Trendsurfing: Travel-hosting networks (The Times)
By David Rowan
It's the new way to see the world, meet lots of interesting people, and then stay on their sofas for free - all in the spirit of broadening global understanding. Thanks to the social-networking power of the internet, tens of thousands of travellers are now offering hospitality to strangers on the understanding that they, too, may one day host guests of their own. It is a cash-free arrangement that relies entirely on trust - yet it is proving so successful that its appeal has spread far beyond backpackers to professionals and even couples with children.
The idea goes back to the 1940s, when a pacifist body called Servas first developed an international network of "hosts" who agreed to share their homes with foreign travellers. Today, with around 14,000 hosts in 130 countries, Servas still insists on interviewing new members in person, and, if they pass muster, sends them a paper directory of other members they can contact. It can be a slow process arranging a home-stay, and you still don't learn much about your hosts in advance.
Thankfully, the internet now offers far more immediate ways to network. Over the past few months, grass-roots accommodation exchanges have enjoyed extraordinary online growth, and all with broadening people's minds, rather than profit, as the goal. Whether you want to offer a bed or simply to borrow one, networks such as globalfreeloaders.com and the Couch Surfing Project (couchsurfing.com) let you search a global database for what's available, and afterwards to assess the experience. And just as feedback on eBay lets a trader decide who to trust, these social networks allow strangers in different continents to vet each other's reputations.
Couch Surfing was launched a year ago by Casey Fenton, a web consultant in Alaska, who needed somewhere to stay after he found a cheap flight to Iceland. Fenton emailed 1,500 students in Reykjavik, receiving several offers of sofas, before realising that a more formalised online exchange could "make the world a smaller place, where people feel they can trust people more often". Today, that exchange has more than 7,700 members in 125 countries, from Afghanistan to former Yugoslavia. They offer visitors anything from a hammock to a penthouse apartment, retaining full control over who visits and for how long.
Earlier this month, Paolo Massa, a doctoral student at the University of Trento in Italy, hosted his first guest, a 24-year-old Russian woman called Anna. He knew from her Couch Surfing profile - with photo attached - that Anna was a fan of Bertolucci and Nabokov, and that another member had vouched for her as "very imaginative, nice". After Anne left, Massa, 30, concluded that she was indeed "a lot of fun", although he did warn future hosts that "her Italian is less than beginners'".
Still, Massa remains convinced that such open-minded exchanges will make for "a better world". "Before hosting Anna, I asked myself questions such as: Why should I host this girl I don't know? Will she steal everything I have?," he says. The answer, he concludes, is the trust that comes through the recommendations of others who have themselves established a reputation within the community. Every user is linked to everyone else they have dealt with, and any comments made about them become visible to all.
It's an intriguing social experiement, which in Britain has already attracted soldiers, architects and lecturers keen to open their homes. And if you are thinking about your holiday plans - well, that low-budget trip to Rio or Rome just became a real possibility.
(The Times, February 26 2005)
It's the new way to see the world, meet lots of interesting people, and then stay on their sofas for free - all in the spirit of broadening global understanding. Thanks to the social-networking power of the internet, tens of thousands of travellers are now offering hospitality to strangers on the understanding that they, too, may one day host guests of their own. It is a cash-free arrangement that relies entirely on trust - yet it is proving so successful that its appeal has spread far beyond backpackers to professionals and even couples with children.
The idea goes back to the 1940s, when a pacifist body called Servas first developed an international network of "hosts" who agreed to share their homes with foreign travellers. Today, with around 14,000 hosts in 130 countries, Servas still insists on interviewing new members in person, and, if they pass muster, sends them a paper directory of other members they can contact. It can be a slow process arranging a home-stay, and you still don't learn much about your hosts in advance.
Thankfully, the internet now offers far more immediate ways to network. Over the past few months, grass-roots accommodation exchanges have enjoyed extraordinary online growth, and all with broadening people's minds, rather than profit, as the goal. Whether you want to offer a bed or simply to borrow one, networks such as globalfreeloaders.com and the Couch Surfing Project (couchsurfing.com) let you search a global database for what's available, and afterwards to assess the experience. And just as feedback on eBay lets a trader decide who to trust, these social networks allow strangers in different continents to vet each other's reputations.
Couch Surfing was launched a year ago by Casey Fenton, a web consultant in Alaska, who needed somewhere to stay after he found a cheap flight to Iceland. Fenton emailed 1,500 students in Reykjavik, receiving several offers of sofas, before realising that a more formalised online exchange could "make the world a smaller place, where people feel they can trust people more often". Today, that exchange has more than 7,700 members in 125 countries, from Afghanistan to former Yugoslavia. They offer visitors anything from a hammock to a penthouse apartment, retaining full control over who visits and for how long.
Earlier this month, Paolo Massa, a doctoral student at the University of Trento in Italy, hosted his first guest, a 24-year-old Russian woman called Anna. He knew from her Couch Surfing profile - with photo attached - that Anna was a fan of Bertolucci and Nabokov, and that another member had vouched for her as "very imaginative, nice". After Anne left, Massa, 30, concluded that she was indeed "a lot of fun", although he did warn future hosts that "her Italian is less than beginners'".
Still, Massa remains convinced that such open-minded exchanges will make for "a better world". "Before hosting Anna, I asked myself questions such as: Why should I host this girl I don't know? Will she steal everything I have?," he says. The answer, he concludes, is the trust that comes through the recommendations of others who have themselves established a reputation within the community. Every user is linked to everyone else they have dealt with, and any comments made about them become visible to all.
It's an intriguing social experiement, which in Britain has already attracted soldiers, architects and lecturers keen to open their homes. And if you are thinking about your holiday plans - well, that low-budget trip to Rio or Rome just became a real possibility.
(The Times, February 26 2005)
posted by David Rowan at Saturday, February 26, 2005
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