From airbedandbreakfast.comSocial networking websites have changed the way we view our reputations, the way we organize protests, and now the way we … couch surf?
AirBed&Breakfast lets travelers meet locals in 20 countries and book a few nights in their guest rooms, as an alternative to sleeping in a hotel. They are hoping to fill the gap as hotels overflow this summer in Denver and the Twin Cities during the Democratic and Republican national conventions.
It’s not the first website to connect frugal travelers with prospective hosts — The CouchSurfing Project, for example, has been around since 2004. But AirBed&Breakfast is certainly the easiest to use that we have seen, and it handles all financial transactions right through the website.
Is this the new face of travel?
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Interesting idea, but I’m not sure if this will bring online enough new capacity to move the needle though…
Throughout history there are technological advances that have changed the way we do things. The goal is to close the gap between time and space in communications. With the Internet anyone in anyplace can connect instantly with anyone in the world. This in someways has democratized commerce including travel.
The results are people have more options. This helps the small local business connect with markets once only available to the national and international companies.
Before the Internet bed and breakfast operations had to use local and regional advertising because of the cost. Now finding a bed and breakfast location is just a mouse click away. This opens up their operation to the world not just their local area.
Isn’t this the OLD face of travel? I’m picturing someone on a horse, or on foot, or on a coach rolling into town and looking around for whoever keeps an inn or just puts travelers up for the night. It’s not hard to see why we don’t do that anymore. It had to be desperately unsafe and unreliable. (Mary and Joseph, anyone?)
What this is, is the new face of planning, and reconnaissance. Now we can go back to the OLD way of travel, without the blind uncertainty.
I’ve had good luck when backpacking through villages in South Asia just wandering around and asking who has a place for me to sleep. Works great.
I think CouchSurfing is a much more revolutionary style of finding a place to stay for the night. Because it’s not just that, it’s also translating online social networking into real-life network action, something that has been notoriously hard to do.
Also, AirB&B still uses a business-type model, whereas CouchSurfing is completely based on the currency of social interaction. I’ve successfully CouchSurfed in cities as various as Chicago, New York, and Paris, and now I have a cluster of new, good friends all over the place!
This may be unusual in the US, but it’s certainly not in other parts of the world. When I backpacked in Europe, I rented a room in someone’s apartment several times instead of staying in a hotel. Prices are kinda on par with a private room at a hostel.
As a hotel manager, I see at LEAST three people a day I would never want anywhere near my apartment. Hotels are there for your protection, people…
hmmm – I posted a note extolling the virtues of couchsurfing (a non-profit foundation) over this weak commercial alternative this morning but somehow it hasn’t been published yet.
I hope it still does if not, brief version:
Couchsurfing (and hospitalityclub, the same thing with European origins) is cooler, cheaper, better vibe, more interesting people, nicer for hosts because they don’t feel like service providers, nicer for guests because they feel like guests and no customers but most importantly: sooooo much bigger, with so many more places to stay (I think both sites have about 100.000 beds/couches (more than 200.000 members) in more than 180 countries).
I had an Australian professional chef staying on my couch last weekend and looking forward to receiving a French chef this weekend (coincidence – I also take people who can’t cook) and this has been _a lot_ better than getting paid.