One of the biggest expenses while traveling is often accommodation. But why would you pay for a hotel when you could enjoy accommodation at low cost or even for free?

Use your networks

In a passive manner: Let your contacts know, by tweeting or via a Facebook status, that you’re going abroad, and that if they know anyone there, they shouldn’t hesitate to let you know. That’s how I recently met Sylvain, a French guy living in Hong Kong, who could host me there. Not only haven’t I spent a thing for this wonderful view, but also he took me on a tour of the town!

In an active manner: you may directly ask your contacts who are the more likely to know people locally, if they can help you. On Facebook, it’s very interesting to subscribe to the main groups dedicated to the place you plan to go. That’s how I met Minseok, a Korean guy who hosted me in Venice and helped me taking one of my best pic with a compact digital camera.

As for Twitter, you can look for people living in the town you’re going to and contact them.

And really, it’s much more fun to go and sleep at a friend of a friend’s, and to bad-mouth the friend in question (nicely) and to share all his or her dirty secrets (nicely we said!) we’ve learned about him/her during this break!

Find an accommodation via des sites specialized websites:

When I go for a trip, most of the time there are 3 options offered to me: 1) I found an accommodation thanks to my networks, 2) I choose free hosting via Couchsurfing, 3) I decide to take a more comfortable accommodation on Airbnb.

– Couchsurfing

If you want to meet people at low cost, and if you don’t need your comfort at all prices, then : www.couchsurging.org

For real, what do I get? Choose someone who looks trustworthy, you ask him or her to host you, he/she agrees, and BINGO! Sometimes it even becomes a true friend, such a shame he/she lives on the other side of the planet…

You need not to be too attached to your comfort, because you can easily find yourself sleeping on a carpet or sharing beds with 2 or 3 other people.

I’ve already met extraordinary people thanks to couchsurfing : for example, Gabriel, who has biked around Africa and has been a model for YSL (and you can tell! That’s him on the picture)

Here are 3 interesting articles about Couchsurfing (in french):

http://partir-en-voyage.info/hebergement-4-bonnes-raisons-de-tester-le-couchsurfing/

http://lesacados.com/le-couchsurfing-quest-ce-que-cest

http://www.iletaitunefaim.com/couchsurfing-profil-couchsurfer-voyage/

And don’t forget: in any case, these people welcome you without any financial compensation, so bring them presents, and do some shopping instead of emptying their fridge!

– Airbnb :

If you want to rent a room in a homestay for little intimacy, or if you want to rent a flat for a lovers’ weekend, here’s my article about the subject:

http://www.juliachou.fr/voyages/airbnb-un-site-de-logement-communautaire.html

Thereupon, whatever it is you’re sleeping on, the corner of a carpet or a warm cosy bed, sweet dreams to you, because as Grand Corps Malade (a French slam poet) would say :

« Le monde appartient à ceux qui rêve trop » (“The world belongs to the ones who dream too much”)