I just read an article about airbnb‘s iPhone app, which can tell you how much money you could be making by renting out your home.  The writer ended with how cool it was that “anyone can become a hotelier”. Perhaps she was just romanticizing the whole thing and I shouldn’t imagine a future where all my accommodation options are offered by people who know nothing about the hospitality industry, but I am a hotelier, and there’s quite a bit more to it, and a lot more to being any good at. It’s a hell of a lot of work and gets tiring really fast, which pretty much happens the second someone wets the bed or breaks your towel rack or smokes in your non-smoking room.

Ask yourself this: do you love to cook for your family? Does that mean you would be a good professional waiter or chef? Do you want the equivalent of, say, your relatives from out of town staying with you, over and over again, night after night, all year round? Even worse, if you’re the traveler, do you want to be treated as though you’re that out-of-town relative, and have to pay for it?

Let’s break down the reasons why I’m not totally convinced this is the future of travel:

I don’t like most hotels, even though, ironically, I own one, but perhaps it’s because I’m a hotel owner that I can also be critical of them. Most hotels are a model of homogeneity. They believe that you are comfortable only if you remain in your comfort zone. So the rooms, the decor, the service in many  hotels are the same no matter where you go. It’s basically a fast-food approach to accommodation. I am totally against that and feel that when you go somewhere different you should also sleep somewhere different – somewhere that reflects where you are – culturally, architecturally, historically.

In that respect airbnb, istopover, crashpadder, myfriendshotel and roomorama are totally on track. I’m also a huge supporter of non-professionals renting out apartments and spare rooms – I’ve been doing just that by helping the owners of the properties on our vacation rental agency for almost 10 years. But one of the big differences is that through our agency I also personally oversee what these property owners do and ensure that they are conducting themselves in a professional way and that what they say they offer, they truly offer.

When someone’s livelihood depends upon what they do, whether it’s a 100-room hotel or a 1-room guesthouse, they must adhere to a pretty universal standard of economics – that what you do wrong has financial repercussions and that if you don’t get people to like what you offer, then your livelihood is going to suffer.  This is the standard hotel version of accommodation – that even though the customer might not always be right, we do want more of them because we depend on their money for our livelihood.  This model might not always equal great service or a comfortable stay, but if offered by real people and not faceless corporations we can try to mediate any problems or disputes in the customer’s favor by appealing to the owner (such as in our agency’s case).

On the other end of the spectrum is what we can call the Couchsurfing experience, of which I am a member and host.  At the heart of this exchange is not money; it is based on honesty, mutual exchange and karma. When I host someone, whether it be in my house or my hotel, I want them to be comfortable and I do it because I enjoy it. Most guests who have stayed in our home do their best to be considerate and well-behaved. This model is basically the opposite of the hotel model – since they depend on me, and not the other way around, they expect less yet feel like they need to offer more in the way of working hard to be a good guest. Any disputes or problems, or if you’re just plain annoying, result in your not getting any more of what I’m giving.

So what happens when you take that Couchsurfing model and you monetize it like airbnb and roomorama have done?  Who is doing who a favor? Who is the supplier and who is the consumer? What are the problems that you could encounter as a traveler? Well, someone who rents a room out of their house who doesn’t like their guests isn’t really obligated to continue hosting them. If they don’t depend on the money, they could ask you to leave for a variety of reasons and elect to not be paid for the stay. You could write a bad review about them and they could write a bad review about you, each one saying why the other was a bad host or guest, but what if neither party is wrong and it just comes down to cultural differences or language barriers? In the end, you, the traveler, risk having nowhere to stay and isn’t that the number 1 thing you want out of your accommodation – that your host make a reliable and trustworthy commitment to accommodate you?

On Couchsurfing, you have an identity that’s at risk if you don’t behave yourself, one that could ruin your chances of being hosted again. In the real-money world of standard hospitality you have your reputation at stake, which can ruin your chances of making a living. But in that middle realm of airbnb and roomarama, can’t you just make a new screen name and register with a different email address? The fact is, in the middle realm, nobody is really running the show – there is neither economics nor good karma to guide you because once you throw money into Couchsurfing type exchange you take away the culture of honesty.

Ever borrowed a friend’s car? Ever rented a car? Which one did you take better care of? There’s something about paying for things that can sometimes make people careless and feel that they have an “ownership” of something no matter how transient that “ownership” is. People who have professionally worked in hospitality know this, and know how to handle it. Others who are dabbling in hospitality and like the idea of having guests for a bit of extra cash are not really equipped to handle the long list of weirdness that can happen when people from foreign (and even not so foreign) lands descend upon you. We recognize this as hoteliers who have been in the business for 12 years and as agents of vacation rental owners who sometimes need that extra bit of assistance and guidance we can give them. In this way guests can have the hotel-like accountability, but the authenticity of a locally owned and inspired vacation rental.

Can anyone be a hotelier? Well, the answer isn’t that easy – travelers don’t just need a place to sleep, they need someone who takes it seriously, who genuinely wants someone to enjoy their city and knows how to handle situations when things don’t go well. Can anyone be an astronaut or a racehorse jockey? Just as in any other profession there are pros and cons, periods of hardship and smooth sailing, pleasure and pain. But just as in anything in life, if you love what you do, if you care and if you find meaning in your work – you can find success, whether measured in your bank account or in your heart space. And doing that requires more than just having a spare room.

This article was published on the Cross-Pollinate blog. Along with the author’s wife, Linda, he is owner of a stylish, ecological, budget hotel in Rome, The Beehive (http://www.the-beehive.com), as well as the accommodation agency, Cross-Pollinate, which specializes in handpicked properties for the budget conscious.

For more interesting opinions and comments on the Local Travel Movement blog about Couchsurfing-type travel, see:
* Couchsurfing thesis
* Local accommodation networks
* Are couchsurfing networks legitimate local travel? (read the 20-plus comments here too)