Warmshowers hosting availability

[Dazzleship]

I'm looking to accommodation for a route that I'm planning for next year and would rather stay at B&B's and cheap hotels as I don't want to carry very much stuff. I've found the Warmshowers website, but I'd like to be able to see how many hosts there are before I commit to another subscription.
Would anyone have experience of using WS in the UK and what are your experiences of it?
Does anyone know if there is a website that you can put in a route and it will provide accommodation near the route? I've tried cycle.travel but the list of accommodation seems quite limited.

[JennyB]

I'm a host on Warmshowers, so if you let me know where you are planning to go, I could check for you, but  here in Northwest Ireland there are enough to potentially use Warmshowers exclusively.

[Dazzleship]

Thanks for the reply  Jenny. I'd be starting off near Norwich and going up to Aberdeen using the NCR1. I appreciate that its a long route and i wouldn't want you list every host just an idea of how many there are.

[JennyB]

Thanks for the reply  Jenny. I'd be starting off near Norwich and going up to Aberdeen using the NCR1. I appreciate that its a long route and i wouldn't want you list every host just an idea of how many there are.

They tend to cluster in the bigger towns, but I don't see any forty-mile section of your route without more than one convenient to it.

[lissotriton]

Seems some people aren't happy about how Warmshowers is now run. ie the subscription fees. So maybe alternatives are getting more popular.
Some details here. https://warmshowers.bike/

Trustroots looks interesting, it is free. https://www.trustroots.org/

[Pickled Onion]

I've been a warmshowers host for years, and I had no idea until today there was a subscription model.

[Jaded]

From what I read it is a one-off payment of $30, for a lifetime 'membership'.

[lissotriton]

Plus $3 per month to use the app. The app has poor reviews anyway, don't know if it is any use.

[Phil Hears A Who]

I'm an absolutely massive fan of Warmshowers, the £30 is probably the best £30 I ever spent on a bike, and the £3pm for the app you can just sign up and cancel when you get back from your trip, no need to leave it running forever. Its not the smoothest app in the world but it does the job

[sparklyfish]

If there aren't appropriate Warmshowers, I recently noticed that the brilliant Vrienden op de Fiets have quite a few addresses listed in UK, quite a few were on the North Sea route. https://www.vriendenopdefiets.nl/en/

With regard to finding accommodation en route whilst in the planning stage, these days I look up hostels first and plop them as Points of Interest on my tentative route on RideWithGPS. If non-hostel accommodation is going to be necessary, I switch the map to Google maps to see rentals, hotels and B&Bs. It's a bit convoluted so I'm all ears if you find a better way!

[nadir]

Hi, been a member of warm showers for many years, hosting many tourists in France over the years and have used it as a guest mainly when touring round Scotland.
We have a booking to host next week and expect we will get a few more bookings over the PBP. Quite surprised at the mention of charges as Ive never been asked for anything, other than the odd request for a donation.
In fact, I am now signed into the website and see no mention of membership charge.
When did this introduction of a membership charge start?

[Bowner]

I signed up to Warm Showers a couple of weeks ago when I was in Brittany but didn't have much luck. I paid my $30 because that's what I had to do as far as I could see and sent 7 or 8 messages but only got one reply from someone who couldn't host us. It was short notice but I made sure to check that any potential hosts had been online in the last few weeks at least. I sent messages as that's what I'd always done on Couchsurfing which I have used in the past (and hosted more than 30 people over the years) but I was a bit disappointed at the lack of replies! Was I doing something wrong?

I understand as mentioned above that people are a bit disgruntled with it due to the subscription thing which was also been an issue with Couchsurfing since Covid threatened to kill it off. It seems like it's still a thing but I guess I should have contacted a few hosts beforehand but when you're doing a freestyle trip then you don't want to/can't give specific dates.

Edit: Ah I just had a look at some profiles on the website and realise that there is additional information (not on the app) on there showing the responsiveness to messages. From the few I looked at I can see that 0-10% responsiveness is common! I guess that means that if you're on the road you can chuck out a message but have in mind that you're more than likely to need an alternative if you don't get a reply. So, not that useful as a resource unless you get lucky or can message a long way in advance.

[Phil Hears A Who]

Just had a look at my history from a 3 week tour in portugal/spain/france/italy last year, I sent 12 messages over about 3 weeks, with 3 yes, and only 1 non-reply. Of the yes, one was two days before, one one day before, one the same day. So maybe a little better success % than your experience, but I think I only bothered messaging people that were recently active and had good responsiveness rates. I generally would have a plan to camp somewhere etc. and then anything from Warmshowers was just a bonus.

[Bowner]

On reflection I also sent my messages in English which probably didn't help. I think I'd got used to Airbnb auto translating messages rather than just being ignorant. Also I think it's best just to carpet bomb every host in the area as being picky doesn't work because of the percentage of hosts who actually reply.

[rogerzilla]

https://bill-watts.blogspot.com/2023/07/warm-showers-is-not-what-it-seems.html?m=1

https://bill-watts.blogspot.com/2023/07/why-does-warmshowers-charge-membership.html?m=1

The plot thickens.  It seems at least one person is making substantial money from it.

[L CC]

My mum & dad are warmshowers hosts and it works both ways -

We have had  5 Warmshowers requests in the last few weeks, 3 have cancelled, 1 no show, 1 (very nice) guest.

[Pickled Onion]

It's difficult to plan where you're going to be on any particular day, that's the nature of cycle touring. Sometimes the weather is against you, or the mountains were bigger than expected, other times you get far further than anticipated. Most of my guests have messaged within a day or two of arrival, I always respond, though often they've sent out a number of requests and take the first to respond.

On the other side, I've never actually managed to stay at any warmshowers host when touring, I've never had a single response (even to say no).

I've just had a request for a week's time. They are driving from France to Inverness, where they will do a 3 week tour, and want to break their drive here. Frankly, even if I had the space right now, they can FRO. That is *not* what I offer hosting for!

[Cudzoziemiec]

Is Couchsurfing still going? Any good, if anyone's used it?

[Bowner]

Is Couchsurfing still going? Any good, if anyone's used it?

I haven't logged in for a while because I stopped paying membership but I used it a couple of years ago and it was still good. Several surfers I hosted told me that it had become more of a 'hook-up' app but I don't think anyone comes to rural Wales looking for that so I don't know, I'm sure there's all kinds of people on there. You can always check people out from their profile and get a good idea about them. I've just been messaging with my German friend who stayed at my house a few years back. It's a lovely way to meet people from other countries and I don't imagine it's changed that much.