5 Cheap Green Alternatives to Hotels

Want to hit the road without breaking your budget or making your carbon footprint any bigger? One of the best ways to meet great people, experience local life in new places, save money, and minimize your impact is to get away from hotels altogether. There are some excellent ways to ditch the tourist scene and still have a comfortable place to stay—find locals who are offering their couch or spare room, or even swap houses or apartments during your vacation. Here are five of the best alternatives to hotels:

1. Couchsurfing

Couchsurfing is a network of people who offer up their couches, cots or spare beds to travelers. If you're looking to live like the locals while in a new place, there's no better way to do it than to take advantage of the hospitality of fellow couchsurfers. Users sign up with a profile and are "vouched" through different ways to prove they're who they say they are, including address and credit card verification through the site. Also, travelers can leave reviews of who they've stayed with so future couchsurfers know what they're in for. Even if you aren't traveling or don't have a sleeping space to share, you can take part by offering your time for coffee or playing tour guide.

2. Warm Showers

Warm showers is the couchsurfing for bicyclists. If you're taking to the road on your bicycle, this is the free resource for you. You get a warm shower and a soft bed after a hard ride. And if you have some spare space, you're doing fellow cyclists a big favor by opening it up to them. It's great for an ultra low-carbon trek.

3. AirBnB

A hybrid of hotels and couchsurfing is AirBnB. Locals can rent out their air mattress, couch, or even spare bedroom to people looking to stay for awhile. It is more secure and safe than finding a random place on Craigslist. The site offers an easy way to search an area for the perfect place, and people, to rent from, with reviews by previous visitors and even putting the rental funds in escrow until after the stay. And the cost can be as cheap as any hostel, and you don't lose out on the opportunity to make new friends.

4. Roomorama

Roomorama is much like AirBnB only it is for those who definitely want a room of their own for their stay. It doesn't offer as many locations to choose from as AirBnB or Couchsurfing; it is limited to only major cities in the US and Canada. However, it is also a secure way to have the safer, quieter feeling of a hotel stay while hanging out with locals and saving money and emissions.

5. HomeExchange

If your house is vacant while you're on vacation, and you're looking for a home rather than hotel to stay in while traveling, why not just swap with someone? If you're a San Francisco resident headed to New York, and someone in New York is headed to San Francisco, HomeExchange helps link you up so you can simply trade spaces. There is a membership fee of $99.99 for a year, but swapping is free.

Even when you're taking advantage of these low-carbon footprint sleeping arrangements, traveling still creates emissions. But no worries—there are easy ways to offset what footprint you do make.

Check out these resources:
How to Go Green: Carbon Offsets
Confused Which Carbon Offset Service to Use? EDF Lists Eleven They Trust
Find a Carbon-Offset Company You Can Trust
What are the Top-Rated Carbon Offset Companies?

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