Ways for You to Travel on Free Accommodation or Spending Less Money
Yes! It is definitely possible to find free accommodation or spending very little money for your travel trips!
Today, there are more younger people that wish to travel abroad but don’t have much savings to do so. Thanks to the internet, we could find more and more options or ways to make it possible to travel with verrrrry little money!
Not everyone can afford to spend big money on every trip. But that’s not an excuse to give up what we love the most …travelling!
This leads us to use our ingenuity to stretch our small budget every time we begin preparing for our new adventure.
Accommodation is one of the most expensive part of your travel trip. Most of your budget goes here. If you get to save on this, you get to do more or go even further with what monies you have in hand.
Here you’ll have several options on finding ‘almost-free’ accommodation or spending very little money for your lodging. Either in exchange for a few hours of work, taking care of pets or swapping your homes with another traveller…
HOUSESITTING : Accommodation in exchange for taking care of homes and/or pets
Housesitting does literally mean ‘caring for a house’. It consists of taking over the home of another owner, their pets or both, while they are away for work or on vacation. In return, we get free accommodation.
Today we can find many websites that are dedicated to connecting both owners and guests.
This program is very popular in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. Its increasing in popularity every day, everywhere around the world.
For membership, we’ll have to pay a “small fee” when we register. When its a paid service, members in the program are more committed and no home owner wants a ‘flaky’ person to take care for their house while they are away.
And it is worthwhile for the money, especially for accommodation in these expensive countries.
TrustedHouseSitters.com
This website was specialized in pet-care. The membership is €89.00 / year for both owners and guests.
Housecarers.com
This was meant for both house and pet-care. The membership costs €50.00 / year for guests, but free for home-owners.
Mindmyhouse.com
They cover both house and pet-care. The membership is more affordable at €20.00 / year for guests, but also free for home-owners.
Nomador.com
It is free limited-membership, or you could pay for Premium Membership for €65.00 / year for guests.
Other Websites :
Australia : Happy House Sitters & Aussie House Sitters
United Kingdom : House Sitters UK & Rover House Sitting
New Zealand : Kiwi House Sitters
USA and Canada : Luxury House Sitting
HOUSING EXCHANGE
Another concept that is gaining popularity is to swap-homes.
Mainly used by families with children where the cost of accommodation is a lot higher.
Here’s how it works : Search for houses that other owners offer to travelers, specify the city that you wish to visit. You will also have to register your home so that other users have an option to pick your house when they wish to visit your city. We could say that, its like an “exchange of favors”.
I know its hard to entrust your home in some stranger’s hands, that’s normal. That’s your natural instincts to guard your home, take good care of it. But remember, everyone else feels the same. Its a mutual understanding when you’re in the program, you care for their homes, they’ll care for your home. And usually this exchange system are usually professionals with a medium-high level income, so you’re in safe hands.
If you have a ‘rustic looking’ or house in the villages, be proud of it. Take great photos around the house and you’ll never know, someone’s going to like a house like yours. Its all about the experience that matters.
Here’s a tip, in order to receive a bigger number of requests, the reviews and comments of other users are very important.
The registration in these web pages is usually free.
The popular sites are:
In Spain : Intercambio de Casas / Home for Home
Elsewhere : guesttoguest / home Exchange / Global Free Loaders / Stay4Free
COUCHSURFING
Who haven’t heard about Couchsurfing?
If you do not know it, it is one of the reference websites in the free hosting.
It was originally a program to allow you to sleep on the sofa of someone’s house in the city where you are going to travel.
It was one of the pioneer websites of budget traveling, and thanks to this website, many travellers saved lots of money, as well as meeting like-minded people like them.
This website is completely free, although it is recommended, that we also put our “sofa” available to receive other travelers.
Also say that although the philosophy is to sleep on the sofas, more and more owners are offering to sleep in some rooms with free bed, and so you can rest in a more comfortable way.
FREE ACCOMMODATION IN EXCHANGE OF WORK
Another way to travel by saving on accommodation is to work a few hours a week in exchange for free accommodation.
Normally it is half a day, between 18 and 20 hours a week. But it is something that you will have to agree with the owner beforehand.
These jobs are usually in:
- Houses of families with children, where we will take care of the house, take care of the children or both.
- Hostels, where we will take on roles in the reception, restaurant or cleaning.
- Farms, where we will help to care for the animals and clean the area.
🙂 Harris and I met for the first time on one of these programs when we both decided to come to England! We worked in a hostel in exchange for accommodation.
How do they work?
First we have to create a profile on the program-website that we choose, and we have to include some basic information about ourselves. Creating profiles are usually free.
The most popular platforms are:
Worldpackers
Created by some Brazilian guys, it is the most popular among travellers from all over the world.
To have access to all the benefits, the annual fee is USD$49.00/year and we can make as many collaborations as we want.
Workaway
It is another veteran-sites that gives more confidence to travellers. The subscription is €34.00/year. If you travel as a couple you can register together for €44.00/year.
HelpX
Very similar to the previous two and also veteran in this world of the exchange of accommodation for work. It has a special placements in Australia and New Zealand.
Although the level of supply is falling a little behind, your subscription is the cheapest, having to pay only US$20.00 valid for two years!
Creating your profile and viewing host-places are free but you’d have to subscribe to contact your potential host.
The Working Traveller
In this platform they also offer some remunerated (paid) jobs! Its designed for longer stays (from one month onwards).
For the paid work, they do not manage work visas. So you’ll have to arrange your own visa prior to the engagement.
The registration on the web to open the profile is free. And if you want to have a more trustworthy profile, you will only have to pay €10.00/year.
HospitalityClub.org
And last but not least, the Hospitality Club more than a platform, it is a social network for travellers from all over the world.
Registration is free, and today, it is the largest online community in the world made to help during travels.
In addition to being able to find free accommodation for local people who offer their homes for travelers, we can also ask for help from other people who are travelling or living in the country.
If you need a place to sleep, a route through the city or any other recommendation, you just have to visit this website and your questions will be answered.