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Workaway

Online homestay platform

Field	Value
name	Workaway.info
logo	Workaway_logo.png
collapsible	no
collapsetext	Show screenshot
caption	Screenshot of Workaway's homepage.
language	English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese
area_served	Worldwide
owner	VEN ltd
industry	Travel industry
url
registration	Optional, site can be browsed without registering. Signing-up as a host is free. Paid subscriptions for volunteers.
launch_date
current_status	Online

Workaway is a platform that allows members to arrange homestays and cultural exchange. Volunteers or "workawayers", are expected to contribute a pre-agreed amount of time per day in exchange for lodging and food, which is provided by their host.

The opportunities on offer are varied. Some types of volunteering available include gardening, animal-care, cooking and farming, as well as more specialist and niche help requests. The duration of an exchange can range from as little as a few days to over a year.

Workaway is aimed at budget travellers and language learners looking to become more immersed in the country and culture they are journeying through while allowing local hosts to meet like-minded people who are also willing to contribute at the same time. It has been described as a useful way to improve foreign language skills as well as an opportunity to develop new talents and learn about local traditions.

One of the benefits for potentially isolated communities or people is the chance to bring the world to them via travellers using the site. Travellers can then profit from their host's knowledge of regional places of interest and their local environment. The ability to share space with a variety of people has been shown to enable cultural exchange and the chance to learn more about how others see the world.

Workaway placements have been impacted by Brexit and other geopolitical changes.

References

Bowes, Gemma. (17 October 2009). "Spain for free - a working holiday". [[The Guardian]].
Frommer, Arthur. (4 March 2012). "Budget Travel: Website offers work-for-room-and-board abroad". [[Cape Cod Times]].
Glusac, Elaine. (2024-08-20). "How to Choose a Volunteer Trip".
Finn, Christine. (15 January 2011). "Culture clubs: volunteering in creative communities". [[The Guardian]].
Bowes, Gemma. (17 October 2009). "Five great Workaway working holidays". [[The Guardian]].
Dixon, Rachel. (1 February 2016). "How to escape: tips and sites for working or volunteering abroad". [[The Guardian]].
. ["Workaway.info"](https://www.workaway.info/).
Buccheri, Rory. (20 November 2023). "Workaways: How to travel the world without spending a penny". [[The Big Issue]].
Utton, Charley. (28 January 2013). "Travelling on a student budget". [[The Independent]].
Rainsford, Cat. (12 July 2014). "Working holidays: my volunteering breaks and the lessons learned". [[The Guardian]].
Roepert, Ekkehard. (17 December 2018). "Hochstall 4 bietet Raum für Talente aus aller Welt".
Glass, Katie. (2023-01-17). "‘I loved being a Workaway host but now Brexit has ended it in the UK’".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

cultural-exchange hospitality-exchange-services

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