If you're looking to break away from the usual accommodation types and stay with a local in 2011, your options have never been wider. Many sites have launched new features this year, designed to making searching for a good host even easier.
AirBnB.com, a site that helps travellers rent spare rooms or properties on a short-term basis, now covers more than 8,000 cities worldwide and has secured £4.5m in new funding. As its reach grows, so does the number of user reviews on the site, and these are the key to successful usage.
A sample listing is a room with private bathroom and balcony in central Barcelona for £39 a night. Of the 23 complimentary reviews that follow, one says that the host "is super helpful with advice on where to find things around the city, very respectful of people's habits and privacy, and a great cook" – see airbnb.com/rooms/24828?price=62]
MyFriendsHotel.com is based on a similar premise, offering listings for homestays or entire rental properties at reasonable prices. A spare room in a family house in Manila, for example, will cost £12 a night. Although MyFriendsHotel does not have the large budget AirBnB enjoys, it's a stylish site with strong potential. New features for 2011 will include letting users map out potential properties based on shared interests, and the site says it is also working to create a Facebook-style community feel.
The number of sites that help travellers stay with fellow members for free, in the style of the hugely popular Couchsurfing.org, also continues to grow. With headquarters in Silicon Valley, Tripping.com is looking to make its own mark on the formula. Earlier this month(January), it launched a new "networks" feature after signing partnership deals with a variety of organisations, including Erasmus, the European Union's student exchange programme. The idea is that private sub-networks will offer members and alumni the chance to meet or host each other when abroad.
Other new features on Tripping include more general, open-to-all networks which help members find hosts with common interests, such as photography, yoga or outdoor sports, and a safety measure that allows members to verify their identity by showing their passport during a video interview on Skype.
Music lovers may be best off heading straight to betterthanthevan.com, which was was set up to help travelling musicians escape the monotony of the tour bus. As a host, you can offer whatever space you have available, from a sofa to a spare room or simply a bit of floor space. A nice touch is the "Show Swap", which means your hosts help hook you up with a gig in their city and in return you try to do the same for them. The rule is no money should change hands, although you can offer a song or two. Watch out for the site's relaunch in February.
And what of Couchsurfing? The "free" accommodation site still leads the field in terms of popularity, with almost 2.5 million members. It's not exactly moving with the times, however: aside from a logo change, the site's look and set-up hasn't changed much over the years, which is simultaneously reassuring and frustrating.
One very helpful addition is a user-friendly "events" section, which offers travellers a great way to meet locals, even if you'd rather still base yourself in a hotel or hostel. For example, in Paris this week, you could attend a Russian dance, a jazz concert or an informal photography tour, plus there's a regular language group and a Monday quiz night.
