 Veit Kühne from Dreseden, Germany, who founded the Hospitality Club in 2000 while he was still a student, believes that "one day, everyone will have the opportunity to visit any country knowing that someone will be waiting to receive them with open arms. People will travel in a different way, meet each other and build intercultural understanding through personal contact." Hospitality Club was the first online organisation to offer on a major scale the possibility for travellers to find and contact locals open to cultural exchange. The whole system is entirely free  . The safe and efficient operation of the 30+ languages website and its database, forum, and chatroom depends on the work of hundreds of volunteers from around the world. The most often mentionned drawback of the system is lack of security. The main difference between hospitality exchange networks and other social networking platforms such as Orkut or LiveJournal is that the former's ultimate objective is to allow for face-to-face meetings. Users should realise that there is a risk involved, although according to Frenchman Jean-Yves Hégron, main software developer of the Hospitality Club, "By using the Club you have the same level of risk as the one you face whenever you get out from your home." Critics often mention lack of transparency in how they perceive decisions are taken by volunteers in most networks, the Hospitality Clubapparently making no exception . Exponential growth of the network has also caused server failures alike to those observed in Wikipedia until recently.
w: Veit Kühne from Dreseden, Germany, who founded the Hospitality Club in 2000 while he was still a student, believes that "one day, everyone will have the opportunity to visit any country knowing that someone will be waiting to receive them with open arms. People will travel in a different way, meet each other and build intercultural understanding through personal contact." Hospitality Club was the first online organisation to offer on a major scale the possibility for travellers to find and contact locals open to cultural exchange. The whole system is entirely free , though supported by Google Ads . The safe and efficient operation of the 30+ languages website and its database, forum, and chatroom depends on the work of hundreds of volunteers from around the world. The most often mentioned drawback of the system is lack of security. The main difference between hospitality exchange networks and other social networking platforms such as Orkut or LiveJournal is that the former's ultimate objective is to allow for face-to-face meetings. Users should realise that there is a risk involved, although according to Frenchman Jean-Yves Hégron, main software developer of the Hospitality Club, "By using the Club you have the same level of risk as the one you face whenever you get out from your home." Discussion about Hospitality Club issues is not allowed on the website's forum, hence critics often mention lack of transparency in how they perceive decisions are taken by volunteers in Hospitality Club. Another point of critique is the fact that there is no official organisation behind Hospitality Club, and the website is directly registered to the founder of the Club, who also informed other that as long as he is involved, there won't be any "democratic committee" . Exponential growth of the network has also caused server failures alike to those observed in Wikipedia until recently.
A
w:
A
, though supported by Google Ads
R
mentionned
mentioned
R
Critics
Discussion about Hospitality Club issues is not allowed on the website's forum, hence critics
R
most networks, the Hospitality Clubapparently making no exception
Hospitality Club. Another point of critique is the fact that there is no official organisation behind Hospitality Club, and the website is directly registered to the founder of the Club, who also informed other that as long as he is involved, there won't be any "democratic committee"