6 Ways To Get Free Accommodation While Traveling
There is nothing better than something that is free when you are traveling. Costs can add up exceedingly quick from the day-to-day expenses associated with travel, but with a little knowledge and planning ahead there are ways to fight off the high costs associated with travel.
Accommodation is easily one of the more consistently expensive parts of travel, but thankfully for us, there are plenty of ways to get it for free. Here are 6 ways to have a place to crash for free.
1. Stay With Locals:
There are a ton of travelers around the world and they are generally a pretty generous group of people who take other travelers in like family. There are many different sites online such as Couch Surfing and Hospitality Club that help you connect with people who have a room available or simply a couch to crash on. Recently, Couch Surfing has been one of the more popular sites in this type of traveling and they have a very easy-to-use user interface.
2. Monasteries
This is a lesser known way to get free accommodation, but it’s one that provides great scenery and a unique experience. Many monasteries do cost money, so it may take a little while to find one for free, but there are a few different sites to utilize to find one that suites you such as Monastery Stays and Trip Advisor.
3. Hotel Perk Cards
Hotels like business and with business comes offering people free perks. By signing up for cards from places like Marriott, you can earn points towards free accommodation and even upgrades. You earn these free points by either using their cards on purchasing everyday products to gain points overtime with a credit card or by staying at any of their locations. Although it’s not my favorite way to go, it’s good if you are on the road a lot and prefer luxury to budget traveling.
4. House Sitting
This method allows you to watch over someones house and pets while they are gone for extended periods of time in order to see the area where they live. And if you’re lucky, they may even pay you cash for taking care of their place. With Mind My House and House Careers you can connect with people who are in need of your house sitting skills.
5. Join A Crew
If you would like a little extra adventure and would like to go out on the open water, you can become a crew member on a boat. Some of these positions require previous skills in the trade, but it’s not too hard to find ones that require no previous experience. You can find Captain’s that are looking for crew members at Find A Crew and Crew Seekers.
6. Volunteer
If you want to work for your room on land rather than on the sea, you can volunteer on farms for an average of 4 to 6 hours per night you want to stay. WWOOF, which stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, is the number one source for this. By going to their website you can discover how to volunteer and what is expected of you for the free room. Depending on the farm you are stationed at, they may even give you free food along with other perks.
Some of the websites do come with catches such as membership fees, depending on what website that you use, to pay for the service of connecting you to other people. However, there are a bazillion websites out there for getting free accommodation and they are not limited to the ones that I have listed so do your research and enjoy your extra spending cash!