Newsletter

Table of Contents:
 

BeWelcome ​News:

• Updating the Database
• The New Trips Feature
• New Board of Directors
• The 2022 Donation Campaign

BeWelcome Stories: 

• Multicultural Experiences From a German Muslim Woman
• Meet Helen, BeWelcome Member and Traveler Extraordinaire

 

 Greetings anonymous!

We wish you a happy new year in these times of ongoing challenges for our world. There have been many exciting developments happening with BeWelcome as we grow. In the past year our membership grew by 45,000 members! If you are one of these ‘new’ members, thank you for joining and welcome. We hope you can have rewarding and connecting experiences through the platform. 
 

In this newsletter, we highlight new features being developed, changes in our board and database and stories from members of the community. We hope you will enjoy these news and stories. 

BeWelcome will always be non-profit and is entirely run by volunteers and this month we celebrate our 15th anniversary! This could not have happened without the efforts of hundreds of generous individuals over the years. We thank them for all their help over the years. 
 

As BeWelcome moves forward, if you (yes, you!) are interested to help develop, or support this ‘magical’ network that brings people of many diverse backgrounds together, then please check out how you can help. 

Thank you for reading, be well in this time. 

The BW Newsletter Team 

 

BeWelcome ​News
 

An Accurate Database Means a More Active Membership

A peer to peer platform like BeWelcome is largely based on its scale and network effect and for some, the best hospitality exchange should be the biggest one. However, BW believes an accurate database of active members makes the better platform. Recently, a “clean-up” of inactive BeWelcome accounts was carried out. Those who didn’t log in after five reminders over time got their accounts suspended. In total, there were 18632 accounts which got temporarily suspended. Our members deserve a platform of active members with active email addresses, which is why accounts with invalid email addresses were also suspended. We shall remain transparent about our active members, our non-profit nature, mission, purpose and values, as well as where all of your donations go. 

The New Trips Feature

An often requested feature from members has been a search feature where one could look for incoming travelers. This feature has been a priority for the development team. We are happy to announce that the ‘Trips’ feature is now in the final testing phase. It will allow members to post where they are travelling to, and when. Members in the trip area can see who is coming to their place, so hosts can offer accommodation and potential ‘meet-ups’ can be arranged. The more testers, the sooner this feature will come alive. If you are interested in speeding up this process then welcome to join the feature requests team or the testing team. Stay tuned. 

New Board of Directors​​​

The annual General Assembly took place November 21-24, 2021 online and a new Board of Directors (BoD)  was elected.

Again, the BoD is a very international one. There are three members from two continents. The new BeWelcome President is Gabriel coming from Grenoble, France. The new BeWelcome Secretary is Peter from Auckland, New Zealand and the BeWelcome Treasurer is Frank from Grimbergen, Belgium. To learn more about what happened at the 2021 General Assembly, read more here. 

The 2022 Donation Campaign

The 2022 donation campaign has officially been launched!

Why, you may ask? 

Founded in 2007, BeWelcome is backed by members only and run entirely by volunteers. There is no CEO, no “tycoon”, no venture capitalists, hedge funds, offices, paid staff, shareholders or conglomerate behind the organization. We are 100 percent non-profit, independent and governed by members. 

Our finances are open and transparent. Our accounts are published once a year to be checked and agreed on by the General Assembly of BeVolunteer and during the year the Board of Directors and the treasurer specifically – take care of financial matters with BeWelcome.

We are enormously grateful to our members for recognising the need to safeguard ‘free to use’ hospitality exchange and appreciate all previous contributions over the years.

BeWelcome, which is set up by the French non-profit association BeVolunteer, has received more donations than needed in the previous years. That is why our donation target for this year is only €600.

While our donation campaign is minimal and necessary, what is more important to BeWelcome are volunteers who donate their time. Many teams at times are understaffed and have a big workload to cope with. Want to volunteer? Check out more information here. It may take time to get you onboarded, but your help would help serve a network that fosters connections globally. 

 

BeWelcome Stories
 

Multicultural Experiences From Fatima, a German-Muslim Woman

 

I am Fatima and I’ve been with BeWelcome since May 2020. I live in Hamburg/Germany but have a second home in Beirut/Lebanon. Hospitality Exchange has been part of my life for many years but I also swap time and used goods. My youngest sister first introduced me to hospitality exchange. At that time I couldn’t imagine to ​​stay overnight with strangers or receiving strangers in my house, but I found out that there were activities and I started to take part in them. After a while I began organizing activities, and sometimes together with others. The biggest event was a hike in the holy Qannoubine valley near Bsharri with 35 participants.

When I hosted for the first time some years ago, it was a great experience. I usually host during the time I live in Lebanon – which is rare nowadays because of the Covid travel restrictions. But I miss it. 

Being a host helped me to overcome my hesitation to be a guest – and one or two years later I did a solo trip and was a guest myself. Ever since then, I travelled several times and stayed with BeWelcomers not only in my home country, but also in the Netherlands. I specially like the fact that my hosts offer me experiences I would have never had without them such as excursions to lost places or a private organ concert by my host in a church. 

Many of my guests and hosts became friends and we are in touch even after a long time. I like the fact that I meet people from different backgrounds and cultures and that there are very interesting conversations – last but not least about me being a German woman who converted to Islam. This usually comes after I ask for private prayer time or right at the beginning if a male host wants to welcome me with a handshake or a hug – as I refuse to touch any male person outside of my family. This became much easier with Covid. I feel that the intimacy of staying in a private house enables a deep exchange which is never possible in hotels or with brief encounters.

During the pandemic I joined an unofficial Telegram chat group with BeWelcome members from all around the world. I like most of the topics brought up in this group from “What is the typical food you eat at a specific occasion?” to “Is there anybody in Hamburg to spontanously meet up?” Hospitality exchange has enriched my life and I don’t want to miss it.
 

Story written by duesseldorf

Meet Helen, BeWelcome Member and Traveler Extraordinaire 

Helen discovered hospitality exchange networks like BeWelcome ten years ago when a friend of a friend told her about it at a bar in her home city of Berlin. Back then that’s how many people discovered these amazing traveler networks: By travelers sharing with other travelers through “word of mouth”.

Soon after, she hopped on a train across Russia, the famous Trans-Siberian express that takes close to two weeks to complete. While she didn’t have any references or comments on her new profile she had created, she found she got hosted easily.

After having a wonderful train trip and making new friends with her hosts, she didn’t stop there and continued to travel extensively, going around the world three times, and visiting over 100 countries over three years. She used networks like BeWelcome a lot, making new connections, lifelong friends and fun memories along the way.

Helen found staying with local hosts was way more meaningful than a hotel or hostel. She did stay at hostels in her early travels, but found the always same crowds and atmosphere there and that became boring for her. Yet, with hosts she found she could satisfy her curiosity of the question most pressing on her heart as a world traveler; How do people really live?

And she found that she got answers to that question everywhere, all the time, as she moved all across the world.

She discovered what it was like to live with a large family, or to be affected by the local politics of a particular country, to survive, and to see what values people had and what was most important to them.

After her travels and being generously hosted, she pays it forward and hosts quite a bit herself in Germany. Her advice to travelers looking for a host in her words are to “Just be yourself, to put some effort in your profile, do the dishes sometimes and care who you stay with and if you really don'’ care who you are staying with, then stay at a f$%#ing hotel.”

For hosts, she recommends filling out your profile more than just a few sentences, and creating reasons why guests may want to stay with you. The more you write on your profile, the more likely you are going to have guests discover you and want to connect because of who you are and what interests you in your life. You may even after the experience become lifelong friends, as Helen has. 

In the end, Helen says she “simply wants to have a good time and be with people who I wouldn't be with otherwise”. She’s been doing it for ten years now and has no intention of putting an end to it.

To Follow Helen, or even stay with her in Berlin, check out her BW Profile or her Instagram @not.just.a.pretty.place/

Story written by Saleme
 

Helen sharing her hair with Martin, she stayed with him in 2011, he with her in 2014 and this photo was in 2017. They are friends for life. 

Relevant BeWelcome Links: 
- BeWelcome Facebook 
- BeWelcome Vimeo Channel  
- BeWelcome Instagram 
- BeWelcome Twitter  
- T-Shirts, mugs and more!

Thank you for reading ! If you have suggestions for a story, or a newsworthy item, please contact Saleme