What a great idea: sign up to a network where you can offer people a place to spend the night for free and where you can find places yourself when you’re on the road. This concept goes all the way up to extended home-exchanges.
The last I heard about it was before the Internet—it was a tangential part of the zeen scene, being an alternative culture thing. We were part of one of the granddaddy networks, the Hospitality Exchange. Maybe one person called us but never did stop by. I suppose one would get more traffic if they lived in a destination-zone.
In googling this subject, I see that there’s nowadays a bit more segregation (surprise!) by lifestyle, activity, etc. So that the WarmShowers.org link above is meant for bike tourists who need a place to stay. There are other groups for many other interests. Such as WWOOF.org—for folks who want to visit (and work a bit) on organic farms.
These guys are still going: www.transitionsabroad.com. They were an early alternative travel mag that I swapped with back in the day.
I see that TA lists a few interesting options and terms, including this large network for mostly young people:
The following outfit is the successor of the early Exchanges: www.hospitalityclub.org/
The Homestay or Hospitality Exchange scene appears to be a highly developed—including what looks like many “lightweight” or newcomer players. There seems to be a bit of the “realtor” and timeshare flavor to many offerings, with lots of generic resort-like set-ups for “senior golfers who love to travel.” There’s also a lot of what looks like B&B action, with international Homestays being apparently more intensive than a B&B and frequently having a $100/day basis. But I think there are some networks still out there for free hosting of informal overnighters or for those who’d like to trade houses for awhile. I also see that House Swapping is now part of the “hot” real estate scene—with people doing it as a way to avoid taxes, capital gains, etc.—and it’s so highly revved up like every other part of the real estate world that lenders have to be notified of swaps, etc. That all really is NOT what I’m getting at here.
Here’s a link to the biggest home exchange service—not much OYB flavor, but certainly big and famous: www.homeexchange.com/.
It seems like this is a two-sided scene. It looks like the Establishment and their friends the Opportunists have seized onto this concept. But it also looks like there are chances for something authentic and roots-related. But I can’t quite tell yet how to sort them out. If you know of something good, please let us here at OYB know!
Here’s one example of what might be a “newstyle” network that I found: www.stay-swaps.com/
https://www.warmshowers.org/
