Two Boondocks sites I found

I am on boondockers welcome, not sure if I will renew when it comes due next month or not. Have hosted twice where people needed a place to stay for a few nights, both seemed like nice folks, though the second one may have been a bit unusual. Over the last year, I had 2 or 3 other inquiries, that did not work out to stay in our back lot behind our house, 2 that were interested in the same night, then the one that got it (first come first serve) cancelled, and an inquiry for when we would not be home. On the other side I have stayed one night being hosted by someone else, the location was a bit odd, it was in a small (ghost) town in eastern Colorado where there were no operating businesses, the space was in the parking lot of an old closed down motel (1930's - 1940's era) that had been in the guys family for years. Nice enough guy, he is a snow birder, and owns a diesel pusher of some type. If one hosts and gets 2 or 3 reviews per year, then the next year is free, only one of my guests have written a review.

Isaac-1 wrote:
I am on boondockers welcome, not sure if I will renew when it comes due next month or not. Have hosted twice where people needed a place to stay for a few nights, both seemed like nice folks, though the second one may have been a bit unusual. Over the last year, I had 2 or 3 other inquiries, that did not work out to stay in our back lot behind our house, 2 that were interested in the same night, then the one that got it (first come first serve) cancelled, and an inquiry for when we would not be home. On the other side I have stayed one night being hosted by someone else, the location was a bit odd, it was in a small (ghost) town in eastern Colorado where there were no operating businesses, the space was in the parking lot of an old closed down motel (1930's - 1940's era) that had been in the guys family for years. Nice enough guy, he is a snow birder, and owns a diesel pusher of some type. If one hosts and gets 2 or 3 reviews per year, then the next year is free, only one of my guests have written a review.

As a 'Rule of thumb'... Is there charge for the stay?

No, by policy stays are free, though hosts can charge for extras like electricity. In my limited experience I have offered my guests a free 15 amp extension cord with warnings it is on a shared circuit, and the one time I have stayed as a guest, I was also offered a free 15 amp cord.

Pay to play?

2oldman wrote:
Pay to play?

I am assuming the OP means there is a fee to get into the system as a host or as a guest.

I know this to be the case for Boondockers Welcome. We joined as hosts four days ago and confirmed our first guest the day after joining.

Harvest Hosts charges charges fees for guest memberships but hosts do not pay anything to be listed.

..

We enjoyed our Harvest Host membership a couple years ago. Definitely "free to stay" after you've paid the membership fee. Of course, it's generally expected that you will buy something from the farm/winery, but I've only seen that listed in a couple places. (And, we chose not to stay there.) We plan to go FT in 2018 and DEFINITELY will join Harvest Hosts again.

Don't have a membership now because there's not much offered here in Alaska.

I found both Harvest Hosts and Boondockers Welcome to be limiting. It seemed to me that every place wanted several days notice, and Boondockers communication was awkward. I find that freecampites.net much better for me.