Hospitality Club
| Part of a series on |
| Homestays |
|---|
| Hospitality exchange services |
|
| Hospitality for work |
| Hospitality for money |
| Home exchange and others |
| Area served | Global |
|---|---|
| Owner | Veit Kühne |
| Founder(s) | Veit Kühne |
| Products | Homestay |
| Services | Social networking service |
| Launched | July 11, 2000 |
| Current status | Offline |
Hospitality Club (HC) was a hospitality exchange service (a gift economy network for finding homestays whereby hosts were not allowed to charge for lodging) accessible via a website.
History
The first hospitality exchange service based on internet technology was Hospex.org in 1992 from Poland, which was later folded to Hospitality Club.[1][2] Hospitality Club was founded in July 2000 in Koblenz, by Veit Kühne.[3][4]
In 2005, a disagreement between some members of Hospitality Club and its founder led to the foundation of
In February 2006, Kühne was working full-time on Hospitality Club.[7] In the spring of 2006, the hitherto biggest HC-Party took place in Riga counting 430 participants from 36 countries.[8] As of July 2006, the site had 155,000 members.[9] This number grew by around 1,000 new members a week in 2006.[8]
In 2007, Google Trends search volume for hospitalityclub.org started to decline and was overtaken by the search volume for CouchSurfing.[10] In 2007, HC's specified goals have been to facilitate "intercultural understanding ... bringing people together ... travelers and locals".[11]
In 2008, HC had more than 400,000 members from 200 countries.[3]
In 2012, HC made a partnership with AirBnB, inviting its members to join AirBnB.[citation needed]
In 2013, HC had more than a half of million members from 200 countries.[12]
By 2017, only one third of members were still active.[13]
Maintenance of the portal stalled in 2019, since early 2021 Hospitality Club was unusable, since April 2022 it is not possible to access the website.[14]
Safety measures
Hospitality Club had a reputation system, whereby members left references for others.[8] For added safety, members were encouraged to check each other's passports, although it rarely happened.[3]
References
- ^ Sierra, Mayra Eugenia (2019). Couchsurfing: Un estudio exploratorio de las motivaciones en la experiencia turística (Tesis) (in Spanish). Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
- ^ Koszewska, Julia Maria (2008). Gift, Exchange and Trust.
- ^ a b c Baker, Vicky (27 June 2008). "Top 10 hospitality travel sites". The Guardian.
- ^ Rodemann, Julian (29 March 2016). "Couchsurfing mit Haken" [Couchsurfing with a hook]. Die Welt.
- ^ Baker, Vicky (18 April 2008). "Going local in Caracas, Venezuela". The Guardian.
- S2CID 150755845. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
- Christian Science Monitor.
- ^ a b c "Freunde in der Fremde" [Friends abroad]. Stern (in German). 27 January 2006.
- ^ Stellin, Susan (July 9, 2006). "Go to Strangers (and They'll Come to You)". The New York Times.
- .
- ^ Luca, Lucian C. (2007). Staying without paying: Heading towards free tourism (PDF). Budapest: Central European University. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
- ISSN 1994-3776. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
- ^ "Ein umstrittenes Geschäftsmodell". tagblatt.ch (in Swiss High German). Retrieved 16 July 2022.
- ^ "Der Hospitality Club – ein Nachruf". unsere-zeitung.at (in Austrian German). Retrieved 26 August 2022.
External links
- A podcast about hospitality club on German RTL