Warm Showers Explained

Warm Showers
Company Type:501(c)(3) organization non-profit organization
Area Served:Global
Owner:Warmshowers.org Foundation (as on the website); WARMSHOWERS ORG (as filed in the IRS form)
Founder:Terry Zmrhal
Geoff Cashmen
Products:Homestay
Services:Social networking service, Communication
Num Users:161,000 members; including 104,000 hosts in 161 countries

Warm Showers (WS) is a non-profit hospitality exchange service for people engaging in bicycle touring. The platform is a gift economy — hosts are not supposed to charge for lodging and are not bound.[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] The legal form is a Colorado 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, US.[7]

The platform has been described as a "cyclists’ support network whose members may offer free amenities and services such as meals and lodging".[8] Rough Guides recommends Warm Showers as means to improve security of solo female cyclists.[9] Warm Showers helps bicycle travelers to balance the self-reliance of camping and hotels with opportunities for social encounters.[10] Warm Showers has a positive effect on rural communities, both socially and economically.[11] Many users of the platform cycle for health reasons or to reduce their carbon footprint and to be environmentally friendly.[12] [1] Cultural exchange and social connection do also play a role.[2] [13]

The organization received donations of $100,641 in 2015, $84,009 in 2016, $115,324 in 2017, $128,626 in 2018 and $111,089 in 2019.[14] [15] [16] [17]

History

The concept was inspired by cyclist John Mosley in 1976 by placing an ad in the U.S. magazine Bike World, which requested to sign up for a hospitality list.[18] A list of 800 names and contact infos was put into a rolodex for almost 30 years. The name of the organization was Touring Cyclist Hospitality Directory back then. Mosley provided touring cyclists with copies of pages from the rolodex.

A Canadian couple, Terry Zmrhal and Geoff Cashmen, founded Warm Showers in 1993 as a continuation of Touring Cyclist Hospitality Directory.[18] [19] [20] They created a database from the existing members of biking-hospitality organizations. In 1996, Roger Gravel became responsible for the platform.[21] In 2005, Randy Fay created the website based on the existing database.[19]

As of 2018, Seth Portner was the executive director of Warm Showers.[17] [7] [16] In 2019, Tahverlee Anglen provided management services.[15]

Membership statistics

In 2018, 53% of members were based in Europe and 30% in North America.[22]

DateMembers
August 201450,000 members
April 201789,000; including 39,000 hosts
April 201885,000 members
August 2018112,570
October 2019144,000 members in 161 countries[23]
April 2021161,000 members; including 104,000 hosts in 161 countries[24]

Homestay requests

Warm Showers grants trustworthy teams of scientists access to its anonymized data for publication of insights to the benefit of humanity. In 2015, an analysis of 97,915 homestay requests from BeWelcome and 285,444 homestay requests from Warm Showers showed general regularity — the less time is spent on writing a homestay request, the lower is the probability of success. Since both networks are shaped by altruism, low-effort communication, aka 'copy and paste requests', evidently sends the wrong signal.[25]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Kopnina . Helen . Sustainability in environmental education: new strategic thinking . Environment, Development and Sustainability . September 20, 2014 . 17 . 5 . 987–1002 . 10.1007/s10668-014-9584-z . 154969254 .
  2. News: Warmshowers: why free hospitality for bike tourists is a priceless experience . Joshua . Cunningham . . April 24, 2018.
  3. Web site: For Road-Weary Cyclists, a Room, a Couch, Maybe Even a Meal . . April 25, 2017 . subscription.
  4. Web site: Bicycle Travel Etiquette: Warmshowers or Couchsurfing? . Jennifer . Milyko . . August 29, 2013.
  5. News: Edinburgh cyclists who up and left jobs to travel on their bikes reach half way point around the world in just six months . The . Scotsman . . December 1, 2019.
  6. Web site: Bike Touring 101: The Simple, Achievable Joys of Touring America on Two Wheels. insidehook.com . 2019 .
  7. Web site: WARMSHOWERS ORG . 2017 . Internal Revenue Service.
  8. News: Tunbridge's Edwards Lives to Cycle . Jared . Pendak . . June 28, 2018.
  9. Book: Lesley . Reader . Lucy . Ridout . The Rough Guide to First-Time Asia . February 2010 . Rough Guides. 9781848368675 .
  10. Pedro . Ferreira . Karey . Helms . Barry . Brown . Airi . Lampinen . From Nomadic Work to Nomadic Leisure Practice: A Study of Long-term Bike Touring . Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction. 3 . 10.1145/3359213 . 2019 . 1–20 . free.
  11. Web site: Heidi . Beierle . Bicycle Tourism as a Rural Economic Development Vehicle . . May 12, 2011.
  12. News: Why this man is letting cycling tourists stay at his house for free . Brian . Higgins . . October 3, 2018.
  13. News: Viajante que percorre o mundo de bike faz parada em Joinville ND Mais . 30 November 2022 . ndmais.com.br . 10 September 2014 . pt-BR.
  14. Web site: WARMSHOWERS ORG . 2017 . Internal Revenue Service.
  15. Web site: WARMSHOWERS ORG . 2020 . . 18 December 2020.
  16. Web site: WARMSHOWERS ORG . 2018 . Internal Revenue Service . 18 December 2020.
  17. Web site: WARMSHOWERS ORG . 2016 . Internal Revenue Service . 18 December 2020.
  18. News: Bicycle touring fans reach out and connect through WarmShowers.org . 30 November 2022 . thestar.com . 13 November 2016 . en.
  19. News: Before You Hit the Open Road: Warmshowers Has an Overnight Solution for Touring Cyclists and Story-making . Benjamin . Tilton . . May 2, 2019.
  20. Web site: HEY buddy, CAN YOU SPARE A WARM SHOWER? . Dan . D'Ambrosio . . March 1, 2018.
  21. Web site: Meyers . Drew . A Little History of Modern Hospitality Networks . horizonapp.co . August 21, 2014.
  22. News: Le réseau warmshowers. Quésaco ? . 30 November 2022 . Le Telegramme . 29 August 2018 . fr.
  23. News: Warmshowers : j'irai me doucher chez vous . 30 November 2022 . Le Monde.fr . 11 October 2019 . fr.
  24. News: Germany . reisereporter, Hannover, Niedersachsen . Legale Alternativen zum Wildcamping in Deutschland . 27 April 2021 . reisereporter . de.
  25. 10.1109/WI-IAT.2015.89 . Economics of Internet-Based Hospitality Exchange . 2015 . Rustam . Tagiew . Dmitry I. . Ignatov . Radhakrishnan . Delhibabu . (IEEE/WIC/ACM) International Conference on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology (WI-IAT) . 493–498 . Singapore . 1501.06941 .