What do you think?
Rate this book
The Upgrade: A Cautionary Tale of a Life without Reservations
The incredible true story of living as a modern-day nomad.Bored, broke and struggling to survive in one of the most expensive cities on earth, Paul Carr realises that it would actually be cheaper to live in a hotel in Manhattan than in his one-bedroom London flat. Inspired by that possibility, he decides to sell most of his possessions, abandon his old life and spend a year living entirely without commitments.Thanks to Paul's highly developed blagging skills, what begins as a one-year experiment soon becomes a permanent lifestyle - a life lived in luxury hotels and mountain-top villas. A life of fast cars, Hollywood actresses and Icelandic rock stars. And, most bizarrely of all, a life that still costs less than surviving on cold pizza in London. Yet, as word of Paul's exploits starts to spread - first online, then through a newspaper column and a book deal - he finds himself forced to up the stakes in order to keep things interesting. With his behaviour spiralling to dangerous levels, he is forced to ask the is there such a thing as too much freedom
294 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
15 people are currently reading
216 people want to read
About the author
Paul Bradley Carr
13 books271 followersPaul Bradley Carr is a journalist and author. He has written three memoirs about his adventures in and around Silicon Valley. He was the Silicon Valley columnist for The Guardian, senior editor at TechCrunch, cofounder of PandoDaily, and founder and editor-in-chief of the infamous NSFWCORP in Las Vegas. His writing has also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, HuffPost, National Geographic, and much more. He lives in Palm Springs with his family and is the co-owner of The Best Bookstore in Palm Springs.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
September 14, 2011
A tedious, bragging, self-indulgent book. Can't believe I actually finished it, but only because I hate not finishing books.
October 3, 2011
I really didn't find the author as amusing as he finds himself.
August 27, 2019
Extremely sexist but surprisingly entertaining, and the author admits to being 'occasionally misogynistic' so at least he's aware of his sexism.
August 1, 2011
It's less a book about how he manages to live in hotels year-round, and more a tale of his drunken adventures. It kept me entertained though :) It gets a bit more serious in the end of the book.
March 17, 2012
Another guy who drinks too much and talks a lot about it. Mildly entertaining, but honestly I was more interested in a bunch of cool hotel info than more crap about drinking with little girls.
October 23, 2013
3.5 stars - I was intrigued by this book as I love to read about hotel and restaurant experiences and thought Paul Carr's saga of giving up his London apartment to live in hotels for a year (citing would actually be cheaper) would be interesting. For the most part it was when he related his experiences but the constant drinking and carousing got a little tiresome and I can't imagine how he came out of it alive.
All in all it was a quick and fun read and he's actually a fairly good writer. Now I'm anxious to read his account of spending a month in 30 different Las Vegas hotels.
This might be enjoyable for anyone who likes Max Tucker (I HOPE THEY SERVE BEER IN HELL) although it's not quite as gross and profane, which might be a good thing--or bad, depending on your POV.
Obtained as an e-book via the library's Library2Go site.
All in all it was a quick and fun read and he's actually a fairly good writer. Now I'm anxious to read his account of spending a month in 30 different Las Vegas hotels.
This might be enjoyable for anyone who likes Max Tucker (I HOPE THEY SERVE BEER IN HELL) although it's not quite as gross and profane, which might be a good thing--or bad, depending on your POV.
Obtained as an e-book via the library's Library2Go site.
July 17, 2021
In the time between this and my last review I have read several other books, but this was finished today and it felt fitting to write it while it is fresh in my mind. While I’m still fuming. This “how-to” guide to living out of hotels is really just the charting of a man’s descent into alcoholism, driven solely by ego and an unhealthy obsession with Hunter S. Thompson (I wonder who Carr models himself off; subtle). He is ever so pleased with his own jokes, writes like every other Gen X white man with ~something to say~ and is constantly surrounded by rich friends that whisk him to places in fast cars that he just has to talk about. I picked up this book in the hopes it would help me with my un/planned trip to America (hopefully in September) and all I really learnt is that when travelling, it helps to have money, privilege and a penis. Groundbreaking.
The situations he gets into all seep with opportunities that are not universal: he is a writer and journalist so doesn’t need to be tied down, his budget was propped up by the golden exchange rate of pre-credit crunch America and again the wealthy friends to lean on play a key role. All of this wrapped up in the hard-drinking bravado of a man just itching to tell you about the time he thought a submarine captain was wearing the uniform just to pick up girls, how a single solid (if predictable) pun got him invited to a toga party and how he was fast to jump on the Twitter bandwagon (before anyone else of course). What really gets me with this book is how dated it is, set in 2008, even the absence of Airbnb weighs the book down with a weird film of nostalgia that is hard to shake.
To be fair to him, Carr admits this is not really a how-to guide for the masses, more that there are small tips and general ideas that can be applied to your own life. But contrasting his life to my own right now makes it quite hard to find the applicability. And god is he a bit of an arse even when he is admitting his oversights.
In all this book is an interesting read, though I must admit I kept going mainly to see if he would get any kind of comeuppance, almost funny if it wasn’t so darn privileged. You can get the same kind of white male shenanigans for the actual Hunter S. Thompson and at least then you won’t have to hear about his blog...
The situations he gets into all seep with opportunities that are not universal: he is a writer and journalist so doesn’t need to be tied down, his budget was propped up by the golden exchange rate of pre-credit crunch America and again the wealthy friends to lean on play a key role. All of this wrapped up in the hard-drinking bravado of a man just itching to tell you about the time he thought a submarine captain was wearing the uniform just to pick up girls, how a single solid (if predictable) pun got him invited to a toga party and how he was fast to jump on the Twitter bandwagon (before anyone else of course). What really gets me with this book is how dated it is, set in 2008, even the absence of Airbnb weighs the book down with a weird film of nostalgia that is hard to shake.
To be fair to him, Carr admits this is not really a how-to guide for the masses, more that there are small tips and general ideas that can be applied to your own life. But contrasting his life to my own right now makes it quite hard to find the applicability. And god is he a bit of an arse even when he is admitting his oversights.
In all this book is an interesting read, though I must admit I kept going mainly to see if he would get any kind of comeuppance, almost funny if it wasn’t so darn privileged. You can get the same kind of white male shenanigans for the actual Hunter S. Thompson and at least then you won’t have to hear about his blog...
December 23, 2020
The book was OK but the author, not so much. A bored, 20-something who didn't want to grow up so he found a way to take a seriously extended vacation. He's disdainful of people in general, and women especially, when he doesn't have much to show for himself. You have to wonder how much of the book is actually true and how much is made up (probably a lot). It's hard for me to DNF a book and I kept thinking he would redeem himself in the end so I finished it; but sadly, this one wasn't worth the time it took to read it.
January 10, 2021
I really enjoyed the book, it was a funny, light yet entertaining read with a few good laughs along the way. Mr Carr reminded me a little of P J O'Rourke and off course a light version of Hunter S. Thomson. Interesting window on the dawn of the social media age - imagine a PR person unaware of Twitter?! Will look out for more of his work.
September 7, 2017
Easy read, can see it being made into a film.
August 16, 2019
Good:
* Tips and tricks that may net lower hotel prices.
Bad:
* Obnoxious protagonist.
* Tips and tricks that may net lower hotel prices.
Bad:
* Obnoxious protagonist.
July 9, 2021
guy lives in hotels and goes crazy
April 12, 2013
Paul Carr was a fuckup. He left a career as a journalist with The Guardian to start his own multimillion dollar publishing company, abandoned it to launch a web startup under the delusion of becoming “the next Mark Zuckerberg”, got arrested and failed in many relationships because of an alcohol problem. With mounting bills and his life going off the rails, Carr started a journey that has made him a legend in tech journalism.
The Upgrade: A Cautionary Tale of Life Without Reservations is Paul Carr’s story of how he realised that it would be cheaper for him to live exclusively in hotels for a whole year, compared to renting a place in London at £1100 a month. He makes a sane argument: living in a hotel comes with all bills included, no council taxes, an easy choice to shift residence whenever you feel like, and deeply discounted rates when staying at a hotel for months. In a way, he provides an insider look into the hotel industry – as his parents were both career hoteliers, and he spent much of his childhood living in hotels.
Thus begins a wild ride with Carr living in hotels with personal butlers, countless sexual encounters, train journeys across America, hanging out with Icelandic rockers, getting chased by Spanish drug dealers, blagging his way into the launch party of the Hollywood film 21 – and then summarily proceeding to insult Kate Bosworth by assuming she was a cocktail waitress and calling Clive Owen’s films shit in front of him, attending a party of hairdressers dressed only in bedsheets (claiming that he was the proprietor of “British Hairways”), thousand-mile booty calls, going on a press junket to Bognor Regis with chavs dressed as Tinkerbell…it’s all very Hunter S. Thompson, minus the drug-fuelled hallucinations. His lifestyle as a global nomad living wherever he can snap up the cheapest hotels affords him opportunities for such outrageous stories.
Loads of drunken stories themselves would not make this book stand out though; everyone has their own ‘crazy’ drunken stories. For starters, Carr’s narrative style is incredibly funny as well as outrageously frank. (“Another thing I’m not very good at is having sex with someone, knowing that their dead mother is in my bedside cupboard,” he says, of a disappointing sexual performance.) He also propounds a philosophy of only owning as much possessions as one can fit into a single bag – something that I was so enamoured by that I have adopted it in my life.
What makes his book truly stand is that it’s part travelogue, part personal journey of epiphany and self-discovery. As you read along the book, you find him transforming from an arrogant self-centred prick who does not care about his friends – as long as his stories of drunken romps get him attention – to a reformed man who realises what things are truly important in life. As someone with his own behavioural issues, I found Paul Carr’s story to be deeply inspiring to get my own life in order.
And if you do enjoy The Upgrade, I recommend his first book Bringing Nothing To The Party: The True Confessions of a New Media Whore too. It’s a fascinating look into the London journalism circle, publishing companies, and tech startups.
The Upgrade: A Cautionary Tale of Life Without Reservations is Paul Carr’s story of how he realised that it would be cheaper for him to live exclusively in hotels for a whole year, compared to renting a place in London at £1100 a month. He makes a sane argument: living in a hotel comes with all bills included, no council taxes, an easy choice to shift residence whenever you feel like, and deeply discounted rates when staying at a hotel for months. In a way, he provides an insider look into the hotel industry – as his parents were both career hoteliers, and he spent much of his childhood living in hotels.
Thus begins a wild ride with Carr living in hotels with personal butlers, countless sexual encounters, train journeys across America, hanging out with Icelandic rockers, getting chased by Spanish drug dealers, blagging his way into the launch party of the Hollywood film 21 – and then summarily proceeding to insult Kate Bosworth by assuming she was a cocktail waitress and calling Clive Owen’s films shit in front of him, attending a party of hairdressers dressed only in bedsheets (claiming that he was the proprietor of “British Hairways”), thousand-mile booty calls, going on a press junket to Bognor Regis with chavs dressed as Tinkerbell…it’s all very Hunter S. Thompson, minus the drug-fuelled hallucinations. His lifestyle as a global nomad living wherever he can snap up the cheapest hotels affords him opportunities for such outrageous stories.
Loads of drunken stories themselves would not make this book stand out though; everyone has their own ‘crazy’ drunken stories. For starters, Carr’s narrative style is incredibly funny as well as outrageously frank. (“Another thing I’m not very good at is having sex with someone, knowing that their dead mother is in my bedside cupboard,” he says, of a disappointing sexual performance.) He also propounds a philosophy of only owning as much possessions as one can fit into a single bag – something that I was so enamoured by that I have adopted it in my life.
What makes his book truly stand is that it’s part travelogue, part personal journey of epiphany and self-discovery. As you read along the book, you find him transforming from an arrogant self-centred prick who does not care about his friends – as long as his stories of drunken romps get him attention – to a reformed man who realises what things are truly important in life. As someone with his own behavioural issues, I found Paul Carr’s story to be deeply inspiring to get my own life in order.
And if you do enjoy The Upgrade, I recommend his first book Bringing Nothing To The Party: The True Confessions of a New Media Whore too. It’s a fascinating look into the London journalism circle, publishing companies, and tech startups.
June 20, 2013
The Upgrade is the follow up to Paul Carr’s Bringing Nothing to the Party, compared to which I found it to be a hard slog. The book essentially continues Carr’s autobiographical tale, picking up where the previous volume left off. Carr reaches the realisation that rental prices in London are exceptionally high, and that he could likely live in hotels for less. And so, he commits himself to a nomadic lifestyle in which he travels the world living in hotels. This book is advertised as his guide to following in those footsteps.
Of course, few people have a job or lifestyle that would be conducive to travelling the world on a whim. Carr himself acknowledges this in the book, pointing out that most other self-help books also offer solutions that work only within the context of the author’s life. And yet, Carr doesn’t really offer much insight, either. His oft-repeated guide to getting cheap rates in a hotel comes down to three points:
1. Claim to be a journalist and ask for the uber-secret “media rate”, even if this involves going via the hotel’s PR firm.
2. Stay for a long time – preferably over a month – and negotiate a long-stay discount.
3. Travel out of season, and charge your friends to visit you.
If the existence of any of these three methods of obtaining cheap hotel stays comes as a surprise, then perhaps you’ll enjoy this book more than me. It’s also worth pointing out that Paul’s travels “around the world” consist almost exclusively of staying in a handful of cities in the US, and a handful of villages in Europe.
So, discounting the useless self-help angle, we’re left with an autobiographical tale. Unfortunately, the story is one of an increasingly unlikeable self-obsessed character becoming an alcoholic and spending every night getting drunk, to the extent that he cannot remember his actions the following morning. Imagine the following sequence on a loop:
1. Paul goes to a party full of beautiful women and gets blind drunk.
2. Paul wakes up (often naked and in public) and cannot remember the previous night.
3. Paul discovers that he has offended someone with his drunken behaviour.
4. Paul attempts to make amends – with “hilarious” consequences!
This cycle becomes rapidly very dull indeed.
Part of the attraction of Bringing Nothing to the Party was getting the inside story on the development of some of the dotcom bubble’s hottest properties. Upgrade has none of this, as Paul writes almost exclusively about his own flagging career as a freelance writer and blogger. This career does not make for interesting reading.
As it stands, however, the surprising ending and occasional half-decent pun are not sufficient counterbalance to improve an otherwise poor volume. In essence, this book recounts a dull, repetitive tale with little to say, and few insights to offer.
Of course, few people have a job or lifestyle that would be conducive to travelling the world on a whim. Carr himself acknowledges this in the book, pointing out that most other self-help books also offer solutions that work only within the context of the author’s life. And yet, Carr doesn’t really offer much insight, either. His oft-repeated guide to getting cheap rates in a hotel comes down to three points:
1. Claim to be a journalist and ask for the uber-secret “media rate”, even if this involves going via the hotel’s PR firm.
2. Stay for a long time – preferably over a month – and negotiate a long-stay discount.
3. Travel out of season, and charge your friends to visit you.
If the existence of any of these three methods of obtaining cheap hotel stays comes as a surprise, then perhaps you’ll enjoy this book more than me. It’s also worth pointing out that Paul’s travels “around the world” consist almost exclusively of staying in a handful of cities in the US, and a handful of villages in Europe.
So, discounting the useless self-help angle, we’re left with an autobiographical tale. Unfortunately, the story is one of an increasingly unlikeable self-obsessed character becoming an alcoholic and spending every night getting drunk, to the extent that he cannot remember his actions the following morning. Imagine the following sequence on a loop:
1. Paul goes to a party full of beautiful women and gets blind drunk.
2. Paul wakes up (often naked and in public) and cannot remember the previous night.
3. Paul discovers that he has offended someone with his drunken behaviour.
4. Paul attempts to make amends – with “hilarious” consequences!
This cycle becomes rapidly very dull indeed.
Part of the attraction of Bringing Nothing to the Party was getting the inside story on the development of some of the dotcom bubble’s hottest properties. Upgrade has none of this, as Paul writes almost exclusively about his own flagging career as a freelance writer and blogger. This career does not make for interesting reading.
As it stands, however, the surprising ending and occasional half-decent pun are not sufficient counterbalance to improve an otherwise poor volume. In essence, this book recounts a dull, repetitive tale with little to say, and few insights to offer.
July 20, 2011
I might be slightly partial to the author, since I found his month-long blog series about staying in a different hotel in Las Vegas every day to be quite fascinating and brutally funny. I was expecting a lot of the same out of this book, to be honest, just...longer, and that's indeed what I got, though with much more depth and a surprisingly moving turn in the last quarter or so of the book.
The whole idea of living exclusively in hotels and relinquishing nearly all material possessions seems impossible to me, and Carr admits that it's not possible for everybody to do--or even sustain, in many cases--this lifestyle, due to differences in work demands (being a writer, he can work pretty much from anywhere), personal needs, etc. Carr does include a lot of tips in how it's possible to live this way for awhile, though most of the book is about his life while he is living in hotels, not about actually the experience of living in hotels. If anything, it's a device to have him discuss some wry observations of tourists, differences between Brits and Americans, hotel etiquette, etc., etc., not to mention his increasing troubles with alcohol.
Overall, this was a very entertaining, and surprisingly heartwarming book, and provided a lot richer satisfaction as a reader than what I was expecting to get out of it. It doesn't knock your socks off, but it's a solid look into the life of a writer who undertakes a crazy experiment.
The whole idea of living exclusively in hotels and relinquishing nearly all material possessions seems impossible to me, and Carr admits that it's not possible for everybody to do--or even sustain, in many cases--this lifestyle, due to differences in work demands (being a writer, he can work pretty much from anywhere), personal needs, etc. Carr does include a lot of tips in how it's possible to live this way for awhile, though most of the book is about his life while he is living in hotels, not about actually the experience of living in hotels. If anything, it's a device to have him discuss some wry observations of tourists, differences between Brits and Americans, hotel etiquette, etc., etc., not to mention his increasing troubles with alcohol.
Overall, this was a very entertaining, and surprisingly heartwarming book, and provided a lot richer satisfaction as a reader than what I was expecting to get out of it. It doesn't knock your socks off, but it's a solid look into the life of a writer who undertakes a crazy experiment.
September 8, 2013
Another quick read. This is a book I picked up because it was in the same section as No Touch Monkey!: And Other Travel Lessons Learned Too Late (which I didn't just put on hold). I thought I would like a story about living in luxury hotels after the backpacker book.
That's not exactly what this book was, though. I mean, there was that. There was about how to get free stuff if you're a rich, white, middle-class English guy with a law degree. But if, partway through the book, you start to get uncomfortable with the amount of drinking going on, you will be relieved to know he eventually realizes that he is going overboard. (Of course, either he started drinking again, or got tired of paying for the website he says to check? I was curious enough to look.)
That's not exactly what this book was, though. I mean, there was that. There was about how to get free stuff if you're a rich, white, middle-class English guy with a law degree. But if, partway through the book, you start to get uncomfortable with the amount of drinking going on, you will be relieved to know he eventually realizes that he is going overboard. (Of course, either he started drinking again, or got tired of paying for the website he says to check? I was curious enough to look.)
March 9, 2013
I'm not sure what I expected from this book. I think I expected inspiration and perhaps some perspective on myself, both of which I got. The book was a strong reminder to optimize life for happiness, and perhaps even ridiculousness, with a few hints and tips as to how to get a better hotel rate, some honest, some not.
The author came across as candid -- despite the book being so replete with confessions of lying, or "blagging" -- for which I am grateful. This level of candor is rare, especially when the tale includes egregious mistakes. It's was a unique glimpse into someone else's life, although it does become a little repetitive in the middle, with the same repetitive stories of blackout drunkenness. The middle, however, is a very necessary component of the book and sets up the ending quite nicely.
This book deserves a second read.
The author came across as candid -- despite the book being so replete with confessions of lying, or "blagging" -- for which I am grateful. This level of candor is rare, especially when the tale includes egregious mistakes. It's was a unique glimpse into someone else's life, although it does become a little repetitive in the middle, with the same repetitive stories of blackout drunkenness. The middle, however, is a very necessary component of the book and sets up the ending quite nicely.
This book deserves a second read.
August 22, 2011
This book was suggested to me by a good friend and I am so glad I picked it up. Paul gives you a window into his life of the beginning years of his nomad-living experience. Cover-to-cover wit keeps you hooked. The whole story is hilarious, informative, TMI, and absolutely brilliant. It's of course entertaining to see what he is capable of doing to keep things interesting (especially with an alcohol problem) but I learned so much about traveling smart... this book will pay for itself with the money I save in the future thanks to The Upgrade. You will LOVE it!
December 8, 2014
This is the terrible (and hilarious) story of a terrible (and hilarious) man, his misadventures, and his growing realization of what's causing many of these adventures. I came across this book while reading about travel points, and I thought this was a book about travel hacking. It is...kind of (who knew the secret to finding affordable housing in SF?), but more than that it's the story of a guy's admission of alcoholism. And there is SO MUCH drinking in this book that I began to feel nauseated after a while.
It was funny enough, though, that I kept reading.
It was funny enough, though, that I kept reading.
October 3, 2011
I loved Bringing Nothing to the Party, and loved this book as well. It is both the style of writing and the topics that I like in these books. Even though this is the last book I started reading, it is also the first I finished in a long time.
I am happy that Paul will release a third book Bringing Something to the Party (hopefully soon)
I am happy that Paul will release a third book Bringing Something to the Party (hopefully soon)
July 4, 2012
Paul Carr has a ridiculous plan to abandon his pricy digs in London and save money by living as an expatriate in hotels around the world. A plan so ridiculous...it just might work.
The story is less about the mechanics of day to day living in hotels and more about how Paul's friends enable him in his bad habits and eventually save him from himself.
The story is less about the mechanics of day to day living in hotels and more about how Paul's friends enable him in his bad habits and eventually save him from himself.
August 23, 2012
Whatever the male version of Chick Lit is, this is it. A good casual summer read, that about 2/3rd of the way takes a twist I did not expect. The various anecdotes were interesting and funny to me, although I think it could have been edited down a smidge.
March 27, 2013
This book started out with promise, but devolved into self-important navel gazing. It's hard to say what would happen if I met Paul Carr in person, but I'm leaning toward punching him in the back of the head.
December 7, 2013
Starts off really strong. Picked it up to just read a few pages, and before I knew it, I was half-way done. But eventually, reading about him blacking out and waking up in unfortunate scenarios starts to get sad and a tad boring. Glad he figured that out for himself.
January 30, 2021
The book was humorous and written in such a way to capture my attention fully. However, the book seemed to be more about Paul's fantastical drunken escapades than his experience living and traveling around the world, which I found disappointing.
June 16, 2011
A great read. Well written. Interesting story. The fact it's all fact, no fiction makes it the great story it is.
July 26, 2011
It's not very deep book and yet it's fascinating enough to swallow in one evening. A little bit of "4-hour work week" (or maybe "Up in the Air"), a little bit of Tucker Max's books.
September 28, 2011
Entertaining diary about a man who drinks too much, doesn't know what he wants in life, yet manages to somehow hold on and find himself.
June 18, 2013
enjoyable if a bit self absorbed - full review here
http://0651frombrighton.blogspot.co.u...
http://0651frombrighton.blogspot.co.u...
July 14, 2012
Not a bad read. Could be better.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews