6 Awesome Websites to Help You Find Free Stays in Hostels

Back in the day, the only way to find a free stay in a hostel was to show up, be helpful and hope for the best. Now, in the age of the Internet, there are a plethora of websites to help travelers find volunteer opportunities in hostels. If you do your research, you can find all sorts of niche communities that are well suited to your interests that may be willing to take you in and give you a bed.

However, as we said before in our previous post about how to get free stays in hostels, just showing up and being helpful is still the best way to go about finding free hostel opportunities. We also understand about wanting to have accomodation solidified before you leave the country. If this sounds more like you, the following websites can perhaps help you navigate to the right hostels and right destinations. 

1. Workaway

Workaway connects travelers with unique volunteer opportunities all over the world. It costs $42 USD (€37.54 euros) a year to use. Once you have an account, you can search the site by continent or by type of opportunity. Want to help out in a beach bar in Cambodia? Great! Select “Asia” from the “Where” menu, click “Cambodia” when it drops down, type in “beach” in the search bar, and BOOM! You’ll see all the opportunities available to you. Make sure to read each listing carefully and read reviews from previous volunteers.

2. Hostel Jobs

Hostel Jobs.net is just what it sounds like: a portal for hostels all over the world to post their available opportunities. Some opportunities are only for travelers legal to work in that country and some posts are merely inviting you to come to the hostel and introduce yourself. As a traveler, you can join and browse jobs for free. Also, extreme fun fact, we run it! You can also follow the Hostel Jobs Facebook page to see which hostels need help right now!

3. Worldpackers

Worldpackers is similar to Workaway in that they offer many kinds of work/exchange opportunities all over the world. Membership costs $49 USD (€43.79 euros) for a year, and you can search opportunities by destination, availability, and travel length. Each opportunity lists the skills each opportunity is looking for in a volunteer - party promoter, cleaning, handyman - so you can pick which one you think you are best suited for. Each opportunity also lists the style of accommodation - connect with nature, family, yoga/meditation - so you can get an idea of what to expect.

4. Working Traveller

Unlike other similar sites, Working Traveller lets you search opportunities by skills. It also provides you with important information about volunteering in each region. By clicking the “work and travel” tab, you can learn all about visa laws, the best time to travel there, and other things you should know about every location. Find opportunities by clicking the “find work” tab and typing in your skills and where you want to go. Working Traveller is free - if you only want to search three host profiles a week. To search unlimited profiles, the membership is still only $10 USD (€8.94 euros) a year.

5. HelpX

Short for “Help Exchange,” HelpX.net is designed to help travelers find short-term volunteer opportunities around the world. As the name suggests, travelers can use HelpX to find free accommodation in exchange for helping out at the farm, hostel, B&B, boat, or any other type of property found on the site. HelpX is free to join, but just like Working Traveller, you’ll have to upgrade to a paid membership in order to message an unlimited number of hosts all over the world. Paid memberships cost €20 euros ($22.38 USD) a year. 

6. WWOOF

This acronym can mean a variety of different things depending on who you ask, but no matter what you want to call it, it’s a global network connecting organic farms with those who want to help out on a farm in exchange for a place to stay. This site is different than the others in that it’s exclusively for finding opportunities on organic farms. Ever wanted to farm in rice fields in Japan? What about live in a kibbutz in Israel? With WWOOF, you can! The fee for joining the site depends on which country you want to work in. Head to their website to explore the cost in the country of your choice.

Bonus Website:  Couchsurfing.org

Believe it or not, there are at least a couple of hostels in the world that offer free stays on Couchsurfing.org.  Usually, these opportunities are only available to solo travelers and your stay will be limited to a couple of nights. Free stays may also only be available in the off-season.  If you score a free Couchsurf stay that the hostel, be sure to be a gracious guest and keep your discount a secret from other guests. 

We hope you’re able to use this blog post to find some amazing opportunities! However, there are also several important safety rules to keep in mind if you decide to do this. Check out this blog post to learn about some of them.

We wish you an exciting year full of lots of travel and new experiences!