HOSPEX - a Database for International Exchange of Hospitality for Travellers

• Would you like to stay with local residents when travelling?
• Are you willing to host visitors?

Aims

HOSPEX, the service for international exchange of hospitality, was started in June of 1991 as a platform for finding and tying of contacts between travelling academics and students and to alleviate the task of finding affordable/ free (occassional) accommodations in foreign places for often financially-strapped student travellers. Being able to stay with a net.penpal for a couple of days is often all the difference it takes to be able visit a place when "the budget ain't enuff!" ;-))

Being a host

Even if you are "not much of a travelling type", but have a spare bed (or even only some floor space for a sleeping bag) and wouldn't mind occassional visitors -- please consider joining up; we need you, and there can hardly be a better way to meet new faces, be exposed to other cultures, learn to know other people -- and perhaps become friends -- than by offering to shelter a visiting student or professional collegue in transit.
Of course, all visits are subjected to prior private agreements between the affected parties -- that's what the email is for -- so no hosting individual is under any obligation ever, if time or other factors do not permit being a host at some given moment. And it really doesn't matter if what you've got to offer is only a spare bed, floor space, a whole guest house or a tent in your backyard.... all types of accommodations are equally acceptable and welcome.

Becoming a member

is a matter of filling out a form and sending it via email. That form will be stored in the HOSPEX' electronic database and become accessible to other members via email, FTP and other means.
Currently (April 1995) there are members in over 35 countries on all the continents and the database is growing at about 1-2 person a week (depending on how much net.exposure the HOSPEX gets!). Many members have reported wonderful experiences as both hosts and guests of other hosts.

Get ready for new experiences. To partake in the HOSPEX service please fill out the membership form.

Upon reception of your completed form, you will be sent directions for searching of the HOSPEX member database via email and how to access it interactively via FTP (and WWW shortly!). You will also automatically be subscribed to the HOSPEX-L discussion list.

IMPORTANT: please note the distinction between the HOSPEX-L discussion list and the HOSPEX database itself. The former is merely a companion service to the latter, meant to provide a public-announcement channel for members and non-memebrs alike. Anyone can partake in HOSPEX-L-discussions by sending an appropriate subscription message to the listserver at PLEARN, but only those that have returned a filled membership form will be receiving automated mailings from the HOSPEX database, and be able to query and extract records of the other members.

If you'd rather not receive messages from that --hitherto very low volume-- discussion list, you will have to unsubscribe by sending the message

unsubscribe HOSPEX-L

to <listserv@plearn.edu.pl>

Questions, comments, buggestions to: hospex@icm.edu.pl