Hospitality Club
The Hospitality Club is the largest online hospitality service.
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History
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Hospitality Club was founded by Veit Kühne in 2000 as a general purpose internet based hospitality exchange organization. The organization open to anybody succeeded a similar network organized by Kühne, but only allowing members of student exchange organization AFS as members. The general concept was inspired by the SIGHT hospitality network of Mensa.
According to its own statistics, the Hospitality Club had 60000 members in June 2005, but the proportion of active mebers actually hosting travellers, being guests or just meeting in real, to internet registration, is not known. From various indicators on user pages it can be estimated the number of members exchanging hospitality in real-life is in the order of tens of thousands.
Inner working
Membership in the organization is free and is obtained just by registering on website. The core activity of the organization is exchange of accomodation. Acting as a host, members offer accomodation possibility (voluntarily). As a guest, a traveller 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 using the service, the host and guests may comment about each other. This provides 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 accomodation, members are exchanging other forms of hospitality, such as guiding guests or providing travel-related advice. There are also wiki-like Travel Guide sections and forums where member may seek partners for travels, hitchhiking etc.
The policy of the organization explicitely states many other uses, such as dating service, job service, or commercial use.
Organization
The club is based on the work of hundreds of volunteers around the world. Claimed motivation of the founding fathers is the idea that bringing people together and fostering international friendships will increase intercultural understanding and strengthen peace. [1]