boring world of work and …

HUD proposes time limits for rental aid : NPR

HUD proposes time limits for rental aid : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Apartment buildings are seen at the Stoddard Johnston Scholar House, Friday, July 11, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. Jon Cherry/AP hide caption toggle caption Jon Cherry/AP A proposed rule by the Department of Housing and Urban Development would allow strict time limits and work requirements as a condition for rental subsidies, a move that critics say could put millions of people at risk of losing such aid amid record-high housing costs and homelessness. The decision to impose new restrictions would be up to local housing authorities and private property owners who rent to people using a housing voucher, known as Section 8. Time limits could be as short as two years, and work requirements up to 40 hours a week. Those who are elderly or disabled – a majority of people with federal rental subsidies – would be exempt. President Trump proposed a two-year limit in his White House budget last year, along with slashing rental aid by 40%, but Congress rejected that. This rule would bypass Congress, assuming it’s finalized. Housing Secretary Scott Turner has …

Realtor Uses AI, Accidentally Posts Photo of Rental Property With Demonic Figure Emerging From Mirror

Realtor Uses AI, Accidentally Posts Photo of Rental Property With Demonic Figure Emerging From Mirror

Published by José Betancourt

The real estate industry has seized on generative AI with a passion. Realtors have made extensive use of the tech, manipulating photos of properties beyond recognition by giving facades and interiors a heavy coat of AI-generated paint. Text descriptions of properties have turned into a heap of ChatGPT-generated buzzwords, devolving an already frustrating house hunt into a genuinely exasperating experience. Making sense of what a rental apartment actually looks like in the real world has regressed into a guessing game. We’ve already come across bizarre listings of inexplicably yassified houses with smoothed-over architectural features, misplaced trees, nonsensically rearranged furniture, and mangled props. But now, a listing for a property in the Washington, DC area has taken the cake. Renters seeking a new home in the capital made a horrifying discovery while browsing listings: what can only be described as an Eldritch horror poking her disfigured head out — from somehow both inside and outside — of a bathroom mirror. In other words, it’s the kind of nightmarish creature only a flawed AI algorithm could’ve cooked …

Young couple decorate L.A. rental with thrifted secondhand home decor

Young couple decorate L.A. rental with thrifted secondhand home decor

Published by Sam Flores

After moving to Los Angeles from Palo Alto in 2023 with only a standing desk and a bed frame, Tess van Hulsen and Andrew Chait learned quickly how to furnish an empty rental without buying anything new. Because they love thrifting, decorating together was actually fun for them. In this series, we spotlight L.A. rentals with style. From perfect gallery walls to temporary decor hacks, these renters get creative, even in small spaces. And Angelenos need the inspiration: Most are renters. Two years later, their love of thrifting, antiquing, bargaining and restoring has turned their Westwood rental into a showcase of “secondhand treasures,” says Van Hulsen, 28, who works as a commercial contract specialist. “I have always liked things that have history and character and a story behind them,” she says. “Each piece represents a store we love, a lucky find or a successful haggle that ended with us carrying home something with history.” Andrew Chait and Tess van Hulsen relax on their condo rooftop, sitting on patio furniture they bought in Venice through Facebook …

ChargePoint turns rental car lots into public EV charging stations

ChargePoint turns rental car lots into public EV charging stations

Published by skeptic

Image: ChargePoint ChargePoint is adding public EV chargers at rental car locations in Wisconsin, a small but notable expansion of charging access at airports and neighborhood branches in Appleton and Madison – and not just for people renting EVs. The EV charger company says it’s working with Midwestern Wheels, a licensee of Avis Budget Group, to install a mix of Level 2 and Level 3 fast chargers at Midwestern Wheels’ airport and local market branches in Appleton and Madison. The chargers are open to the public, meaning EV drivers can plug in even if they’re not renting a car. That matters in Wisconsin, where EV registrations have grown by more than 50% per year on average since 2013, according to Wisconsin Clean Cities, but public charging coverage still trails demand across much of the state, especially outside major metro areas. Midwestern Wheels is using ChargePoint’s Omni Port chargers at several locations. Rather than dedicating parking spaces to a single connector type, Omni Port allows different EVs to charge in the same spot without drivers needing …

Is Rental Family based on a true story?

Is Rental Family based on a true story?

Published by Daniella Wilson

Rental Family is Brendan Fraser’s latest offering to the world of cinema, and follows Phillip Vanderploeg, an American actor living in Japan constantly searching for a stable job and whose life changes when an unexpected gig comes his way. Phillip, played masterfully by Fraser, is hired by a company that provides actors to play stand-in family members and friends for strangers — a service that is difficult to believe is real. “Squaring the ethics behind the whole notion of this is a tricky one, isn’t it? Because you could be helping or you could be doing harm,” Fraser told RadioTimes.com. “That’s where the movie lives. Is it blurring the line between the fantasy? Or, is the big belief the reality and the blurred region in between? And those are the conflicts that each of these characters come up against.” So, is there any truth to the service and the tale of Fraser’s character? Is a rental family a real service? Yes, a rental family service was first offered in Japan in the 1990s. Better known …

Waste Of The Day: Questions Arise Over .8 Billion In Rental Assistance

Waste Of The Day: Questions Arise Over $5.8 Billion In Rental Assistance

Published by Jenni Sidey

Authored by Jeremy Portnoy via RealClearInvestigations, Topline: The federal government is unable to verify that $5.8 billion in rental assistance paid to more than 204,000 recipients in 2024 was not fraudulent, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s latest annual report. Key facts: HUD spent $15.2 billion on project-based rental assistance in 2024, which pays local housing authorities or private businesses and nonprofits to build affordable housing. That included $4.3 billion in “questionable payments” to nearly 113,000 groups that may have been ineligible for funding, according to the financial report — a mistake rate of over 26%. HUD also gave $33.9 billion directly to families to help with rent payments, but the financial report claims $1.5 billion sent to almost 92,000 people was “questionable.” The estimates include $77 million paid to 29,715 dead people and $150.3 million paid to 9,472 people with invalid Social Security numbers. But most of the flagged payments — $5.2 billion — were sent to people or businesses with inactive registrations in the System for Award Management. The federal …

Rental Family Team Talks Shooting in Japan

Rental Family Team Talks Shooting in Japan

Published by Daniella Wilson

In the spring of 2024, the Rental Family team was preparing to shoot a scene at an apartment building in Tokyo when they got word they were no longer welcome. A neighbor had expressed concern about the commotion the shoot would cause, so the owner pulled out. In America, a property owner backing out of a location agreement can lead to legal action and is rare. But in Japan, there’s no legal recourse and canceling a location shoot with short notice is an accepted part of the culture. “They’re not willing to jeopardize the sense of community and the individual responsibility for each other,” explains producer Julia Lebedev. It’s the sort of thing that might make an American producer apoplectic, but Lebedev and her Sight Unseen partner Eddie Vaisman grew to understand and accept it. Says Vaisman: “There was always a backup to the backup. ‘In case this happens, we can go do this, and in case that happens, we can go do that.’” All that contingency planning paid off. The Searchlight-backed film, which stars …

Get to know Rocotito Archives, an inclusive rental fashion archive above a family’s decades-old medical scrubs shop

Get to know Rocotito Archives, an inclusive rental fashion archive above a family’s decades-old medical scrubs shop

Published by Sam Flores

Ronben wears a Vaquera top and Christian Louboutin X Maison Margiela heels. Above the Pasadena scrubs shop that has been run by the same family for decades, a fashion gold mine is growing. Take a narrow staircase above, and you’ll find Ronben, the Peruvian American stylist specializing in androgynous editorial looks, amassing their secondhand and designer collection into the archival dream that is Rocotito Archives. The door was wide open when I arrived, and Ronben was at the doorway smiling. They stood in tabis and a tailored collared shirt, their eyes framed by slick 2000s-era glasses, laughing as their overly eager curly-haired dog Duffy bounded beside them. Inside, Ronben’s mother presided over the medical wear shop that she and her family have worked in for 30 years, flanked by scrubs in Easter egg hues and playful prints. She immigrated to the U.S. from the small town of Chosica, Peru, a riverside community where Ronben was born and that she left in hopes of raising her child among more opportunities — and Ronben has certainly never …