Originally Posted by
valygrl
I haven't had a warmshowers hosting experience yet -- in fact, I just took my name off the list. Why? I got an email from a guy who said he was in town for a few weeks "making money to continue my tour" and needed a place to stay for a few days while he worked.
So, in advance of that email I thought it would be so cool to have someone stay, since I've been hosted before (not via warmshowers, i've never asked) - but in practice, I just started imagining this broke, homeless dude on a bike, showing up and then not leaving, and having to try to get rid of him, and then what about when I'm out, do I kick the guy out or change my plans and stay home or just leave him in my house (with my computer and my bikes and etc), and my boyfriend wasn't home so what if he decides he's a ****** or a thief or.....
So, I didn't host him.
Kudos to all of you who are willing to open your homes to strangers - it's a lot easier to talk about it than to actually do it, as I just found out.
Personally, I like the mode where you meet a person and they invite you into their home (or vice versa) after knowing each other a little bit. The blind internet connection is scary.
Peace.
Its one thing to ride alongside and converse with a tourer for a half an hour or so and then if it feels right offer a room, or the couch, or lawn etc for his use for the night and quite another to commit to an unsolicited request from a stranger asking to stay in your home. It's not even that I necessarily think that the request is from a potential criminal.
It's that I value my privacy and I am not willing to have it violated when someone makes me uncomfortable in my own home. And to feel uncomfortable only after that person leaves because of something they did or didn't do during or after his visit is just as much an affront. I make mistakes in judgment even after chatting face-to-face with someone: if were to allow someone into my home without even that, there would be no basis for a judgment of any kind.