Couchsurfing goes ballistic

Could culturally connected accommodation be latest new tourism tripadvisor type phenomenon

In this new space for alternative, low cost and more culturally connected accommodation. Airbnb.com is just one of the major players.

If you didn’t know by now, Airbnb connects people that have room to spare with persons looking for accommodation in the same location. Unlike the coldness, formality, seclusion and monotony that is characteristic of hotel rooms, guests that find a place to stay using Airbnb can develop genuine friend connections with the person hosting them, have access to facilities they ordinarily would not in a hotel and have the opportunity to savor the day to day culture and practices of their destination.

The range of accommodation options and pricing are as broad as could be. One can find anything from a city apartment to a medieval castle in the countryside.

Airbnb.com is onto something – but it is clearly not the first crowd sourced accommodation website on the internet.

One of the earliest and most well known crowd-sourced accommodation websites is http://www.Couchsurfing.com. While the concepts are strikingly similar, there are some distinct differences between Airbnb.com and Couchsurfing.com.

Free accommodation is just one difference. If you are looking for the lowest cost, back packer type of accommodation, Couchsurfiing.com has it in far greater abundance than Airbnb.com. In fact, accommodation is presumed to be free though guests are encouraged to part with a token to their host as a sign of appreciation and goodwill.

Thanks to its more personalized and informal approach, Couchsurfing.com provides more search options when you are looking for accommodation including gender, age and activity level. The site also has a database of hundreds of Couchsurfing.com member-organized events in different parts of the world. And unlike Airbnb.com, there is no registration fee required for one to join or participate in Couchingsurfing.com.

If Airbnb.com is the commercialized version of Couchsurfing.com, http://www.Wimdu.com is a clone of Airbnb.com.

Wimdu.com is a German based startup with an eye on the European market and Asia too. There are already national versions of Wimdu.com in Spain, France, UK, Italy and of course Germany.

Wimdu.com had made an attempt to enter the Chinese market through a subsidiary Airizu.com but the Airizu.com URL now redirects to the main Wimdu.com site.

Wimdu.com currently runs a number of voucher campaigns in an attempt to attract more users to the site. Another key difference with Airbnb.com is that Wimdu.com ensures that if for some reason a booking request fails to go through, the customer service team will make every effort to ensure that the user gets a similar or better quality accommodation at no extra cost.

The site also sends its own representative to every property listed to ensure an accurate representation of the property’s quality.

And http://www.crashpadder.com has been going for nearly three years with serious results.
Thought that upmarket was missing out? Just look at new sites http://www.housetrip.com which recently raised nearly $5m and http://www.onefinestay.com with teams of house-preparers is growing like topsy.

What and where next?

Valere Tjolle
Valere is editor of the Sustainable Tourism Report Suite 2011 Special Offers HERE