What BeWelcome does

BeWelcome is a non-profit, volunteer-run hospitality exchange network operated by the French association BeVolunteer (registered under loi 1901 at the Préfécture de Rennes). It enables individual members across 218 countries to host travelers, share accommodations, meals, city tours, and cultural experiences on a strictly non-commercial basis; the platform is freely available with no membership fees, no advertising, and no premium tiers, and the Terms of Use explicitly forbid commercial use. As of the latest snapshot the site reports 272,946 members, 52,065 positive profile comments, and 4,716 activities, with the user interface translated into 37 languages and community-tracked reference to 317 languages.

The product is delivered through the Rox platform, an open-source (GPL-licensed) PHP/Symfony 5.4.x application with a Doctrine ORM data layer and a Bootstrap 4 / TailwindCSS frontend undergoing refactoring toward vanilla JavaScript with optional React components. Infrastructure runs on Docker Compose atop Hetzner Cloud, with Mailcow handling mail, WordPress (bevolunteer.org) for the legal entity site, Znuny for helpdesk, and Nextcloud for file sharing; location and mapping rely on Geonames and OpenStreetMap data. The company is financed entirely by donations (SEPA bank transfer, HelloAsso, PayPal) covering servers, domains, and administrative fees, with annual donation campaigns targeting roughly €4,912 and budgets approved by the yearly General Assembly. Distribution is exclusively via a self-serve responsive web app at bewelcome.org (no native iOS app; Android app currently unavailable), with acquisition driven by community-led growth: word-of-mouth, volunteer meetups, unconferences, local groups, forum activity, and PR features such as the November 2025 Lyon/Villeurbanne "Digital Café" on European digital alternatives.

Name

BeWelcome

Legal name

Association BeVolunteer

Website

https://bewelcome.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2007

Operating status

Operating

Short description

BeWelcome is a French non-profit, volunteer-run hospitality exchange network (operated by BeVolunteer) where ~272,946 members across 218 countries freely host travelers and share cultural experiences via the open-source GPL-licensed Rox platform, financed entirely by donations.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Hospitality Exchange Network

akta.pro primary industry

Accessibility & Inclusion Services (ADA Access, Adaptive Programs, Multilingual Support) (THAAAGAJ)

akta.pro secondary industries

In-Country Placement, Homestay & On-Ground Coordination Services (EDAIAGAM), Cultural/Language-Exchange Home Stays (THAMABAJ)

Keywords

• Hospitality exchange network
• Home-sharing community
• Travel hosting platform
• Cultural exchange network
• Peer-to-peer accommodation

Headquarters

HQ city

Paris

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Donations (bank transfer, HelloAsso, PayPal): BeWelcome/BeVolunteer is a registered French non-profit financed entirely by donations. Funds cover server rent, domains, administrative fees, and security certificates. SEPA bank transfer is the preferred method (no fees); PayPal donations incur €0.25 + 1.4% in transaction fees. Annual accounts are published and approved by the General Assembly.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

BeWelcome operates a free, non-commercial hospitality exchange platform where members can offer or request free accommodation with other members worldwide. The platform enables travelers and locals to connect, share cultural experiences, and build a global community across approximately 218 countries. The service is entirely free to use and is sustained through donations.

Product overview

BeWelcome operates as a platform-plus-modules architecture: the user-facing service is the BeWelcome web platform (www.bewelcome.org), which is powered end-to-end by the open-source Rox codebase. BeWelcome itself is the core product, a free, non-profit hospitality community where members create profiles, search for hosts by location, send hosting requests, post public trips, exchange direct messages, leave profile comments, join local or interest-based groups, participate in a forum and wiki, and create or attend Activities (events). The Rox software is the underlying GPL-licensed open-source platform built on PHP/Symfony/Doctrine with Bootstrap and TailwindCSS on the frontend; it is contributed to by volunteers and is the technical foundation that the BeWelcome service runs on. Together, BeWelcome (the user-facing community) and Rox (the open-source engine) form a single integrated offering centered on free, non-commercial hospitality and cultural exchange.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• BeWelcome A free, non-commercial hospitality exchange platform enabling members worldwide to offer and request free accommodation with each other across approximately 218 countries. The service includes member profiles, location-based search, public trips, community groups, and a multilingual interface in 37 languages. It is funded entirely by donations and operated by volunteers.

Quantifiable outcome

• 272,946 members in 218 countries using the platform for free hospitality exchange
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• GeonamescoreTechnology or IntegrationBeWelcome uses Geonames data to help members find locations worldwide. Geonames.org provides the geographical database that underpins member search and location selection across the Rox platform.
• OpenStreetMapcoreTechnology or IntegrationBeWelcome relies on OpenStreetMap and its contributors for both the location database and map tiles displayed on the site. The credits page explicitly calls out OSM as essential — "our website would be pretty dull" without it.
• JetBrains (PHPStorm)minorOEM/ Whitelabel/ Licensing PartnerJetBrains provides BeWelcome's developers with a number of open-source licenses for PHPStorm, which the project uses for PHP/Symfony development.
• SymfonycoreTechnology or IntegrationSymfony (5.4.x) is the PHP framework that powers the Rox platform — BeWelcome credits Symfony as making the website "blazingly fast and secure".
• Hetzner CloudcoreTechnology or IntegrationBeWelcome is migrating from old physical machines to Hetzner Cloud, running services via Docker Compose with infrastructure-as-code on GitHub. Hetzner hosts the Mailcow mail server, containerised main site, Nextcloud, Znuny helpdesk, and WordPress (bevolunteer.org).
• HelloAssominorOthersHelloAsso processes card donations for BeWelcome/BeVolunteer on a no-fee basis (it asks donors for an optional contribution to itself). HelloAsso is the preferred card payment channel because PayPal charges €0.25 + 1.4% per transaction.
• PayPalOthers

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Airbnb: Global short-term rental marketplace — broad incumbent in the hospitality/accommodation category. Not a direct competitor (Airbnb is paid/commercial) but a benchmark for hospitality discovery and the dominant player shaping user expectations in travel accommodation.
• HomeExchange: Subscription-based home-swapping platform covering 130+ countries. Broader incumbent in non-cash accommodation exchange, comparable to BeWelcome in the peer-to-peer hosting model but commercial and paid rather than free/volunteer-run.

Direct peers

• Trustroots: Open-source hospitality network originally spun out of BeWelcome, focused on hitchhikers and alternative travellers. Direct peer in the non-commercial, open-source hospitality category with overlapping community origin and similar GPL-licensed technology stack.
• Servas International: International peace and hospitality organisation founded in 1949, where members host travellers in their homes. A long-standing non-commercial alternative to Couchsurfing/BeWelcome, focused on intercultural understanding rather than casual travel.
• WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms): Worldwide network linking volunteers with organic farmers; members exchange farm work for food, accommodation and learning. Comparable to BeWelcome as a volunteer-run, non-commercial hospitality/exchange platform with national chapters and donation-based funding.
• WarmShowers: Non-profit hospitality exchange for touring cyclists, run by a volunteer community with free hosting among cyclists worldwide. Comparable to BeWelcome in being a volunteer-run, donation-funded hospitality network, but specialised in the cycling subculture.
• Couchsurfing: The largest commercial hospitality-exchange platform — direct competitor to BeWelcome in the couchsurfing/hospitality category. BeWelcome was founded partly by ex-Couchsurfing volunteers seeking a non-commercial alternative; overlapping user base and use case (free accommodation with locals).
• Couchers.org: Open-source, non-profit hospitality exchange platform launched after Couchsurfing's commercial pivot. Directly comparable to BeWelcome on mission (non-commercial, community-run), governance model (volunteer association) and technology (open-source codebase), making it the most relevant peer for technical and member-overlap analysis.
• Hospitality Club: The original large-scale hospitality-exchange network (founded 2000), out of which BeWelcome's founders emerged in 2007. Direct historical peer in the same non-commercial hospitality-exchange category with overlapping use case and user base.

Emerging players

• Nomador: Paid homestay and language-immersion platform focused on connecting travellers with local hosts, often for language learning. Emerging commercial player with a partial overlap with BeWelcome's hospitality-and-cultural-exchange positioning, especially around language and cultural immersion use cases.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat8 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/BeWelcome/rox
• Xx.com/bewelcome
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/BeWelcome-4904420

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about BeWelcome