Hacker News Reader

Comment by woeh | Hacker News Reader

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.

View on HN

> I am currently staying in an AirBnB of a 60 floor tower.

ICE Condominiums Tower I, Toronto?[1]

> elevators need a proper check to see if they are full, and if so skip floors.

Elevator load measurement is an option you can buy.[2] Somebody didn't. 60 stories with three elevators is underserved, and needs all the control help it can get.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICE_Condominiums

[2] https://elevatormotors.com/load-weighing-devices/

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?

I am of course just speculating (and I had a lot of waiting time to think about this), but there are a lot of people with a lot of luggage constantly going in and out. It makes the elevators be full faster (perhaps there is a weight based sensor to determine if the elevator is full, and the luggage tricks the system into thinking the elevator is not full yet, because a piece of luggage is lighter than a person but sometimes takes up more floor space than a person). Furthermore, people with luggage take longer to get in and out.

It's a tower in Kuala Lumpur btw. Since it is rather hot here and the elevators are not airconditioned, it's extra uncomfortable.

TIL that there are countries where the building code doesn't enforce the minimum number of elevators. In Russia it's one for buildings taller than 5 floors, two for taller than 9, and I believe three for taller than 16 (every 20-something-floor building I've ever been to had at least three). But we don't have many skyscrapers so I'm not sure how it works for those.

Amusing anecdotes and musings about your stay (well, amusing to read, probably not to live).

Since you’ve got a bunch of enforced idle time, maybe see if you can find the architect firm and see if you can get the backstory? Why three elevators in a 60 floor building? Just low level sadism, or what?

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.

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.

> 60 floor tower, and the three elevator shafts

I don't think I've ever seen a 20-story building with less than 4 elevators at a minimum.

I've worked in low-rise office buildings with no less than 10 elevators.

Seems like that gross deficiency should have been stopped at the city inspector's office before plans were approved.

I live in a 20 stories building with only two elevators, 4 3-bedrooms apartments per floor. And I don’t think I ever had to wait more than a couple minutes.

A 60 floor Airbnb tower? 2026 is wild.

Or, the building / owners corp / code / city could simply ban short stay accommodation where it was never attended.

I would not want to be in that building if an evacuation alarm sounded.

> I would not want to be in that building if an evacuation alarm sounded.

You shouldn't be taking the elevator if you heard an evacuation alarm, but to be sure, you don't want to be an any 60-story building when you hear that alarm.

Yes, I realise this.

But if the lifts aren’t coping with the foot traffic during normal operation, I’d also not want to have to use stairs.

I would not want to be in that building if an evacuation alarm sounded.

You are not supposed to use the elevator in emergencies.

No! Surely not? Where did you read that?

> I would not want to be in that building if an evacuation alarm sounded.

why short term/long term stay would matter here?

Because short term stays put more load on the building systems, like the lifts, than perhaps the building was designed for.

Regular tenants don’t come and go at anywhere near the rate short stay guests do.

why it would matter during evacuation when everyone leaves?

(tourists would be more likely to be outside anyway, so actually it sounds like better case)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com