Earlier in the week Annie Mole and I were invited along to a get-together organised in central London by crashpadder.com to allow their hosts to mingle for the evening.
Described as the grown-up version of ‘couch-surfing’, crashpadder.com allows people to let out their spare rooms to visitors on a schedule that is convenient for them, and without the hassle that comes with running a regular business (under the current tax rules, hosts can earn just over £4000 per year without having to declare as taxable income). In addition to the crashpadder site itself, hosts can also have their room listed on Craigslist, Gumtree and elsewhere too. One of the ladies that we spoke to at the event told us that she lets out her spare room at odd times throughout the year when she isn’t looking after international language students and that hosts can remove their listing whenever it suits them, if they’ve got family staying or are going on holiday for example.
From a guest’s point of view, the rooms that are made available are generally much cheaper than an equivalent room that you’d find in a hotel, and obviously a stay with a crashpadder host makes for a much more personal experience. London hosts offer over 1,000 rooms in total, and the service is now spreading, with people in many other countries offering accommodation through the site. Just a note on safety – both hosts and guests can look at the other person’s profile before making or accepting a booking, and they are also encouraged to leave ratings about their experience of the stay afterwards. There are also various security measures in place when it comes to the financial aspects of a booking, and there’s a helpful area of the crashpadder.com site that deals with those issues here.
From the growing number of people using the service I’d say that this idea is clearly taking off as a concept. I might give it a go next time I’m off somewhere but not in a position to be able to afford four-star hotel rates!