This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Unbh (talk | contribs) at 15:07, 14 January 2022 (Reverted 1 edit by Geysirhead (talk) to last revision by Unbh). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 15:07, 14 January 2022 by Unbh (talk | contribs) (Reverted 1 edit by Geysirhead (talk) to last revision by Unbh)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)| Type of business | 501(c)(3) organization non-profit organization |
|---|---|
| Area served | Global |
| Owner | Warmshowers.org Foundation (as on the website); WARMSHOWERS ORG (as filed in the IRS form) |
| Founder(s) | Terry Zmrhal Geoff Cashmen |
| Products | Homestay |
| Services | Social networking service, Communication |
| URL | www |
| Users | 153,088 members, including 93,542 hosts (As of 25 April 2020) |
| Launched | 1993; 32 years ago (1993) |
| Part of a series on |
| Homestays |
|---|
| Hospitality exchange services |
| Hospitality for work |
| Hospitality for money |
| Home exchange and others |
Warm Showers (WS) is a non-profit hospitality exchange service for people engaging in bicycle touring. The platform is a gift economy — hosts are not supposed to charge for lodging and are not bound. The company is a Colorado 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, USA.
The platform has been described as a "cyclists’ support network whose members may offer free amenities and services such as meals and lodging". Rough Guides recommends Warm Showers as means to improve security of solo female cyclists. Warm Showers helps bicycle travelers to balance the self-reliance of camping and hotels with opportunities for social encounters. It has been suggested that Warm Showers may have a positive economic effect on rural communities. Many users of the platform cycle for health reasons or to reduce their carbon footprint and to be environmentally friendly.
History
A Canadian couple, Terry Zmrhal and Geoff Cashmen, founded Warm Showers in 1993. They created a database from the existing members of biking-hospitality organizations.
In 1996, Roger Gravel became responsible for the platform.
In 2005, Randy Fay created the website based on the existing database.
Membership statistics
| Date | Members | Ref |
|---|---|---|
| April 2009 | 7,500 members | |
| August 2014 | 50,000 members | |
| April 2017 | 89,000; including 39,000 hosts | |
| April 2018 | 85,000 members | |
| April 2021 | 161,000 members; including 104,000 hosts in 161 countries |
Homestay requests
Warm Showers grants teams of scientists access to its anonymized data for publication of insights to the benefit of humanity. In 2015, an analysis of 97,915 homestay requests from BeWelcome and 285,444 homestay requests from Warm Showers showed general regularity — the less time is spent on writing a homestay request, the lower is the probability of success. Since both networks are shaped by altruism, low-effort communication, aka 'copy and paste requests', evidently sends the wrong signal.
References
- ^ Kopnina, Helen (September 20, 2014). "Sustainability in environmental education: new strategic thinking". Environment, Development and Sustainability. 17 (5): 987–1002. doi:10.1007/s10668-014-9584-z. S2CID 154969254.
- ^ Cunningham, Joshua (April 24, 2018). "Warmshowers: why free hospitality for bike tourists is a priceless experience". The Guardian.
- ^ "For Road-Weary Cyclists, a Room, a Couch, Maybe Even a Meal". The New York Times. April 25, 2017.
- Milyko, Jennifer (August 29, 2013). "Bicycle Travel Etiquette: Warmshowers or Couchsurfing?". Adventure Cycling Association.
- "Bike Touring 101: The Simple, Achievable Joys of Touring America on Two Wheels". insidehook.com. 2019.
- "WARMSHOWERS ORG" (PDF). Internal Revenue Service. 2017.
- Pendak, Jared (June 28, 2018). "Tunbridge's Edwards Lives to Cycle". Valley News.
- Reader, Lesley; Ridout, Lucy. The Rough Guide to First-Time Asia. Rough Guides.
- Ferreira, Pedro; Helms, Karey; Brown, Barry; Lampinen, Airi (2019). "From Nomadic Work to Nomadic Leisure Practice: A Study of Long-term Bike Touring". ACM on Human-Computer Interaction. 3. doi:10.1145/3359213.
- Beierle, Heidi (May 12, 2011). "Bicycle Tourism as a Rural Economic Development Vehicle" (PDF). University of Oregon.
- Higgins, Brian (October 3, 2018). "Why this man is letting cycling tourists stay at his house for free". CBC News.
- ^ Tilton, Benjamin (May 2, 2019). "Before You Hit the Open Road: Warmshowers Has an Overnight Solution for Touring Cyclists and Story-making". SLUG Magazine.
- D'Ambrosio, Dan (March 1, 2018). "HEY buddy, CAN YOU SPARE A WARM SHOWER?" (PDF). Adventure Cycling Association.
- ^ Meyers, Drew (August 21, 2014). "A Little History of Modern Hospitality Networks". horizonapp.co.
- Fay, Randy (April 30, 2009). "Internationalization and Localization of Warmshowers.org". randyfay.com.
- Germany, reisereporter, Hannover, Niedersachsen. "Legale Alternativen zum Wildcamping in Deutschland". reisereporter (in German). Retrieved 27 April 2021.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Tagiew, Rustam; Ignatov, Dmitry I.; Delhibabu, Radhakrishnan (2015). Economics of Internet-Based Hospitality Exchange. (IEEE/WIC/ACM) International Conference on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology (WI-IAT). Singapore. pp. 493–498. arXiv:1501.06941. doi:10.1109/WI-IAT.2015.89.
External links
| Cycling | |
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| General and technical | |
| Utility and slow recreation | |
| Sports-related cycling and fast-paced recreation | |
| Health, safety and infrastructure |
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| Other | |
| Lists | |
