warmshowers

[beeb]

Is anyone on here an active member of warmshowers.

I believe it used to be free to join but now there is a 30 dollar join fee, is it worth it?

I have joined welcome to my garden and have had some responses for my forthcoming european bike tour?

Just wondering about other peoples experiences, thanks

[Steve X]

Is anyone on here an active member of warmshowers.

I believe it used to be free to join but now there is a 30 dollar join fee, is it worth it?

I have joined welcome to my garden and have had some responses for my forthcoming european bike tour?

Just wondering about other peoples experiences, thanks

No, not a member, but have looked into it. I think the 30 dollars is to make sure the site is well funded, and to get the members to have some skin in the game. An issue seems to be that when it was free, people would join, and then not participate. The problem with this was that cyclists would email hosts and just get no response. Warmshowers does a Podcast, presented by the woman in charge, I found all about Warmshowers, as opposed to about Cycle Touring, which is what I wanted, but you may find it of Interest.

May I thank you for bringing Welcome to my garden to my attention, I have never heard of it, and as it seems strong in Belgium, is of interest, as we will be touring through Belgium this year. It will be interesting to hear of peoples experiences of WTMG.

I can highly recommend Vrienden Oop de Fiets, an a €10 a year membership, a low cost thing to have in your accommodation options.

In this year of "Post" Pandemic travel, it will be interesting to see how non commercial accommodation providers feel about interacting with strangers, particularly "foreign" strangers.

[Jdsk]

Welcometomygarden:
https://welcometomygarden.org/explore

"Welcometomygarden":
viewtopic.php?t=146823

Jonathan

[mattheus]

I joined warmshowers (for free) a loooong time ago. Wasn't able to host, and didn't get any responses from hosts.

I still get the Facebook feed, from which I gather that lots of "non-commercial" hosts are keen to have visitors in the post-pandemic era.
"lots" might be less than before, of course ...

[simonhill]

It'd be interesting to know how many successful stays people have had.

I met a fellow cyclist in Tassie who was trying in one town. He was hopeful as there were 3 listed however 2 failed to reply and one said sorry going away this weekend.

Maybe single male cyclists aren't so interesting.

[MrsHJ]

I’m a host but haven’t hosted for a while due to Covid and family stuff. I like some advance warning- not on the hoof calls. Last person we hosted is now cycling in Iran! I’ve also supplied inner tubes and local camping advice and we’ve stored peoples bikes before.

I’ve always planned to ask for hosting but have always ended up going for a hotel/camping. However I’ve had good technical support and advice a few times when planning a route through challenging areas and getting in touch with people.

[Cyckelgalen]

On our last long cycle tour, before the pandemic, across Europe (3,000 km, 7 countries), travelling as a couple we managed to get hosted only twice. In some areas, like Northern Italy, there would be many dozens of registered hosts on our route, and we would get no answers at all after contacting as many as twenty daily. After that, we stopped bothering and wasting time looking for potential hosts. Clearly, there were loads of hosts that had registered at some point because they thought it was cool and then forgot about it or ignored all requests.

Back at home, we hosted a couple of cyclists. We couldn't host a few others for several reasons, but I always replied to explain and apologize.

[walkertom]

I’d say even if you plan to stay with one or two hosts it’s worth the sign up fee. Within the last year, we’ve been hosted 15 times cycling from UK to Singapore. Meeting and staying with locals via Warmshowers have been some of the most memorable parts of our trip.

[Galactic]

There's also https://1nitetent.com/en/ (does what it says on the tin). Most offers are in Germany, but there are a few in other countries too.

[al_yrpal]

We have a large garden and an annexe with a sofa bed. Downstairs toilet and shower upstairs in the house. Shop and pub and Sustrans route 3 to the West Country within 50 metres. Panniered cyclists pass many times a day. I havent toured for a couple of years but we both like meeting people.

Interested to hear peoples experience of hosting?

Al

[Jon Lucas]

We have a large garden and an annexe with a sofa bed. Downstairs toilet and shower upstairs in the house. Shop and pub and Sustrans route 3 to the West Country within 50 metres. Panniered cyclists pass many times a day. I havent toured for a couple of years but we both like meeting people.

Interested to hear peoples experience of hosting?

Al

You sound like an ideal host.

We have been Warm Showers hosts for about 12-15 years, and probably host about 20 overnights a year, so have hosted hundreds of cyclists. It has been almost all very good and enjoyable. We have one spare room plus room for one tent on our lawn, and did once host two different groups on the same day - one single cyclist in the room and then were contacted by a family who needed somewhere that night, and they camped. We always cook an evening meal for them and give them breakfast, obviously all without charge, but we get the benefit of enjoying their company and hearing their cycling tales. We probably get at least twice the number of requests, and have to turn down half, mostly because we are not available on the days they request, or are very busy then.

Most of our visitors come from abroad, probably just a couple each year from Britain (but as you are on Lejog it might be different for you). As we are in Bath we do get a lot of requests, mostly in the summer when it can become a bit too much, but we have learnt to not over commit. Most visitors are doing quite long tours, some very long - the longest was a French man who was at the end of his 2 year round the world trip. Some are doing shorter outings, and very occasionally maybe just a day out and want somewhere to stay at the end of it.

We have met some fascinating people, some of whom have kept in contact. Many are obviously very experienced cycle tourists (one American had cycled in well over half the countries of the world), but sometimes you can get people who have never cycle toured before, and last year we had one woman who had hardly ever ridden a bike before and was doing about 10 miles a day (and getting lost every day as she couldn't map read, and had let down the previous host by failing to find their home - they ended up late at night driving out to pick her up from some distance away).

We have probably had visitors from about 30 countries altogether - we haven't kept a record which is a bit of a shame - mainly European or American, but occasionally from further afield. One of my favourites was the woman who on her request said she was the Mexican Brompton racing champion. As Brompton riders ourselves we were intrigued, as I couldn't imagine there being more than about 3 Brompton riders there. It turns out Brompton riding is a big thing in Mexico City, and she was indeed the racing champion, something we definitely learnt when we accompanied her cycling to Bristol, and found that she could ride more than twice as fast as we could. She was heading for Land's End and then back to Sussex, all in one week, to take part in the World Championships there.

[mattheus]

We have probably had visitors from about 30 countries altogether - we haven't kept a record which is a bit of a shame - mainly European or American, but occasionally from further afield. One of my favourites was the woman who on her request said she was the Mexican Brompton racing champion. As Brompton riders ourselves we were intrigued, as I couldn't imagine there being more than about 3 Brompton riders there. It turns out Brompton riding is a big thing in Mexico City, and she was indeed the racing champion, something we definitely learnt when we accompanied her cycling to Bristol, and found that she could ride more than twice as fast as we could. She was heading for Land's End and then back to Sussex, all in one week, to take part in the World Championships there.

Lovely story!

So nice to hear people combining different aspects of cycling (and "cyclo-sport"), and helping each-other out

[francovendee]

We have a large garden and an annexe with a sofa bed. Downstairs toilet and shower upstairs in the house. Shop and pub and Sustrans route 3 to the West Country within 50 metres. Panniered cyclists pass many times a day. I havent toured for a couple of years but we both like meeting people.

Interested to hear peoples experience of hosting?

Al

You sound like an ideal host.

We have been Warm Showers hosts for about 12-15 years, and probably host about 20 overnights a year, so have hosted hundreds of cyclists. It has been almost all very good and enjoyable. We have one spare room plus room for one tent on our lawn, and did once host two different groups on the same day - one single cyclist in the room and then were contacted by a family who needed somewhere that night, and they camped. We always cook an evening meal for them and give them breakfast, obviously all without charge, but we get the benefit of enjoying their company and hearing their cycling tales. We probably get at least twice the number of requests, and have to turn down half, mostly because we are not available on the days they request, or are very busy then.

Most of our visitors come from abroad, probably just a couple each year from Britain (but as you are on Lejog it might be different for you). As we are in Bath we do get a lot of requests, mostly in the summer when it can become a bit too much, but we have learnt to not over commit. Most visitors are doing quite long tours, some very long - the longest was a French man who was at the end of his 2 year round the world trip. Some are doing shorter outings, and very occasionally maybe just a day out and want somewhere to stay at the end of it.

We have met some fascinating people, some of whom have kept in contact. Many are obviously very experienced cycle tourists (one American had cycled in well over half the countries of the world), but sometimes you can get people who have never cycle toured before, and last year we had one woman who had hardly ever ridden a bike before and was doing about 10 miles a day (and getting lost every day as she couldn't map read, and had let down the previous host by failing to find their home - they ended up late at night driving out to pick her up from some distance away).

We have probably had visitors from about 30 countries altogether - we haven't kept a record which is a bit of a shame - mainly European or American, but occasionally from further afield. One of my favourites was the woman who on her request said she was the Mexican Brompton racing champion. As Brompton riders ourselves we were intrigued, as I couldn't imagine there being more than about 3 Brompton riders there. It turns out Brompton riding is a big thing in Mexico City, and she was indeed the racing champion, something we definitely learnt when we accompanied her cycling to Bristol, and found that she could ride more than twice as fast as we could. She was heading for Land's End and then back to Sussex, all in one week, to take part in the World Championships there.

I did try offering our spare bedroom. We're a bit off the beaten track and had one guest. Strange experience and rather put me off. He was a young man who was competing in a weight lifting competition in La Roche sur Yon. He turned up by car and was a rather unpleasant character. Never a smile or a thank you. in fact my wife felt rather threatened by him.
I withdrew my hosting. Maybe it would have been better if we'd had a cyclist stay.

[Jon Lucas]

That's very odd, and unusual. In all the years we have hosted, we have never had anyone try to turn up in a car, and obviously they shouldn't be (unless they are about to start a cycle tour and have got to the start by driving). And while everyone is different, we've never had a bad experience like that, the worst being the occasional person who doesn't show up.

[al_yrpal]

A bit frustrated by warmshowers. Before joining it would be nice to see if there are other hosts nearby, to view how people describe themselves and their accomodation. And, to see how potential users describe themselves all before shelling out the $30. But you cant. They have faqs but they dont tell you very much.

Al