4 Tips for Saving Money on Accommodation While Traveling as a Student

Are you a student willing to save money on accommodation during your trip? We have found 4 ways that will definitely help you with this. Basically, they have one thing in common. They allow you to connect with locals and become friends by helping each other.
How not to not spend a ton of money on accommodation? Try house sitting, house exchange, couchsurfing and volunteering. Below, we will explain how these processes are organized and on which platforms you can find the best opportunities. Of course, planning will take some time, but you can always order custom term papers on essay writing service Сanada to free up your schedule. And while professional writers do your homework, you can focus on your first priority at the moment.

House Sitting

The essence of house sitting is that you live in the owner’s house for free while they are away, and in return, you take care of their house and pets.

As a housesitter, you may have the following responsibilities:

• Cleaning;
• Following special requests: cleaning the pool or caring for flowers in the garden;
• Repairing the broken devices (on your own or with the help of services);
• Pet care;
• Reporting on what’s going on in the house.

So, the process begins with registration on a special site. In the profile description, you indicate your experience in looking after houses and animals, your motivation and skills. Are you good with plants? Make sure to mention it.

Now, you can study ads from homeowners. As a rule, the hosts describe their accommodation and what they expect from a sitter. Next, contact the owners who suit you best and tell them why you want to work for them.

The next stage is a video interview and a demonstration of reviews. The more in-depth and brilliant they are, the better. The interview will determine whether you get the job. No doubt, it’s difficult to combine many activities at once since you also have homework to do. So, trust the best paper writing services so you don't have to worry about deadlines while you're planning your trip.

Handy tips:

• Ask the hosts to create a guide with a list of necessary duties and service numbers that may be useful. Ask questions if there’s something you don’t understand;
• Stay in touch with the owners and tell them how things are going in the house;
• Keep in mind that everything can happen, from power outages to broken pipes. But with the right contacts, you will solve the problem super quickly.

Popular platforms: House Carers, Mind My House, Nomador, Trusted Housesitters, Housesitmatch.

Home Exchange

Have you ever seen ‘The Holiday’? Well, then you probably know how home exchange works. The bottom line is that two people exchange houses for a certain period of time in order to save on living expenses. These are mutually beneficial conditions, plus, you can find a great friend and help each other on various issues.

Here are the principles of how the home exchange sites work:

• Many require payment to give you access to the platform;
• By filling out the form, you post high-quality photos of the house and submit a detailed description;
• Next, choose a house for the exchange, studying the existing ads;
• Contact the user and start discussing the details of your future trips.
• By the way, the exchange can be simultaneous and nonsimultaneous.

Handy tips:

• Communicate a lot with your partner. You need to know each other better and understand whether you will be comfortable interacting;
• Be sure to indicate whether children and pets are welcome in your house. By the way, many owners have pets, so you will most likely be responsible for them. All of this must be agreed upon in advance.

Popular platforms: Home-exchange, HomeforSwap, Peoplelikeus.

Couchsurfing

The concept of couchsurfing lies in the mutual hospitality of travelers. The trip usually lasts for 3-4 nights.

How is the process organized? First, you create a profile with your bio, a description of the accommodation, and high-quality photos. Then, you look for a host by entering the country and city into the site’s search.

Now, you can view profiles and leave applications for those you like. Don't forget to include the dates of your stay and the reasons why you chose a particular host. Do you have common hobbies or values?

Handy tips:

• Be sure to read host reviews;
• Your profile should also contain references;
• It’s better to send several applications at once, as many may not answer you at all.

Popular platforms: Couchsurfing, BeWelcome, Trustroots, Warmshowers, Staydu.

Volunteering

Volunteering is an opportunity to get to know another country from the inside. What are the habits of the locals? What do they eat and how do they spend their time? What is valuable to them? What is their work culture? You will definitely find the answers to all these questions.

Here are a couple of examples where students often work: organic farms and recreation locations, gardening and landscape design, schools and kindergartens.

Generally, the procedure is simple: you create a profile, fill it out, and then get access to volunteering opportunities around the world. In most cases, you will need to pay a membership fee to access the platform.

Handy tip:

Before you travel, do thorough research not only on the country you are going to, but also on the type of work you will be doing as a volunteer. You surely don’t want to get scammed, right? So, read as much as you can and stay smart.

Popular platforms: HelpStay, Wwoofing, Workaway.

To Wrap It Up

Of course, there are many ways to save on accommodation other than booking rooms in cheap hostels or staying on the outskirts of the city. Thanks to the strategies mentioned above, you can live for free in exchange for some services. In the modern world, mutual help is really the key to everything, especially for students who want to know the world from all sides.