How to get free accommodation around the world when you travel
1 January 2021
Whenever we ask our LGBT+ community what the biggest things holding them back from traveling are, we almost always get the same two responses: money and safety.
We TOTALLY get it.
On my first 6 month backpacking trip across the US and Europe, I spent $30,000AUD. I also rarely knew if the places I stayed in were LGBT+ friendly, so I still wasn’t “out”. In that one trip, I blew most of my savings. I didn’t know any better at the time, but I did know that if I wanted to keep traveling I’d have to find a cheaper way to travel.
There were 3 main reasons I spent so much money: alcohol, accommodation, and transport. I spent a lot of time drinking with my new travel friends. A third of my expenses went into accommodation, even though I was staying in cheap hostels. A good chunk of my money went into transport – planes, trains, and automobiles – getting from A to B to C back to B to X. I was travelling all over the US and Europe (17 states in the US, 8 countries in Europe)!
Sure, I could avoid alcohol for the next trip, but I didn’t know of a way to save money on accommodation and transport.
So I spent a lot of time researching how to travel for free.
And it turns out, there are LOADS of ways to save money on accommodation AND transport when traveling.
Now, after a decade of traveling the globe the cheap and free way, we thought we’d share what we know here with you.
1. WORKAWAY OR HELPX
Workaway and Helpx are volunteer websites for travellers, where you volunteer in a property in exchange for accommodation and/or food. The types of volunteer experiences vary but the most common ones are farm work, household chores in a private property, and housekeeping in hotels/hostels.
There are some pretty unique ones too though! We’ve volunteered as baristas at a Buddhist retreat in the UK, groomed animals in animal sanctuaries in Italy, and taught English in 5 star hotels in Romania and Poland. We’ve heard of experiences in Finland where you can train huskies in exchange for accommodation in Igloos (we will 100% do this at some point in our lives)!
The hours of work usually range anywhere between 2-5 hours per day. If you work for 2 hours per day, you’ll usually only receive accommodation in exchange. If you work longer hours, you usually get your meals provided for you too. You should get 1-2 days off per week too. Some exchanges even offer extended hours for pay – so you can earn some cash while you travel! When we’re travelling, we rarely go to a Workaway/Helpx that asks for more than 3+ hours work per day. We’d prefer to pay for our own food and explore the area we were in, instead of work all day. Each to their own though!
Workaways and Helpx have review systems for both the volunteer and the host (similar to Airbnb), so you can see what previous volunteers say about their experience volunteering.
HOW TO FIND A GOOD HELPX OR WORKAWAY
PRO TIP #1: If you find a Workaway/Helpx that’s asking for 4+ hours of work but only providing you with accommodation and not food, you’d totally want to look elsewhere. Also, if they’re not offering you 1-2 days break per week, that’s also a no no for us. The last we checked slavery was still outlawed…
PRO TIP #2: If there are more than 2 or 3 ‘negative’ or even neutral reviews, don’t do it. The BEST experiences will be with reviews that RAVE on about how positive the place is. We’ve learnt to spot the best workaways as soon as we look through the reviews and the description.
LGBTQ+ TIP: If you are unsure if the volunteer experience is LGBTQ+ welcoming, introduce yourself as a member of the LGBTQ+ community when you make initial contact. Most people on these websites are super progressive, so you shouldn’t have any issues. We have had 0 issues. But if you’re unsure, just mention it. It’s always comforting to feel welcome before you arrive at a volunteer experience as an LGBTQ+ member.
SOME OF OUR VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCES IN AUSTRALIA
One of the best Helpx experiences we’ve had in Australia was helping a 60 year old single mum and her 15 year old son near Byron Bay. I drove her kid to school, cooked, washed some windows, and cut down some trees. We originally planned to stay for 1 week, but it turned into 6 weeks!
She was SO easy going and we became best friends (we still talk – she da bomb)! We’d do yoga together, watch trash TV together at night, and have loads of laughs.
We even took her 15 year old son to cabaret one night and he LOVED all the drag performances. It was one of the highlights of our Australia trip!
Another great Helpx we did was in Port Macquarie, volunteering in a hostel for 2.5 hours per day cleaning the rooms in exchange for accommodation.
The best thing about Helpx and Workaway are the people you meet. You get to meet so many awesome people from around the world with similar stories and visions as you. That’s exactly what happened when we volunteered at Ozzie Pozzie Backpackers. We became a little family of cleaners.
Charlie also learnt how to make towel animals for the guests 🤣
Our worst Helpx experience was in Queensland at a Kangaroo Sanctuary. The reviews were mixed (remember Pro Tip #2! – if mixed reviews, don’t do it!), but I really wanted to work with the Kangaroo’s, so we decided to give it a go for one week. Big mistake. After day 2 we left because the owners expected us to work 4+ hours per day without food provided (remember Pro Tip #1! – don’t be a slave!). Our room was also in a cargo ship container. And the work involved building a wire fencer around a chicken pen which hadn’t been touched in 10 years old and had a dead moldy rats just hanging about. No thanks.
If volunteering during your travels isn’t your thing, there’s other ways to get accommodation for free.
2. PET-SITTING & HOUSE-SITTING
When pet-owners travel, they don’t want their animals to have to go to a kennel. Pet-owners often feel like they’re intruding if they always ask their friends to look after their animals when they go away too. So they’d much rather get someone trustworthy come into their home to look after their little furry loved ones! And honestly, who wouldn’t want to look after pets while traveling? AND not have to pay for accommodation? Legit the dream!
We’ve had so many pet-sitting experiences as we’ve travelled around Australia. In Sydney, Byron Bay, Brisbane, and Perth! The most difficult part is actually leaving the home, because we always fall in love with the little furry animals.
Depending on the website you use (but it’s worth it), you might have to pay an annual subscription. Our 3 favourites pet-sitting websites to use are:
Mindahome – $59AUD annual subscription.
Trustedhousesitters – $149AUD annual subscription.
AussieHouseSitters – $84AUD annual subscription (only in Australia).
Facebook groups are a FREE way to pet-sit though. Just join a group of the area that you’re in and post when you’re in the area and for how long, and specify that you’re looking to pet sit. We’ve heard a lot of success stories using this method.
LGBTQ+ TIP: Like Workaway/Helpx, if you are unsure if the owner is LGBTQ+ welcoming, introduce yourself as a member of the LGBTQ+ community when you make initial contact. We haven’t had any issues, but if you’re unsure, just mention it. It’s way more comforting to feel welcome in someone’s home before you arrive.
3. STEALTH CAMPING / FREE CAMPING
This one applies to the people traveling around the country by van or 4WD.
Stealth camping refers to camping overnight in a spot without drawing attention to yourself (i.e. being super discrete).
Free camping refers to camping at a free campsite or roadside stop designed for overnight stops.
The majority of our travels around Australia involved stealth camping. On side streets. Near beaches. In random car parks. In some states across Australia, it’s illegal to stealth/free camp. In others, it’s not. It’s always good to research the camping laws of the area you’re in. What we can’t tell you is whether or not to follow them… 🤣
HOW TO STEALTH CAMP
1. Make sure your van doesn’t look like someone is living in it. Our van doesn’t have any car stickers on it with images of where we’ve travelled to. No ‘I LOVE BYRON BAY’ or ‘VANLIFE FOREVER’ stickers are stuck to our van. It’s just looks like a plain white van on the outside. The solar panel is tiny and barely noticeable if you’re on ground level. Some people even go as far as to put some business sticker on their van to make it look like van if for business purposes – e.g., “Pet Grooming Services – call 1800 GROOMING” painted on the side of the van. We don’t think that’s necessary, but it probably works.
2. Plan where you want to sleep, and go there right before bedtime. Don’t hang out in your sleep spot all day. That’s not very stealthy.
3. Park outside a spot where people frequently stay for a short period of time (e.g., a hostel, hotel). Don’t park in a local residents driveway – that is probably a bit suss.
4. Have a pee bottle. Going outside to pee is much less stealthy than peeing inside the van.
5. Have blackout curtains that you can throw up between your cabin and living space in your van. It’s unlikely people can actually see you in there.
4. COUCHSURFING
Couchsurfing is where you sleep on a locals couch for free. There’s no volunteer work involved. No pets that need to be looked after. It’s just an awesome way to travel where you don’t have to pay for accommodation. You also have the opportunity to become friends with a local and learn loads about the local culture.
We LOVE couchsurfing. We’ve couchsurfed for years, across so many countries: Taiwan, Italy, England, Australia, and the US to name a few. We’ve had Couchsurfers stay with us in Sydney and the UK too.
Some hosts might not respond (depending on their availability), but it is 100% worth looking into. Hosts generally tend to specify if they are LGBTQ+ too so it’s a great way to make LGBTQ+ connections in the area you’re traveling to. There’s a search engine in the app that allows you to specify the criteria you’re looking for. Just type ‘gay’ or ‘LGBT’ and see who’s in the area that you could potentially stay with!
5. SOCIAL MEDIA
Our Instagram was the last place we expected to find accommodation. But trust us, it can work.
It depends on how much of a social media presence you have. If you do have a community of people following you along your travels, it is a great opportunity to find a place to stay.
If you’re explicit about your LGBTQ+ status on social media, your little Instagram community will know what you identify as. So you won’t have to worry about how to go about introducing yourself – you’re already well known!
We have had such lovely messages come through from people who were willing to host us.
To make it work, you need people to trust you. We don’t just post selfies of us making out all the time. We post our genuine moments: when we’re bored AF, when a rat gets in the van, when Charlie isn’t paying attention to me 🤣. When I asked our hosts in Perth why they allowed 2 random strangers to stay in their home, they said it was because we seem genuine from what we posted. Before we stayed, our hosts asked if we wanted to meet for a drink first so that we could figure out if they were serial-killer-esque. From their message, we got the vibe they were good people. But we still were cautious and met them for a drink first, and they turned out to be normal. We ended up staying with them for one month in Perth!
So there’s our best 5 tips for getting free accommodation while traveling. We hope you found this helpful!
If you have any content ideas for us, please feel free to contact us here 😀
Your @husbands.thattravel,
Michael & Charlie
