What about a guest room/spare room swap ??

[delphine]

Hi all,

I am thinking out loud. I think that a great feature of APUG is its international coverage and whilst there is a large majority of Americans and Canadians on the forum, there are APUGers pretty much all around the world.

I was wondering whether we could run on APUG a guest room swap system. I am thinking out loud. But the idea would be that people advertise the spare room that they have available with location details, room description and availability dates, and if somebody is interested in this location, then, the user contacts the offeror and proposes a swap with his own spare room.
Obviously this means that both participants to the swap are interested in each others location. And also that the location of the properties is fairly central to a centre of interest, and well serviced by transports, so that the property can be used as a base.

When I travel, I particularly enjoy when I am visiting people who live in the area that I visit, it gives me a feel of the local culture, and local lifestyle more than if I was staying at the hotel or a BB. Also, it helps reduce travel costs quite a bit. So it is very easy to see the advantages of a guest room swap system.

Once on location, guests get bed, and breakfast if offered by the recipient, and take responsibility to organize their trip and notably take in charge all their food/transport/visits etc ...

Otherwise, I was thinking, but then it gets more complicated, but if it was on a club basis, then people advertise the room they want to swap. They'd get like a point for hosting somebody, which gets them a room swap with one of the participants in the club who does not need to be the person they hosted.

I am wondering whether there would be interest in such a room swap. Any ideas, welcome.

Delphine

 

[CGW]

http://www.couchsurfing.org/

 

[Mike Wilde]

We have an unused bedroom, that usually just keeps excess 'stuff' on a short term basis, but can quickly be habilable with a 10 minute tidy up. Over the eight years we have lived here, it has hosted a number of different visitors, for durations between one or two nights (usually grandma, or another overnight relative visit) and periods of three weeks to three months.

One of the challenges is how far from the core a place is. I am soundly in the suburbs. A few of the younger 'I want to go clubbing on Friday sorts' are not amused at the $45 cab ride home if they miss the last train/bus home option at 1am.

 

[David Brown]

One of the challenges is how far from the core a place is. I am soundly in the suburbs. A few of the younger 'I want to go clubbing on Friday sorts' are not amused at the $45 cab ride home if they miss the last train/bus home option at 1am.

Yep, and the suburb I am in doesn't even have bus service.

In fairness, I think the OP has a good idea, but there are services already in place to do this.

 

[Curt]

An excellent idea. BYOSB — Bring your own sleeping bag!

 

[Neanderman]

The Irish have been doing a variation on this for decades with their B&B business. Quite successfully, too. It beats the heck out of staying in a hotel.

Ed

 

[keithwms]

Great idea. And I'd be happy to host someone or a group of someones in my (temporarily) ridiculously nice accommodations in lovely Charlottesville VA. I also have a very nice and remote cabin in Kentucky that's a great place to get away, far away from it all.

 

[mgb74]

Frankly I doubt that we have enough members to have much of a swap system. Perhaps it should be on somewhat of a "pay it forward" basis. If you are looking to travel, post a message in that region's forum ((there was a url link here which no longer exists)). If you take advantage, be sure to reciprocate when the opportunity presents.