I am very interested in joining, can you tell me, how this works?

It's very simple: Everyone on the network has a profile. Members can look for profiles of other members in their destination of travel, check out their profile and if they wish, send a message to that person. Most members in BeWelcome offer hospitality to travellers and/or can show you nice spots. If that sounds good to you, sign up, fill in the form and submit it. You will need to give your email address as well as your physical address. Though both are required to sign you up, your email address will be invisible to other members by default and your address and real name will be accessible only by registered members. Of course, they can also be hidden. We will immediately send an email to the email address you supplied and ask you to confirm your registration. You can browse the site straight away, but will not yet have access to other members' profiles nor be able to use some tools. That's because all new profiles must be approved by volunteers. Which should only take a few hours (or a few days if volunteers are traveling themselves :) ).