Booking a flight and hotel package was easy and the price looked good. But when the airline changed our flight times, Expedia and the airline kept pointing at each other, and I spent over three hours on chat and phone trying to rebook. Eventually it got sorted, but next time I'll book directly with the airline and hotel. Middleman convenience isn't worth it when plans change.
I use Booking.com for almost every trip because the selection is huge and so many places offer free cancellation. That saved me when a flight got cancelled last spring. The Genius discounts are a nice bonus. The one bad experience was a property whose photos were clearly years old, and Booking's support took a few days to respond. Always read the most recent reviews before booking.
I run a small bakery and Canva is how I make all our menus, Instagram posts and flyers. The templates look professional and resizing a design for different platforms takes one click. The free plan is generous, but many of the best elements and the background remover are locked behind Pro. Some templates are so popular that I spot them everywhere, so I try to customise them heavily.
I use Notion for everything from personal to-do lists to our team's onboarding docs and project tracker. The databases are incredibly flexible once you get the hang of them, and the templates save a lot of setup time. There's a learning curve at first, and it can get slow with very large pages, but nothing else I've tried comes close for keeping everything in one place.
We sold our condo through Redfin and the lower listing fee saved us several thousand compared to a traditional agent. Our agent was responsive and the professional photos looked great. The downside is that agents handle a lot of clients, so getting a same-day showing scheduled was sometimes tricky. The app itself is excellent for tracking comparable sales in the area.
Great for browsing, take the Zestimate with a pinch of salt
Zillow was my go-to app while house hunting. The search filters and map view are excellent, and new listings show up fast. But the Zestimate on the house we bought was off by nearly $40k, and several 'available' rentals I enquired about had already been taken weeks earlier. Contacting a listing often connects you to a random partner agent rather than the actual listing agent. Useful for research, frustrating for action.
Booked a pasta-making class in Rome through Airbnb Experiences and it was fantastic. Small group, a lovely host cooking in her own kitchen, and we got to eat everything we made. Booking was simple and the reviews were accurate. Quality varies between hosts, though: a walking tour we booked later felt rushed and overcrowded. Read the recent reviews carefully.
Tried to get tickets to a big concert this year. Waited two hours in the online queue only for the 'standard' tickets to vanish and get replaced with dynamically priced ones at three times the face value. When I finally bought cheaper seats for another show, service and facility fees added almost 30% at checkout. The app works fine for scanning in at the venue, but buying is a miserable experience.
Ordered a custom engraved cutting board for my parents' anniversary, and the seller messaged me a proof before making it. It arrived beautifully packed with a handwritten note. Prices are higher than mass-produced alternatives, but you're paying for something unique and supporting small makers. Just check the processing time, since custom items can take a couple of weeks.
Unbeatable convenience, watch out for sketchy sellers
Hard to beat for speed and returns. Most things arrive next day and returning something is as easy as dropping it at a local store. The catch is third-party sellers. I've had a 'brand-name' phone case turn out to be an obvious knock-off, and lots of products have suspiciously glowing reviews. I now check who the seller is before buying anything that matters.
We live out in the countryside where the only option used to be painfully slow DSL. Starlink took ten minutes to set up and we now get speeds good enough for video calls and streaming on several devices at once. It drops briefly in heavy storms, and the dish hardware wasn't cheap, but compared to what we had before it's night and day.
Switched to T-Mobile for the 5G coverage and it's been fast in the city, though signal drops inside some buildings. The perks like streaming subscriptions and in-flight Wi-Fi are nice. My main complaint is billing. Promotional credits took two months to show up, and I had to call twice to get a charge removed for a feature I never added. Decent network, but check your bill every month.
I've ordered from Wayfair a few times. The selection is enormous and prices are often good. But my last order, a dining table, arrived with a cracked leg, and getting it sorted took weeks of back-and-forth with photos and chat agents. The quality varies a lot depending on which supplier the item comes from, and product photos can be misleading. I'd only buy small things there now.
Furnished most of my flat from IKEA and for the price it's hard to beat. The bookcases and kitchen units have held up well for four years now. Assembly is time-consuming, though, and one wardrobe arrived with a missing bag of screws, which meant a second trip to the store. Delivery slots also book up fast. Still my first stop for anything functional.
I signed up through Hims for a hair loss treatment. The online questionnaire and approval were quick, and the medication arrives discreetly every month. The convenience is real. But the consultation felt very light, more of a form than a conversation, and the monthly price is noticeably higher than getting a generic prescription from my regular doctor. Cancelling also took more clicks than it should.
Convenient care, membership fee is worth it for me
I joined One Medical mainly for the convenience, and it delivers on that. I can usually book a same-day or next-day video visit, and messaging my doctor through the app beats calling a front desk. The clinics are clean and appointments actually start on time. The annual fee is an extra cost on top of insurance, and my favourite doctor left, so I had to start over with someone new, but I'd still recommend it.
Two orders in a row arrived with items missing. The first time the refund came through automatically, but the second time the app only offered a credit for part of it, and there was no way to talk to an actual person, just the same canned responses. On top of that, the fees and 'service charges' often add 30–40% to the menu price. I've gone back to ordering directly from restaurants where I can.
Domino's is my default late-night order because the app is easy and the tracker is genuinely accurate. Deals are good if you order two or more pizzas. Quality depends a lot on the branch, though. My local one is fine, but the one near work regularly sends pizzas with toppings slid to one side. It does the job, but I wouldn't call it great pizza.
The designs are always on trend and the stores are fun to browse, but I'm increasingly disappointed with quality. A knit jumper pilled after three washes and a pair of trousers lost a button within a month. Sizing is inconsistent between items, so I end up returning a lot, and they now charge for online returns by mail. I still buy the occasional statement piece, but not basics anymore.
Sephora is where I go to try something new because the range is massive and the free samples at checkout let me test before committing. Returns have always been painless, even on opened products. The rewards points add up if you shop regularly. Online orders are sometimes slow to ship during big sales events, and popular items sell out fast, but overall a reliable place to shop.
Over the years I've bought maybe ten Anker products: power banks, wall chargers, a USB-C hub. Everything has held up well. When one of my cables frayed inside the warranty period, they replaced it after a quick email with a photo. Not the cheapest option, but I've stopped buying random no-name chargers because these just work.
Switched to a Galaxy S-series phone last year and the screen and camera are excellent, especially for night shots. Battery easily gets me through a day. I like that they now promise years of software updates. What bugs me is the pile of preinstalled Samsung apps that duplicate Google's, and some can't be removed. Trade-in through their site was easy, though the value they offered was lower than I'd hoped.
I'm on a 400+ day streak learning Spanish, so Duolingo clearly works for keeping me consistent. The lessons are quick enough to fit in a coffee break and the streak keeps me coming back. My vocabulary and reading have improved a lot. Speaking, though, is still weak after all this time, and the free version pushes ads and upgrade prompts hard. Great as a daily habit alongside other practice, not as your only way to learn.
I did the Google Data Analytics certificate on Coursera while working full-time, and it was genuinely well structured. Short videos, practical exercises, and a capstone project I could actually show employers. Being able to pause my subscription during a busy month helped a lot. Some peer-graded assignments got feedback that was a bit random, but overall it's worth every penny. I landed a junior analyst role about four months after finishing.
My Model 3 is honestly the most fun car I've owned. Instant acceleration, over-the-air updates, and road trips on the Supercharger network are painless. Ownership has its frustrations, though. When a door handle and later a window seal needed fixing, the earliest service appointment was over two weeks out, and communication only happens through the app. Build quality on mine had a few panel gaps too. Great car to drive, but go in with realistic expectations about service.
Easiest car purchase I've made, paperwork was slow
Bought a used SUV through Carvana after hating the dealership experience last time. Browsing, financing and trading in my old car all happened on my phone in one evening, and the 360° photos actually showed the small scratches honestly. Delivery came on the promised day. The only headache was the title and registration paperwork, which took weeks longer than expected and needed a temporary tag extension. The car itself has been great.
I've been using Upwork for quite some time now, and it's been really helpful whenever I need to find freelancers for different projects.
What I like most is the flexibility it offers. You can find people with different skill sets, compare their experience, and connect with someone who fits your requirements and budget.
Of course, finding the right person sometimes takes a bit of effort, but overall, it's made hiring for short-term projects much easier. Definitely a useful platform, especially if you're running a business and need reliable talent without going through a lengthy hiring process.
I've ordered logos, some voiceover work and a couple of website fixes. When you find a good seller it's fast and good value, and my voiceover guy has been brilliant. My first logo order was clearly a template with my name dropped in, though, and getting revisions was like pulling teeth. The service fee added at checkout also stings a bit. Read the reviews carefully and message sellers before ordering.
I send money home to family every month and switched to Wise after getting tired of my bank's hidden fees. The app shows the exact fee and exchange rate upfront, and most transfers arrive within a few hours. I also keep a balance in euros for trips, which saves a lot on card fees. Verifying my ID took a day at the start, but it's been smooth ever since.
I've used Revolut for a couple of years, mostly for travelling and paying in other currencies. The exchange rates are good, the card freezes instantly from the app, and spending notifications pop up right away, which I like. Splitting bills with friends is easy too. The one real downside is customer support. When a transfer got held for a security check, I spent a few days going back and forth in the in-app chat before it was sorted. For everyday spending abroad it's brilliant, but I wouldn't rely on it as my only bank account.