Warm Showers

Warm Showers is a non-profit social networking service for people engaging in bicycle touring to arrange homestays. The platform is a gift economy — hosts are not supposed to charge for lodging and are not binded.[3][4][5][6][7][8] The platform is accessible via a mobile app and a website based on Drupal software.[9] The website is hosted by Skvare, LLC, a web hosting service.[10][11] The company is a Colorado 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, USA.[2]

Warm Showers
Type of business501(c)(3) organization non-profit organization
Area servedGlobal
OwnerWarmshowers.org Foundation (as on the website); WARMSHOWERS ORG (as filed in the IRS form)
Founder(s)Terry Zmrhal
Geoff Cashmen
Key peopleSeth Portner, executive director
Len Bulmer, Chairperson
Cyril Wendl, Director
Russel Workman, Director
Stephanie Verwys, Director
Ken Francis, Director
Jack Turner, Director
Bruce Squire, Director
ProductsHomestay
ServicesSocial networking service, Communication
URLwww.warmshowers.org
Alexa rank388,610 (As of 25 April 2020)[1]
Users153,088 members, including 93,542 hosts (As of 25 April 2020)
Launched1993 (1993)
[2]

The platform has been described as a "cyclists’ support network whose members may offer free amenities and services such as meals and lodging".[12]

Rough Guides recommends Warm Showers as means to improve security of solo female cyclists.[13]

Warm Showers helps bicycle travelers to balance the self-reliance of camping and hotels with opportunities for social encounters.[14]

Warm Showers has a positive effect on rural communities, both socially and economically.[15]

Many users of the platform cycle for health reasons or to reduce their carbon footprint and to be environmentally friendly.[16][3]

The organization received donations of $100,641 in 2015, $84,009 in 2016, and $115,324 in 2017.[2]

History

A Canadian couple, Terry Zmrhal and Geoff Cashmen, founded Warm Showers in 1993.[17][18] They created a database from the existing members of biking-hospitality organizations.

In 1996, Roger Gravel became responsible for the platform.[19]

In 2005, Randy Fay created the website based on the existing database.[17]

On November 15, 2009, the platform became open-source software. It has had 15 contributors and 7 releases since then.[9]

On January 22, 2012, open source development of the mobile app for Android started and has had 11 contributors.[20]

Randy Fay is listed as the developer with the most commits for both, website and Android app.

On October 7, 2012, open source development of the mobile app for iOS started and has had 2 contributors.[21]

In 2017, Seth Portner was its executive director, its board chair was Len Bulmer and board members were Cyril Wendl, Russel Workman, Stephanie Verwys, Ken Francis, Jack Turner, and Bruce Squire.[2]

Membership statistics
Date Members Ref
April 2009 7,500 members [22]
August 2014 50,000 members [19]
April 2017 89,000; including 39,000 hosts [5]
April 2018 85,000 members [4]

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.[23]

References
  1. "Alexa Internet: warmshowers.org". Alexa Internet.
  2. "Return of organization exempt from income tax" (PDF). Internal Revenue Service. 2017.
  3. Kopnina, Helen (September 20, 2014). "Sustainability in environmental education: new strategic thinking". Environment, Development and Sustainability. 17 (5): 987–1002. doi:10.1007/s10668-014-9584-z.
  4. Cunningham, Joshua (April 24, 2018). "Warmshowers: why free hospitality for bike tourists is a priceless experience". The Guardian.
  5. "For Road-Weary Cyclists, a Room, a Couch, Maybe Even a Meal". The New York Times. April 25, 2017.
  6. Milyko, Jennifer (August 29, 2013). "Bicycle Travel Etiquette: Warmshowers or Couchsurfing?". Adventure Cycling Association.
  7. Scotsman, The (December 1, 2019). "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.
  8. "Bike Touring 101: The Simple, Achievable Joys of Touring America on Two Wheels". insidehook.com. 2019.
  9. "Github: warmshowers.org". GitHub.
  10. "Skvare, LLC". skvare.com.
  11. "IP Trace". accessify.com.
  12. Pendak, Jared (June 28, 2018). "Tunbridge's Edwards Lives to Cycle". Valley News.
  13. Reader, Lesley; Ridout, Lucy. The Rough Guide to First-Time Asia. Rough Guides.
  14. Ferreira, Pedro; Helms, Karey; Brown, Barry; Lampinen, Airi (2019). "From Nomadic Work to Nomadic Leisure Practice: A Study of Long-term Bike Touring". ACM on Human-Computer Interaction. 3. doi:10.1145/3359213.
  15. Beierle, Heidi (May 12, 2011). "Bicycle Tourism as a Rural Economic Development Vehicle" (PDF). University of Oregon.
  16. Higgins, Brian (October 3, 2018). "Why this man is letting cycling tourists stay at his house for free". CBC News.
  17. Tilton, Benjamin (May 2, 2019). "Before You Hit the Open Road: Warmshowers Has an Overnight Solution for Touring Cyclists and Story-making". SLUG Magazine.
  18. D'Ambrosio, Dan (March 1, 2018). "HEY buddy, CAN YOU SPARE A WARM SHOWER?" (PDF). Adventure Cycling Association.
  19. Meyers, Drew (August 21, 2014). "A Little History of Modern Hospitality Networks". horizonapp.co.
  20. "WarmShowers for Android". GitHub.
  21. "Warmshowers iPhone/iPad App". GitHub.
  22. Fay, Randy (April 30, 2009). "Internationalization and Localization of Warmshowers.org". randyfay.com.
  23. Tagiew, Rustam; Ignatov, Dmitry I.; Delhibabu, Radhakrishnan (2015). Economics of Internet-Based Hospitality Exchange. (IEEE/WIC/ACM) International Conference on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology (WI-IAT). Singapore. pp. 493--498. arXiv:1501.06941. doi:10.1109/WI-IAT.2015.89.
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