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Homestay
Homestay (also home stay and home-stay) is a form of hospitality and lodging whereby visitors share a residence with a local of the area (host) to which they are traveling. The length of stay can vary from one night to over a year and can be provided for free (gift economy), in exchange for monetary compensation, in exchange for a stay at the guest's property either simultaneously or at another time ( home exchange), or in exchange for housekeeping or work on the host's property ( barter economy). Homestays are examples of collaborative consumption and the sharing economy. Homestays are used by travelers; students who study abroad or participate in student exchange programs; and au pairs, who provide child care assistance and light household duties. They can be arranged via certain social networking services, online marketplaces, or academic institutions. Social networking services where hosts offer homestays for free are called hospitality exchange services. Advantages and d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hospitality Exchange Service
Hospitality exchange services (hospitality exchange platforms, hospitality exchange networks or HospEx) are social networking services used for accommodation of travellers, where hosts do not receive payments. The relationships on homestay, hospitality exchange services are shaped by altruism and are related to the cyber-utopianism on the Web in its beginnings and to utopia in general. On HospEx, members typically create public profiles that describe themselves and their travel plans, and then searching for potential hosts or guests based on various criteria such as location, interests, and availability. Travelers connect with local hosts who are willing to offer free accommodation, meals, and/or other forms of hospitality during their trip. The concept of hospitality exchange has been around for a long time, with informal networks of travelers and hosts existing for decades. However, the advent of the internet and social media has made it much easier to connect with people from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Home Exchange
Home exchange, also known as house swapping, is a form of lodging in which two parties agree to offer each other homestays for a set period of time. Since no monetary exchange takes place, it is a form of barter, collaborative consumption, and sharing. Home exchange can cover any type of residence including apartments, houses, holiday cottages, boats, or recreational vehicles. It can include an exchange of the entire home or just a room. The length of the swap can vary from a weekend to over a year. The swap can be simultaneous or non simultaneous. Home exchanges are usually arranged via specific types of social networking services, most of which charge a fee. Like all homestays, home exchanges offer several advantages over hotel lodging, including a lower cost and opportunities for cultural diplomacy and friendship. Some networks offer the ability to collect a security deposit. Summer is traditionally the peak season for house swapping, as families travel during school breaks. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CouchSurfing
CouchSurfing is a hospitality exchange service by which users can request free short-term homestays or interact with other people who are interested in travel. It is accessible via a website and mobile app. It uses a subscription business model, and while hosts are not allowed to charge for lodging, members in some countries must pay a fee to access the platform. History Conception (1999–2004) Couchsurfing was conceived by computer programmer and New Hampshire native Casey Fenton in 1999, when he was 21 years old. The idea arose after Fenton found a cheap flight from Boston to Iceland but did not have lodging. Fenton hacked into a database of the University of Iceland and randomly e-mailed 1,500 students asking for a homestay. He received between 50 and 100 offers and chose to stay at the home of an Icelandic rhythm and blues singer. On the return flight to Boston, he came up with the idea to create the website. He registered the couchsurfing.com domain name on 12 June 1999. F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Au Pair
An au pair (; : au pairs) is a person working for, and living as part of, a homestay, host family. Typically, au pairs take on a share of the family’s responsibility for child care as well as some homemaking, housework, and receive a monetary allowance (money), allowance or stipend for personal use. Au pair arrangements are often subject to government restrictions which specify an age range usually from mid teens to late twenties, and may explicitly limit the arrangement to females. The au pair program is considered a form of cultural exchange that gives the family and the au pairs a chance to experience and learn new cultures. Arrangements differ between Europe, where the concept originated, and North America. In Europe, au pairs are only supposed to work part-time, and they often also study part-time, generally focusing on the language of the host country. In the United States, they may provide full-time childcare. In 1969, the European Agreement on Au Pair Placement was sign ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lodging
Lodging refers to the use of a short-term dwelling, usually by renting the living space or sometimes through some other arrangement. People who travel and stay away from home for more than a day need lodging for sleep, rest, food, safety, shelter from cold temperatures or rain, storage of luggage and access to common household functions. Lodging is a form of the sharing economy. Lodging is done in a hotel, motel, hostel, or inn, a private home (commercial, i.e. a bed and breakfast, a guest house, a vacation rental, or non-commercially, as in certain homestays or the home of friends), in a tent, caravan/ campervan (often on a campsite). Lodgings may be self-catering, whereby no food is provided, but cooking facilities are available. Lodging is offered by an owner of real property or a leasehold estate, including the hotel industry, hospitality industry, real estate investment trusts, and owner-occupancy houses. Lodging can be facilitated by an intermediary such as a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Social Networking Service
A social networking service (SNS), or social networking site, is a type of online social media platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interests, activities, backgrounds or real-life connections. Social networking services vary in format and the number of features. They can incorporate a range of new information and communication tools, operating on desktops and on laptops, on mobile devices such as tablet computers and smartphones. This may feature digital photo/video/sharing and diary entries online (blogging). Online community services are sometimes considered social-network services by developers and users, though in a broader sense, a social-network service usually provides an individual-centered service whereas online community services are groups centered. Generally defined as "websites that facilitate the building of a network of contacts in order to exchange various t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hospitality Club
Hospitality Club (HC) was a hospitality exchange service (a gift economy network for finding homestays whereby hosts were not allowed to charge for lodging) accessible via a website. HC's specified goals were to facilitate "intercultural understanding ... bringing people together ... travelers and locals". History Hospitality Club was founded in July 2000 in Koblenz, by Veit Kühne, who was inspired by a trip to South America. It later incorporated technology from Hospex.org, a similar service. In 2005, a disagreement between some members of Hospitality Club and its founder led to the foundation of BeWelcome. Many HC members, who became volunteers within Couchsurfing, left HC towards CS because of its missing legal status and insufficient management transparency. In February 2006, Kühne was working full-time on Hospitality Club. In the spring of 2006, an event took place in Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sharing Economy
The sharing economy is a socio-economic system whereby consumers share in the creation, production, distribution, trade and consumption of goods, and services. These systems take a variety of forms, often leveraging information technology and the Internet, particularly digital platforms, to facilitate the distribution, sharing and reuse of excess capacity in goods and services. It can be facilitated by nonprofit organizations, usually based on the concept of book-lending libraries, in which goods and services are provided for free (or sometimes for a modest subscription) or by commercial entities, in which a company provides a service to customers for profit. It relies on the will of the users to share and the overcoming of stranger danger. It provides benefits, for example can lower the GHG emissions of products by 77%-85%. Origins Dariusz Jemielniak and Aleksandra Przegalinska credit Marcus Felson and Joe L. Spaeth's academic article "''Community Structure and Collaborativ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Friendship
Friendship is a Interpersonal relationship, relationship of mutual affection between people. It is a stronger form of interpersonal bond than an "acquaintance" or an "association", such as a classmate, neighbor, coworker, or colleague. Although there are many forms of friendship, certain features are common to many such bonds, such as choosing to be with one another, enjoying time spent together, and being able to engage in a positive and supportive role to one another. Sometimes friends are distinguished from family, as in the saying "friends and family", and sometimes from Sexual partner, lovers (e.g., "lovers and friends"), although the line is blurred with Friends with benefits relationships, friends with benefits. Similarly, being in the ''friend zone'' describes someone who is restricted from rising from the status of friend to that of lover (see also unrequited love). Friendship has been studied in academic fields, such as Communication studies, communication, sociology ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HuffPost
''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers politics, business, entertainment, environment, technology, popular media, lifestyle, culture, comedy, healthy eating, young women's interests, and local news featuring columnists. It was created to provide a progressive alternative to conservative news websites such as the Drudge Report. The site contains its own content and user-generated content via video blogging, audio, and photo. In 2012, the website became the first commercially run United States digital media enterprise to win a Pulitzer Prize. Founded by Arianna Huffington, Andrew Breitbart, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, the site was launched on May 9, 2005, as a counterpart to the Drudge Report. In March 2011, it was acquired by AOL for US$315 million, with Arianna ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
