| Finding home with The Hospitality Club |
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A fast-shrinking travel budget is not ideal but it leads to creative fixes, such as turning to The Hospitality Club, a website listing fellow travel enthusiasts willing to lend you their couch for the night or take you out for a meal. At first thought this concept seemed whacky. Why would anyone trust a total stranger from another country and allow them to sleep in their homes? Yet I had no difficulty finding hosts in Amsterdam and Barcelona when backpacking in Europe recently. The first step was creating an online profile at the website www.hospitalityclub.org . A fast-shrinking travel budget is not ideal but it leads to creative fixes, such as turning to The Hospitality Club, a website listing fellow travel enthusiasts willing to lend you their couch for the night or take you out for a meal. At first thought this concept seemed whacky. Why would anyone trust a total stranger from another country and allow them to sleep in their homes? Yet I had no difficulty finding hosts in Amsterdam and Barcelona when backpacking in Europe recently. The first step was creating an online profile at the website www.hospitalityclub.org. Millions of hosts tell you more about themselves via their online profiles on this website and share their travel plans with others who might be able to assist them. Hosts offer you either a place to sleep, take you for coffee or show you around town. You should at least be willing to do any of these for a stranger who visits your home city. The advantage is that persons you host can rate your trustworthiness and per-sonality online. So when you contact someone they can check out your profile and de-cide whether you're host-worthy. Or at least interesting. Be prepared though for reject replies. It was summer in Europe when I was traveling and a good few mails came back with a, “No, sorry, I’m off to the coast” or “I already have friends sleeping on the couch”. The network can hook you up with information about budget accommodation where there's no host available. My host in Amsterdam, the former lawyer who turned his back on a delusional career path, Mathijs, has a profile embellished with lists of countries that he’d traveled to. (He's currently living in China; his latest e-mail update detailed.) The comments from his previous guests were all positive recommendations. I was glad. I had found a reliable host. A second host in Amsterdam also offered accommodation and although I didn’t stay with him we hit the Red Light District one evening. It's great to chill with a local and find spots that aren’t as blatantly touristy as the guidebible's suggested Things You Have To See Before You Leave. Mathijs was also a pro at hosting Hospitality Club members. He e-mailed me directions to his place from the nearest train station; however the turn-left-then-right thing left me a little lost at almost 12am in Amsterdam. When I finally reached the sign "Mathijs van B" next to a doorbell I took out my camera and snapped that momentous achievement. Mathijs talked a lot about his future travel plans and fascination with Asia. While we shared our last pizza – on the couch where so many guests had slept before my arrival – two more travelers showed up at his doorstep. It was bon voyage to the next city, Bar-celona. In the warmly friendly and infectiously joyful Barcelona I found Alexis, a Mexican stu-dent, who offered to host me for three nights. For my last night I stayed with Samuel, a Spanish guy working in the science field, as Alexis had new arrivals. Alexis showed me where to get the local food at the local price. (One advantage of a student host.) Best of all, I felt like I had met a friend. Barcelona is a hot tourist destina-tion during Europe’s summer and Alexis was inundated with requests for a home for a night or two. He couldn’t help everyone but didn’t mind meeting up with other club members at the Mar Bella shores. That’s also how I met other Hospitality Club loyalists. One of the club members who joined us at the beach was Stefan who traveled from the south of France with a friend. He’s currently teaching in India. Monica, a Spaniard, greeted us wearing nothing but a bikini bottom. (Nudity is legal in Spain.) We devoured tapas in town at night after a long laze in the sun. It felt like the greatest way to meet new friends. Even though I didn’t need a host in Switzerland I made plans to meet an accountant from Brussels. We ended up checking out some belly dancing at a Moroccan restaurant and while I spoke Afrikaans he replied in Flemish. We found it bizarre that our mother tongues were clearly understandable to each other. By the time I ascended Europe for South Africa I was getting e-mails from Germany, England and India. It was time to spread some Cape Town hospitality. |