South America - Clean Breaks: 500 New Ways to See the World - page 269

There's no better way to get to know a place than to stay with the local people.
You get to experience life as they live it and benefi t from their intimate knowledge
of the area, while contributing to the local economy in the most direct way
possible. And it's almost always cheaper than a hotel, and in some cases free. For
a list of relevant websites relating to the types of accommodation detailed here
see p.376.
HOSPITALITY EXCHANGES
Members of hospitality exchanges let visitors stay for free in their homes, and when they are travelling,
look to stay in other people's. So if you're going to Brussels, you can log onto a site such as W www.
couchsurfi ng.com, discover how many members live in the city, read their profi les, get in touch with some
of them and, if they are willing, stay with them while you're there. Almost all destinations have at least a
few participants: at the last check Couchsurfi ng had 140 members registered in Azerbaijan, twelve in
Papua New Guinea and two on Christmas Island.
It's one of those remarkable experiments in mutual altruism like Wikipedia that has taken off in no time
at all. What sort of relationship you have with your hosts depends on the people involved. Some will
simply let you in and out and leave you to yourself, while others will be keen to show you round their
city and take you to their favourite bar or restaurant. Different organizations cater for specifi c groups,
including cyclists and even Esperanto speakers. And once you start hosting in your own home, you'll
begin to have the random encounters with foreigners you normally only get when on holiday, without
having to leave your house.
HOUSESWAPPING
Think how many people go on holiday each year leaving their house empty. Houseswapping teams these
people up, through organizations that charge an annual fee (typically less than £100/US$150) so that
they can arrange to stay in each other's properties while on holiday. So, suppose you live in London and
would like to go to Barcelona for a week next summer. You post your details on the site and if another
member in Barcelona is keen to come to London, then you can arrange through the site to swap keys. In
some cases people will even lend each other their cars or bicycles.
Less common is indirect swapping: for example you might stay in a house in Barcelona, while its
owners stay in a villa in France, whose owners stay in an apartment in Prague, while the people from
Prague come to stay in your home. While you don't get the direct contact with the homeowner of a
direct houseswap, you may well get to meet their neighbours. And as houseswappers are generally
eager for you to enjoy their home and area, they'll often leave you handy information and tips - a sort of
personalized travel guide for your new locale.
HOMESTAYS
A homestay is exactly what it sounds like: living in someone's home (generally with the family there) and
paying to do so. It might be an apartment similar to where you live at home, a bamboo hut in Vietnam,
a thatched cabin in Fiji or a luxurious restored villa in the backwaters of Kerala. Sometimes these are
intended to be long-term stays for language students or migrant workers, but short-term homestays for
tourists are increasingly common, particularly in parts of the world where tourism is less developed. For