BeWelcome News

BeWelcome has always had a video channel - which has now been reactivated. Have a look: https://vimeo.com/bewelcome

Do you like to make short videos? 
We would be more than happy to share them!

You are not into video making? Stills are also wonderful! Take a picture and have it put on our Facebook page :)

The BeWelcome Media Team offers to publish videos and pictures on our official channels.
If you want to add your pic or video please get in touch with me (duesseldorf) or subaculture.

Because of COVID-19, its hard to think about travel and meeting travelers or locals at the moment. There is a time you will. Hospitality exchange will continue to be a beacon of hope and trust in futures unknown, and in the possibility of a better, more equitable world after the pandemic.

A story from from Barbora, Czech Republic 

"So about a month after CS has set the paywall and blocked the access to my account, I have opened a new account on BeWelcome and already hosted two events in my city to…

Members from Brazil and the US are the first ones hosting the BeWelcome Café!
As it is still not possible to meet up in real life get the feeling of being a real community online.

Check here for days and times:
 https://www.bewelcome.org/wiki/jitsimeettimetable

It is my pleasure to announce that two weeks ago we reached our yearly donation goal of 1,300 euro, and have been receiving further donations since then. Our current total stands at approximately 2,650 euro.

I would like to thank everybody who donated money, time, resources and ideas. Because of the support of our volunteers and members, we are ready to overcome the difficulties in these strange times, and keep on growing

Frank
BV Treasurer

Who would have thought that BeWelcome would have a huge influx of new members, especially during a time of global worry and sacrifice? 
Thousands of new members joined BeWelcome after the 15th of May, and to all of you we say Hello, Bonjour, Hola, Zdravstvuyte, Nǐn hǎo, Salve, Konnichiwa ..!

For many of you, it may be a difficult choice to move to a new hospitality exchange community. The debatable decision of the biggest platform in hospitality exchange - to add fees for many of its members - is…

Hi all,

The server was updated and can be used as usual now.

There are a few things worth noting:

• You can download your data from your profile; please be aware that the result is not machine readable,
• It is now possible to search for members based on their username,
• Uploading images to the gallery should be easier now, with the new upload page allowing to upload several images at once,
• All mail messages you receive from BeWelcome now use the same template engine and should look alike,
• Several…

BeWelcome extends a warm welcome to all those from Couchsurfing who have either recently joined, or have re-activated their profile here. Covid is severely restricting travel and hospitality exchange at the moment, but we hope that you will have many successful hospex experiences through this site, once travel safely resumes.

Many aspects of BW are similar to CS. We call references 'comments', but their purpose is the same, and it is just as important to complete your profile. Other things may…

Covid-19 (the Coronavirus) has already had a drastic impact in many countries, and our thoughts are with the BeWelcome community and their families in these difficult times.

The outbreak has affected the ability to host or be hosted. Travelling and hosting are not advised - and sometimes not possible - in the affected areas, and the local restrictions can often change at short notice, as circumstances develop. So, if you have made plans that need to be changed or cancelled, please let any hosts…

BeVolunteer - the registered non-profit association behind BeWelcome - has elected for the 15th time the official Board of Directors (BoD).

The BeVolunteer members who are elected to the board of directors are active volunteers, and this year all Board members are also experienced 'boardies' from previous terms. The main duties of the BoD are: keeping a global overview, checking that things go well and solve problems when they occur, and provide a nice working environment beneficial to all…

On September 19th we became aware that BeWelcome.org had become the target of an attack, like many other Linux-based sites, by the malware "Lilu".

In an attempt to extort ransom money, the malware encrypted the site and member data, making it unusable. Our volunteers immediately started the process of restoring as much of the site and data as possible with the help of backups. We also informed members about the problem on Facebook and Twitter, and published an advisory on the site itself as soon…