Hospitality Club
| Part ofa serieson |
| Homestays |
|---|
| Hospitality exchange services |
| Hospitality for work |
| Hospitality for money |
| Home exchangeand 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 ahospitality exchange service(agift economynetwork for findinghomestayswhereby hosts were not allowed to charge forlodging) accessible via a website.
History[edit]
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 inKoblenz,by Veit Kühne.[3][4]
In 2005, a disagreement between some members of Hospitality Club and its founder led to the foundation ofBeWelcome.[5]Many HC members, who became distinguished volunteers withinCouchsurfing(so-calledCS ambassadors), left HC towards CS because of its missing legal status and insufficient management transparency.[6]
In February 2006, Kühne was working full-time on Hospitality Club.[7]In the spring of 2006, the hitherto biggest HC-Party took place inRigacounting 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 Trendssearch volume for hospitalityclub.org started to decline and was overtaken by the search volume forCouchSurfing.[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[edit]
Hospitality Club had areputation 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[edit]
- ^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.
- ^abcBaker, 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.
- ^o'Regan, Michael; Choe, Jaeyeon (2019-04-01)."Managing a non-profit hospitality platform conversion: The case of Couchsurfing"(PDF).Tourism Management Perspectives.30:138–146.doi:10.1016/j.tmp.2019.02.018.ISSN2211-9736.S2CID150755845.Retrieved28 May2021.
- ^Thomas, Amelia (28 February 2006)."Backstory: Extreme vacation".Christian Science Monitor.
- ^abc"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.
- ^Rustam Tagiew; Dmitry I. Ignatov; Radhakrishnan Delhibabu (2015).Hospitality Exchange Services as a Source of Spatial and Social Data?.(IEEE) International Conference on Data Mining Workshop (ICDMW). Atlantic City. pp. 1125–1130.doi:10.1109/ICDMW.2015.239.
- ^Luca, Lucian C. (2007).Staying without paying: Heading towards free tourism(PDF).Budapest: Central European University.Retrieved28 May2021.
- ^Локша, Анна Владимировна (2013)."О необходимости повышения социальной составляющей молодежного туризма в России".Телескоп: Журнал Социологических И Маркетинговых Исследований(in Russian) (5).ISSN1994-3776.Retrieved28 May2021.
- ^"Ein umstrittenes Geschäftsmodell".tagblatt.ch(in Swiss High German).Retrieved16 July2022.
- ^"Der Hospitality Club – ein Nachruf".unsere-zeitung.at(in Austrian German).Retrieved26 August2022.
External links[edit]
- A podcast about hospitality clubon GermanRTL