I hosted lots of couchsurfing type people, on I believe a pre-CS network in the same light, circa 2005. Can't remember the name. Later, I joined CS. There were some great characters that turned up in my house in Qingdao, China (right by the ferry-ride to Korea) .. global cycle-tourists, Japanese-American documenters of vanishing island dance traditions, and a schizophrenic East German woman. The latter was our last guest due to the difficulty of the experience. I never actually stayed with anyone else, only provided a room and sort of free tour guide services which is a big unmentioned portion of what these networks are/were.
I still get emails from CS though .. including one this morning from a Canadian who typically laments, in English: I have had a great trip so far but unfortunately have not got to meet and connect with many chinese people due to language barriers. Imagine that.
(Edit in reply to Michael below (out of posts): From the statistics at https://www.warmshowers.org/country_count it looks like Europe by far holds the most numerous number of members in the smallest geographical area, ie. it should be easiest to navigate solely by WarmShower hosts in this region.
Typical living costs for cycle touring Europe are 5 (stretch but possible) to 10 (feasible) to 15 (comfy) EUR/day for food. If you can budget 20 you can get drunk too. Add 5 for museums, I reckon you're good. 25EUR is about 28USD. The exchange rate is the best it has been in 10 years. Go now!!!)
Now Meetup performs much of the same functions and is far easier to sign-up, navigate and participate. There's usually a bunch of couchsurfing 'meet-ups' in every major city.
There was also a similar club, in the early 90s, probably existed already in the 80s, which operated my papermail. You mailed a letter to the club, explaining where you are travelling. And they responded with a list of people with addresses, whom you could then mail and ask for accomodation.
Cool. Sort of feel like I had heard of that somehow, must have been a few years ago.
Actually my family were thinking of buying some recumbent bikes and cycling this trip in Europe (3 months looking for a new house) but couldn't get enough info quick enough to make it happen. Kind of sux, but we're still keen. If you have any recommendations for places that stock or build custom recumbent bikes around western Europe, let me know.
PS. Your @shit_hn_says recommendation is great: a google of facepalms.
BeWelcome suffers from quite toxic and counterproductive internal politics and petty power struggles. And the fact that the few founders maintaining control refuse to invest anything of substance in the code just _barely_ holding the site together.
Their constant boasts of "purely democratic!" and "proudly spending zilch on technical talent!" are in reality, massive liabilities and impediments. The site has barely seen any growth in about eight years, and without "enough" users, it provides little value to anyone except the small, core group. Which they're perfectly fine with.
Several extremely talented coders who invested tons of time and skill into CS and BW over the years, finally started this last December:
tell me more about WarmShowers; I'm not dead certain but I am considering packing up my touring bike then riding off over the horizon.
If I do this I'm only going to have a very limited amount of cash, and no real way to earn any during my travels.
I have the Boy Scout Wilderness Survival Merit Badge so it's not like I don't know how to sleep outdoors but even show a "Warm Shower" would be nice from time to time.
I don't know much about it, but I signed up while living in Amsterdam, and got to host someone who had biked from Lille in France across Belgium to Amsterdam in a few days—and was headed to North Cape. She was hoping to use WarmShowers as much as possible on the way, but had brought some camping equipment.
Weary travellers need to shower, sleep, and eat, so there's a custom of hosts providing some kind of food. But obviously that's up to the host. I cooked something simple with rice and beans and vegetables and it was very appreciated.
all about perspective, I guess. as someone who has toured foreign continents living out of a van for a month at a time, it sounds like a warm shower to me.
I still get emails from CS though .. including one this morning from a Canadian who typically laments, in English: I have had a great trip so far but unfortunately have not got to meet and connect with many chinese people due to language barriers. Imagine that.
(Edit in reply to Michael below (out of posts): From the statistics at https://www.warmshowers.org/country_count it looks like Europe by far holds the most numerous number of members in the smallest geographical area, ie. it should be easiest to navigate solely by WarmShower hosts in this region.
Typical living costs for cycle touring Europe are 5 (stretch but possible) to 10 (feasible) to 15 (comfy) EUR/day for food. If you can budget 20 you can get drunk too. Add 5 for museums, I reckon you're good. 25EUR is about 28USD. The exchange rate is the best it has been in 10 years. Go now!!!)