Hospitality service

The concept of Hospitality Services, also known as ?accommodation sharing?, ?hospitality exchange?, and ?home stay networks?, refers to centrally organized social networks of individuals who trade accommodation without monetary exchange. While this conceptualization could also include house swapping or even time share plans, it has come to be associated mostly with travelers and tourists staying with one another free of charge. Since the 1990s, these services have increasingly moved away from using printed catalogues and phone trees to connect users towards Internet websites to store info in databases. They have grown exponentially since 2000 and today it is estimated that well over 100,000 people are registered users of these networks. These vary in operational structure, place different emphasis on graphical vs. textual formatting, and cater disproportionately to specific geographic regions. They include:

Related Topics:
Social networks - Databases

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• CouchSurfing http://www.couchsurfing.com/
• GlobalFreeloaders http://www.globalfreeloaders.com/
• Hospitality Club http://www.hospitalityclub.org/ -- currently the largest comunity
• Servas International http://www.servas.org/ - human rights and global peace oriented
• Pasporta Servo http://www.tejo.org/ps/- for Esperanto speakers
• TravelHoo http://www.travelhoo.com/dotnet/main.aspx/ - a smaller international service
• Agritourism http://www.agritourismworld.com/

Many more are listed at http://dmoz.org/Recreation/Travel/Lodging/Hospitality_Clubs/

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Hospitality service: History ►