September 2, 2024, 4:04 pm | Read time: 5 minutes
Platforms like Couchsurfing, Airbnb, and others have reinvented the private vacation room. It’s not just about a cheap way to spend the night, but above all, about social contacts, immersing yourself in the everyday life of another culture, and living like a local on vacation. TRAVELBOOK lists seven good reasons for “social traveling”.
Hotel or inn? Club or campground? Vacation rental or beachfront villa? There are many ways to find accommodation on vacation. Recently, there has been another: a private room in a host’s home. Of course, the principle is not entirely new. We know this as a bed & breakfast, a private vacation room, or – slightly antiquated – a guest room. And decades later, some still warmly recall the kind, elderly lady in her pink robe serving coffee in her cozy living room. Especially on the coasts, many locals open their doors to tourists.
Yet these landlords conduct their guest business with professionalism, typically during the peak season: they are experienced in catering to vacationers, serve a standard breakfast, and are always happy to give a few tips to those who are not local. However, guests typically learn little about the real lives of these amiable hosts. They remain at a distance. As the term “guest room” implies: The traveler stays an outsider.
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Straight to the private sphere
The new form of room sharing, which has become increasingly popular in recent years and is known as “social traveling,” leads directly into the private sphere. To shared apartments where a roommate is completing an internship abroad. To singles whose apartment has room for more than one. Or to married couples who don’t want to leave their son’s apartment vacant. Often, owners only vacate the room for the vacationer and then use it privately again. Platforms such as Airbnb, Couchsurfing, and the like make this possible.
Although hosts may develop professionalism over time, the experience often retains an improvised quality. Those who use the Couchsurfing community – where the traveler doesn’t pay a cent for the room – can expect a sofa, but of course, there is no service. And that is precisely what makes these private accommodations so charming: the imperfection.
TRAVELBOOK has put together more reasons for a vacation in a shared apartment:
1. Vacationing like a local: if you don’t stay in a hotel but where locals usually live, you immediately feel much less like a tourist. And if you follow your hosts’ tips and visit their favorite pubs and stores, you’ll soon feel like a genuine local, perhaps a bona fide Berliner, a true Viennese, or an adept Erfurt resident – you can hardly experience a place more authentically.
2. Making friends: It’s not uncommon to make new friends this way. The probability is high, especially if you go couchsurfing. This is because the principle is based, among other things, on making new contacts and possibly arranging a return visit. When looking for a host, you naturally also check whether you share the same interests, are the same age, and perhaps have the same profession. Roomsurfer has developed its own algorithm for this (see box on the right). The profile on the other platforms also reveals a lot about the host.
3. Strengthening the local economy: Private rooms are generally not located in classic tourist areas, which, on the one hand, naturally leads to guests getting an authentic picture of a city or region. On the other hand, this strengthens the local economy, as Airbnb – which is repeatedly accused of making life difficult for local hoteliers and guesthouses – showed in its Economic Impact Study.
4. Discovering uncharted territories: Private accommodation can also be found where there are no hotels yet. The whole world is literally open to travelers. And since many globetrotters today have already marked out the hotspots on the tourist map and are always looking for new adventures in unusual places, accommodation can now also be booked in the most remote regions, as well as in special places such as lighthouses, tree houses, houseboats, and islands.
5. Everyday adventures: You can expect anything but perfectionism. If you book privately, you also book the adventure and challenges of everyday life in the vacation destination. For example, there’s that tiny bathroom in Paris where you can only brush your teeth by sitting on the toilet seat. Or a shower in Istanbul, which only runs at certain times of the day – and is in the middle of the kitchen. And, and, and. In the end, you’ll definitely have something to talk about.
6. Traveling back in time: Are you perhaps one of those people who still remember their time in a shared flat with shining eyes, but it was a long time ago? Then a vacation in a shared flat would also be a bit of a trip down memory lane. And perhaps all the lightness with which you saw the world and life back then will return. After all, it gives you an excellent vacation feeling.
7. Saving money: You save money if you book or are accommodated privately instead of in a hotel. About 30 to 50 percent. Sometimes even the entire cost, as is the case with couchsurfing. For many, this is what makes traveling affordable in the first place – especially if you rent out your own accommodation to holidaymakers at the same time. And the calculation more than pays off. Because the experiences on-site, the new contacts, and the experiences are priceless.