There’s been an awful lot of excitement around here this week.
I should have told you all about this before, you being such avid fans of cheap sleeps. But I didn’t want to jinx it. Well, now it is official, we have launched, and it’s time to let the cat out of the bag!
Casa Casa Travel Club is a hospitality exchange club. As a member of Casa Casa, you stay in the private homes of friendly members like yourself when you travel, and pay a small gratuity of $15-$20. When you host traveling members in your home, you provide some warm hospitality and share a favorite breakfast recipe. It’s like staying in a bed and breakfast, only better!
I remember the first time I stayed in a bed and breakfast. It was run out of a single woman’s home in Winthrop, Washington, set in a field of tall grasses. Her home was small, but her kitchen was huge — perhaps taking up half the house — and the breakfasts she created for her guests there were divine. Her daughter, about twelve years old, showed us to our room when we arrived, and then promptly went outside to play ball with the dog, but not before asking us if we’d like to join her. Clearly, she was used to the company.
Like many B&Bs (as I would later discover), this house had a certain decor that was all its own; our hostess had a doll collection in the living room that spilled out into every corner of the house, including our bedroom. I remember a feeling I had at breakfast that first morning, nibbling on a flaky buttermilk biscuit and sipping strong coffee as we talked with our hostess about Winthrop’s history and beautiful landscape. The feeling took me quite by surprise. Here I was, in a stranger’s house, and I felt right at home.
It seems that many people either love B&Bs, or don’t care for them at all. I am definitely in the “love them” camp. And the reason is quite simple: warm hospitality. The kind you get meeting real people, in their homes, around their breakfast table. That first morning, I left that Winthrop B&B with a map of downtown and suggestions for lunch, directions to great hiking trails, a full belly, and a warm heart.
For years now, my travels both at home in North America and abroad have included B&Bs and homestays. Hospitality has become my travel partner. Unfortunately, in many places the cost of rooming in a B&B is prohibitive, and arranging a homestay is often time consuming and difficult, if not impossible.
That’s why I started Casa Casa Travel Club. It’s a new hospitality club for folks who see travel as more than just a destination. It’s about connecting with other people, making new friends and learning about the world together.
What role does hospitality play in your travels? Would you trade an expensive, boring hotel room for a cozy guest room where you feel right at home? Then sign up for a membership with Casa Casa today, and join a community of travelers and hosts that feel the same way you do about traveling. Out of this warm exchange of hospitality may come new friendships, local knowledge of the best places to visit and things to do, and an overall stronger experience of community through travel. At our $20 introductory membership rate, what do you have to lose?
Want to learn a little more? Check out the frequently asked questions and club guidelines. Be sure to browse our list of member locations throughout North America and around the world (we have members in eleven countries, and adding more every day!) If you have a question about Casa Casa, drop me an email – I’d love to see if I can answer it for you.
Special for Northwest Cheapsleeps readers! I have so much fun keeping up this blog and communicating with readers about where to go and stay in the Pacific Northwest. I want to offer avid readers of Northwest Cheapsleeps the opportunity to join Casa Casa for FREE. From today through September 15, just leave a comment on this post. Tell me a story of real hospitality from your travels (it can be brief!) and I will email you special instructions for joining Casa Casa, free.
Thanks! I’ll be back soon.
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Back in 1981 we joined a local hiking group in Innsbruck, Austria for a weekend trip to the summit of Grosser Bettelwurf. After this weekend, we were invited by the leader Werner, and his wife Gertrud, to their home for a typical Austrian meal! For 28 years now we have remained in contact, and have visited in each other’s homes several times! I am always so grateful for their warm welcome!
I was on my first road trip after high school and drove with a friend up Hy 101 from SoCal up to San Francisco. We were sleeping where we could. In San Francisco we paid a visit to the Korean Embassy (my friend was Korean) and suddenly we were offered accommodations, although sparse, and great hospitality. Most unexpected and I’ll never forget the gesture.
Ohhhh, I’m so excited to read about this. I’ve considered the idea of joining this type of travel club before, but something always holds me back. I’ll be anxious to see how this unfolds and I may just find myself joining early on.
Live Happy,
Lesli
I was visiting my sister and her family in SoCal this summer. They invited their friends (and my brother-in-law’s former co-worker) who were from Ireland. They had traveled the world for business and pleasure and after dining with them, they offered to host my husband and I if we were ever in Ireland. This invitation warmed my heart-we learn so much over sharing a meal and a glass (or two!) of wine.
WOW, what a great idea! I love this. I can’t even BEGIN to catalog the hospitality I’ve received, but I still like to think about hopping that plane to Antwerp to stay with Di, who I’d never met. It was SO great. I can go ON AND ON. But won’t.
This year I was in Mexico and prearranged to see a Mexican opthamologist. His wife (originally from Challis, ID) invited me to stay at their home for a couple nights. I think she was excited to meet someone who had actually been to Challis. We are good friends now.