Hospitality Club

The Hospitality Club is an international, Internet-based hospitality service of 392,304 members in 219 countries [Based on statistics from [http://secure.hospitalityclub.org/hc/menu.php Hospitality Club 'Main Menu'] page visible for logged-in members only; retrieved on July 28, 2008.] . Its members use the website HospitalityClub.org to coordinate accommodation and other services, such as guiding or regaling travelers. Hospitality Club is currently one of the largest such hospitality networks.

History

Hospitality Club was founded by Veit Kühne in 2000 [ [http://www.miamiherald.com/817/story/8211.html The kindness of strangers] The Miami Herald, January 31st 2007] with the help of friends and family [ [http://info.hospitalityclub.org/about.htm Hospitality Club About us page] HospitalityClub.org] as a general-purpose Internet-based hospitality exchange organization. This organization, open to anybody, followed from a similar network organized by Veit Kühne only for members of the student exchange organization AFS. The general concept was inspired by the SIGHT hospitality network of Mensa. The membership has grown exponentially since its creation and the Hospitality Club has been reported about by such media as German television ZDF [ [http://www.zdf.de/ZDFde/erweitert_suche.html?pn=1&kw=Hospitality+Club&st=include&kategorie=gesamtzdf&unterkategorie=alle&mediaType=AR&mediaType=SS&mediaType=AU&mediaType=VI&mediaType=IN&zr=unbegrenzt&vd=10.04.2007&bd=10.05.2007&o=score&rpp=20&search-go=Suche ZDF series on HC] June/July 2006] , radio stations, internet sites [ [http://www.frommers.com/articles/4330.html Your Couch or Mine? Hospitality Exchanges Make Backpacking Even Cheaper] April 10th 2007 on [http://www.frommers.com/ Frommer's] ] and newspapers [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B05E6DE1230F93AA35754C0A9609C8B63&sec=travel&spon=&pagewanted=1 The New York Times, July 9th 2006] ] [ [http://zeus.zeit.de/text/2004/32/Ungarn_neu Die Zeit, July 29 2004] ] .

Functioning

Membership in the organization is free and is obtained simply by registering on the website. The core activity of the organization is exchange of accommodation. Acting as a host, a member offers the possibility of accommodation at his leisure. As a guest, a traveler may find possible hosts and contact them through the website. No money is involved — guests and hosts do not pay each other. The duration of the stay, whether food is provided for free, for a fee or not at all, and all other conditions are agreed on beforehand to the convenience of both parties.

After meeting, the host and guest may comment about each other. This provides a means to establish reputation which is the main security measure. Users have to provide their real identity, which is screened by volunteers, and protected against changes.

Apart from accommodation, members exchange other forms of hospitality, such as guiding visitors or providing travel-related advice. There are also wiki-like "Travel Guide" sections and forums where members may seek partners for travels, hitchhiking etc.

Volunteers within the club often arrange meetings or camps which are events that last several days that bring people together.

Organization and policies

The club is based on the work of hundreds of volunteers around the world. The motivation behind it is "the idea that bringing people together and fostering international friendships will increase inter cultural understanding and strengthen peace." It is one of the largest hospitality networks, and there is "a mission to find 1,000,000 friendly people".

There is no registered organization behind the website in Germany or other countries, and the domain name is directly registered to the founder of the site, Veit Kühne. [ [http://www.raynette.fr/services/whois/index.php?action=domain_info&domain=hospitalityclub.org Registration of hospitalityclub.org] from WHOIS.] , who is working full time on Hospitality Club [ [http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0228/p20s01-wome.html Christian Science Monitor: Backstory: Extreme vacation] (at Christian Science Monitor)] .

As for financial sustainability, the site contains advertising in the form of Google's AdSense.

The policy of the organization explicitly forbids alternative uses, such as dating, job-seeking, commercial use, and website promotions. [ [http://secure.hospitalityclub.org/hc/stopspam.php Stop Spam in the Hospitality Club]
] In order to protect members' mailboxes from spam and to keep trust in the network at high levels a volunteer team scans the messages being sent across the site. Members may also opt-out of this service and receive all messages directly. The website includes a Forum with certain rules - for example it is forbidden to post personal data of other members, and volunteers prefer not to discuss the organization's strategy on the forum, but encourage members to contact them directly. [ [http://secure.hospitalityclub.org/hc/forumrules.php Hospitality Club Forum rules] ]

External links

* [http://www.hospitalityclub.org/ Hospitality Club website]
* at Wikinews

References