Budget-conscious travellers who embrace the sharing economy as a source of affordable trips will appreciate a new initiative launching in November offering “free” accommodation around the world. For Barter Week (19-25 November) more than 450 properties in 60 countries have signed up to offer hospitality in return for goods or services instead of cash – whether that’s painting a wall, teaching a language or even providing homemade chutneys.
Hosts list rooms online alongside requests, or “wishes”, and potential guests can search for properties by country and barter directly, at no cost. If a property listing doesn’t include a wish list, travellers can suggest a barter of their own, from tango lessons to collectible items such as comics or antiques. The host then accepts, rejects or negotiates until a fair exchange is agreed, including how long guests would be expected to work, and the length of the stay.
The initiative is managed by Italian B&B aggregate site bed-and-breakfast.it, which launched the annual Italian Settimana del Baratto event in 2009, inspired by a Sardinian B&B that offered a barter option. At its peak in 2016, the Italian event had 2,000 hosts, and the site now includes properties that accept bartering all year round. The project’s success has led to a new global Barter Week site, opening the event to the rest of the world for the first time – with properties on all continents (including some but not all of the Italian hosts from the original scheme).
Current requests include helping to create a website in return for a stay in a thatched inn near Salisbury; painting part of a B&B with a pool in Manado, Indonesia; bringing organic produce from the traveller’s home country to large rural property Kostanjevica na Krasu, Slovenia; or supplying old mobile phones or cooking ingredients to a family’s traditional ger (yurt) in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
Some requests are more unusual: a host in Portoferraio, on the island of Elba, is asking for “ancient silver forks”; another in Crédin, Brittany, wants to know “how to make the best pizza”; a self-confessed book hoarder in Oregon will accept any kind of books; and a Tuscan host is looking for a bicycle for a very tall man. There are also requests for gardening, professional photography, marketing expertise, homemade food, language lessons and washing-up help.
With nearly 10 years in the business of bartering and facilitating a network of hosts and guests, Barter Week’s organisers say no problems have been reported, from either side: “We constantly monitor offers and requests and we’ve sometimes noticed unusual or peculiar offers or requests – innocent ones, however, not illegal or inappropriate ones so far.” A new version of the site will launch shortly after Barter Week, with requests searchable by category and properties that accept bartering all year round.
