Warmshowers

I had never come across this until today. appears to be a top idea. Anyone any experience of using it? As a host or as a guest?

https://www.warmshowers.org/

Anyone any experience of using it? As a host or as a guest?

At least one person ;-)

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/323697/

Signed up and forgot to use it. A couple friends used it with success apparently.

After recommending it to someone, a few months later they excitedly tried to recommend it to me, not realising who had told them in the first place......

Used it 7 or 8 times as a guest in the US. Some not great experiences, some amazing experiences. Good way to see a place and how people live.

Would definitely host if I had my own place

Some not great experiences

Now I'm curious.

Used it in Glasgow, was fine, some guy called Dave let me sleep in his flat, fed me a massive meal and beers and put on a film. Was glad of the use of a drying rack as I'd gotten soaked that day.

1. Staying in a really rough place where the guy told me to stay indoors with his kids as a fight was about to break out with his neighbour next door. His place was an absolute mess and he had mates staying on his sofa. I spent the whole night on edge. Despite that though, he was genuinely really nice to me - gave me pizza and a spare new panaracer pasela as i needed a new tyre, and I could tell they had very little money.
   
2. A guy with chronic Lyme's disease (I wasn't convinced) - obviously nothing wrong with that but he spent the whole night offloading on me about it and was a bit weird. Again still very generous to me though so shouldn't complain.
   
3. A girl who said she'd leave a key out for me in case i got there before she was back from work. I told her it would be unlikely, but ended up being quicker than I thought so I let myself in. She came in about 10 minutes later and i was sat on her sofa with a glass of water. She absolutely shit herself as she assumed I hadn't arrived. I apologised profusely and after a few mins she said it was fine, but she seemed pissed off at me and the rest of the evening was just awkward.
   
   

Thinking back now I can recall 10 places I stayed off the top of my head. All other stays were really welcoming. People cooked for me, took me to restaurants, let me do my laundry, one had a hot tub and i stayed for 3 days, loads gave me beers, another offered to take me on a wine tour, one took me to a local hot springs they worked at. Saw some amazing houses, had some great conversations.

I stopped using it in the end though, it was a bit of hassle as people usually wanted to know exactly what day and time you'd arrive so i felt rushed at times. Also, sounds ungrateful but i was often too knackered to make conversation all night so I felt bad. I always used to try and turn up with a bottle of wine or some beers though, or offer to take them out for food.

Bit different in the States I think, hosts are used to loads of cyclists coming through on the ACA routes. Half of the hosts weren't even cyclists.

tl;dr / csb

Currently using warmshowers loads as I bike from one side of Canada to the other. Not sure i'd be as far as I am without it. Admittedly, making conversation after a long day of riding can be a bit much, but for the most part, it provides some much needed company, good local knowledge of roads, a decent meal, and more often than not, a beer. Would highly recommend.
In Canada anyway.

Very interesting, thanks for sharing!

I recommend it

I've never used it, but some friends of mine have used it all over the world and absolutely love it, including having guests at their flat quite frequently.

I recommend it too I use it for more than 5 years very often : )

How do people feel about Warmshowers in the current vibe?
To the people on here that host/hosted, would you host in the current situation for camping + shower?
What about spare rooms?
Would you feel offended if someone asked to be hosted?

Any experiences of this?

https://welcometomygarden.org/

A cheeky request but does anyone on here have a Warmshowers account? I'm trying to find somewhere that may be able to put us up for two/three nights around St Monans, Fife.

I slightly begrudge the idea of paying a $30 signup fee to discover nobody uses the app in the post(mid?)-covid era. Happy to pay up if it hasn't been abandoned as a platform!

You can cheat by being a Warmshowers basic free hosting user and ask for stay via sending simple msg on persons profile (if you are not an around-the-world tour person)

That's very helpful, ta. I ended up switching plans slightly in the end and we'll just hightail it back over the water to Edinburgh a day earlier.

Bumping this thread up to see if anyone’s hosted recently on WS? Is it still active? I’ve just listed our house in Pontypridd (near the Taff Trail) and curious to see how it’ll go, as there’s often touring types riding through town

Also if anyone off the forum needs a Welsh bed for the night, hit me up

We usually get a few requests a year, Norwich has a lot of hosts though. Have very much enjoyed staying with others while touring

Is it basically swingers though

Is it basically swingers though

Stayed at 20+ hosts over 2019, only got gently propositioned once. Let’s call that a rounding error.

Forgot all about that site. I think I used couchsurfing when I cycled to Berlin a decade ago before it got weird.

If anyone passes through Devizes let me know and I can host.

I’ve been a guest 20+ times in Spain, France, Portugal, USA and hosted my first guest a few weeks ago (cycle tourists avoid Birmingham I guess…).

Overwhelmingly positive experiences - i thought they’d changed their model so that you have to pay to host, which sounds mad. But maybe that didn’t happen.

Site functionality could be better (will they ever do an app?) but apart from the iffy name I love the whole thing. I heard a few negative reports from hosts about previous guests (treating their home like a hotel was the biggest concern). I always made a point of being up for hanging out/chatting, but also self-sufficient if they are busy, and bringing some small token of thanks.

As a host I’m not massively bothered - I’ve benefitted so much I’m more than happy to cook/wash/fix bikes etc. might be different if I lived on a popular route and was bombarded with requests.

It’s always acceptable (recommended?) to stipulate your expectations in advance IMO

Stayed at 20+ hosts over 2019, only got gently propositioned once. Let’s call that a rounding error.

Ah. Shame.