social bookmark

How does it work? F.A.Q.

The basic principle of BEDforBED.com is allowing all people, especially those who are always hard up as usually students are, to travel all around the world spending little money; in fact making use of low cost flights together with BEDforBED.com the whole amount of the journey will be appreciably reduced! For this reason, BEDforBED makes no differences among the traveller on the grounds of their means but only on the basis of the time availability, following an absolutely egalitarian criteria.

In order to make the comprehension of the service’s mechanisms as clear as possible lots of the website pages have been translated into three languages, anyway the official language of communication is the English language.

Q. What can I do
A. We are talking about a service that requires the setting up of a virtual community in which the users, against the payment of an annual associative fee which what’s more is very low, can stay for free in the habitations of the community members. In fact if you make available a sleeping accommodation ( a place to pitch a tent, an air bed, a sofa bed or a place for a sleeping bag,…) (and obviously, of all that comes from it, such as the use of a bathroom) at your home within a fixed period, automatically you will have the chance to dispose of a sleeping accommodation at each other community member’s house, in any other part of the world, for a period calculated on the basis of some factors. The community members will have also the opportunity to show their own availability to offer a job specifying the type and the related benefits coming from it ( as for example free board expenses, hourly rate, …). The conditions required to join the community are to register yourself and to give your availability to give hospitality. In order to avoid that the users would reach an agreement privately, the e-mail contacts will be displayed only after the registration and having given the availability; host and traveller can obviously keep in touch through email, as well as view the reciprocal personal form and of the related accommodation.

Q. How many persons can be taken in for each sleeping accommodation?
A. For each sleep place can stay at the community as many people as desired on condition that all of them register themselves paying the associative fee. The same acocmodation cannot be offered by two different users in the same period. If a user wish to stay c/o another member of community together with a friend who is not registered, the credits of the user will decrease for both of them.

Q. Tutoring
A. It consists of accompanying the tourists through the host city sightseeing, visiting its tourist attractions and nightclubs.
It is possible to join the tutoring not only to “ turn yourself into” a touristic guide, but also to represent a point of reference for the travellers in case of real need. Later on we will speak about active tutoring ( give assistance) and passive tutoring (receiving assistance).
The tutoring, as well as the community registration, requires the knowledge of English, considered as the official communication language.

• Active
  It shows the possibility to become a tutor accompanying the tourists in the city sightseeing. The active tutoring is a free activity: in fact the only requirement is the registration on the website and the payment of the entrance fee.
• Passive
  The passive tutoring is about the possibility to ask for a tutor. This service is free till to 31st March 2011 FOR EVER since August 2011; from the 1st April 2011 those traveler requesting such service will have to pay an annual fee of 10€/365 days.
• Taking advantages from the tutoring even for the NON- BEDforBEDder
  Those people wanting to know better this service by using the tutoring, but preferring staying in an other structure, will be able to ask for this service FOR FREE by paying a fee of 6€ / per city. The term per city means the stay always in the same city ( for example: the travel of a married couple forecasts two legs, the first one of 3 days in the city of Turin and the other one of 1 day in Rome; supposing that they would like to receive the tutoring service during the entire stay, they will have to pay a total amount of 12€; 6€ for the assistance received in Turin and 6€ for that one received in Rome). All the users who have joined the community to make use of the tutoring service but NOT as BEDforBEDder, will have equally to join it, by paying the fee, depending from the number of city in which the tutor assistance is needed and filling the personal form; this will mean that such data will be introduced in the database and at the same time it gives a greater safety to the tutors.
  People who wish to take advantage from tutoring service without being a BEDforBEDder have to register as External.
  From 1st Apil 2011, after registrating and paying the first tutoring request (6€/city), the External is going to gain 6 credits (concerning the cost of the first tutoring request): these credits will decrease just AFTER having taken advantage from the service.
  External registration has no deadline.
  This service is free till to 31st March 2011 FOREVER, since August 2011
• Passive tutoring request
  Passive tutoring can be requested by the following user profile categories:
  1. BEDforBEDder+ tutoring request
  2. BEDforBEDder who, even after the registration, requires (and pay for that) the tutoring service
  3. External

After registrating as BEDforBEDder, the user can ask for tutoring service FOR FREE, since August 2011 paying 10€/365 days. Q. User profile categories and PRICEs
A. The service will be free FOR EVER of charge until the 31st March 2011, except for further waivers; in fact from the 1st April 2011 at the same time of the registration on the website you will have to pay the following associative fees concerning the following user profile categories:

1. BEDforBEDder (ref. to "What can I do" section): for all those people wanting to join the community of BEDforBED, that is to say those which offering a sleeping accommodation at their own house, acquire the right to stay by any other member of the community all over the world;
   Annual (365 days) fee: 15€
2. BEDforBEDder+Tutoring request (ref. to “What can I do” and “Tutoring – passive” sections): this category has the same rights and must of BEdforBEDder category, but in addition these users can ask for a passive tutor whenever they wish and without paying an extra-cost;
   Annual (365 days) fee: 20€
3. External (ref. to “Taking advantages from the tutoring even for the NON- BEDforBEDder” and “Tutoring – passive”): users who wish to take advantage from tutoring service without offering any accommodation;
   Fee per each city: 6€
4. Active Tutor: (ref. To “ Tutoring –active” section): users who wish to be contacted by people from al lover the world as tourist guide or in emergency case.
   Annual fee: FOR FREE

All the users using a currency different from EUROS will have to pay an amount corresponding to the above-mentioned amounts according the change applied at the time of the payment.

Q. How long does it last the registration?
A. The registration lasts for 365 days from date of registration; in fact you have to give the availability for the sleeping accommodation and use the chance to travel exclusively only within this period. At the end of one year it will be necessary to renew the registration fee.

Q. Which characteristics the sleeping accommodation must have?
A. In order to join the virtual community it is necessary to offer sleeping accommodation at your own house specifying which is the period available. It is enough to have an air bed, a sofa bed, sleeping accommodation on a caravan/boat, a floor to put a sleeping bag, a small place in the garden to pitch a tent. All this happens thanks to the “egalitarian principle” that lays on the basis of the website.
Q. Security
A. In order to take care of the security issue we have thought to draw up a sort of self-certification (exactly how it happens on the e-bay website), where all the member of the family giving availability are obliged to make a self-certification.
When the traveller chooses the destination, the two parts are brought into contact, giving the chance to the host to display the personal form of the traveller. When the host decides not to give hospitality to a certain traveller, he can refuse to house the traveller at issue, but he will receive automatically a negative feedback.
• Host security
  Before the traveller’s departure the hosts will receive an e-mail containing all the personal particulars of the latter such as: name, surname, address and passport number (number of the ID if they travel within the EC). At the arrival the traveller must show the passport ( or ID), so that the host will be able to check the guest’s identity; in the event that the tourist refuses to show such documents, the master of the house has the right to release himself from the hospitality offer.
• Tips
  BEDforBED suggests you to draw up a list of all the possesions present in yourt home, possibly written in English, so that the traveller could understand the text and then sign it at his/her arrival; at the end of the stay, if anything is missing, we suggest you apply to the competent authorities. BEDforBED suggests you do not give your home keys to the guest but to explain “timetables” and the rules which have to be followed.
  Everybody must use a polite behaviour.
• Traveller security
  The traveller is requested to choose two preferences for the destination at issue; the first choise will be the one really pursued; if the host will not be available or not conforming to what is previously declared, the traveller could go to the second host. The second owners must be free and ready to welcome the traveller for a period f 1 day from the arrival at the house of the first owners; after that the second ones can release themselves from the hospitality task. The host not in compliance with the rules will be immediately expelled from the community.

Q. Board and use of households
A. The price is fixed by the host and the guest decidesi f to take advantage from this opportunities.
When the traveller decides to make use of this opportunity ( obviously if the host gives its availability to this service), he must adapt to eat what the master of the house will want to cook (thanks to the drawing up of the personal form there will be no doubts concerning the food habits of both of them).

The use of accessory, household appliances or general comforts, will be at discretion of each host as well as the eventual related cost; for example, a host can deny the use of washing machine, or another one can claim the payment of a single use (all these details will be specified in the accommodation form).



Use of the kitchen	available	not available
Timetable of the kitchen use	from		to
	from		to
	from		to
Washing maschine	available	not available	price	€
Dishwasher	available	not available	price	€
Coin operated laundry in the neighbourhood	200 m.	500 m.	1 Km.
Half/Full board	available	not available
	breakfast	lunch	dinner	price
TV in the room	available	not availabile
Number of bathrooms


Q. If I give my availability how long can my stay last?
A. The maximum length of time at disposal to travel is calculated on the ground of the amount of the days that each host makes available to the guests and also according to some constant number; the latter ones take into consideration the variables related to the offered accommodation (such as location, type of accommodation and number of sleeping accommodation).

The total availability is calculated considering the parcial availabilities resulting from each location which will be obtained using the variables presented in following table (Table 2).


TYPE OF ACCOMMODATION	Single room	1
	Double room	1
	Sofa bed	0,7
	Sleeping bag	0,5
	Place to pitch a tent	0,3




LOCATION	Sea	1
	Mountains	1
	Lake	1
	Capital city	1
	Important city	0,7
	Tourist attraction place	0,7
	Turistic place	1
	Normal	0,5




SLEEPING ACCOMMODATION	One	1
	More than one	1,2




KITCHEN AVAILABILITY	Yes	1,2
	No	1

For example: Filippo Rossi lives in Carmagnola (TO) and offers one sleeping accommodation in a double room for 90 days, but he doesn’t give kitchen availability.


TYPE OF ACCOMODATION	Double room	1
LOCATION	Normal	0,5
SLEEPING ACCOMMODATION	1	1




LENGTH OF TIME OF THE ACCOMMODATION’S AVALABILITY

90 days




MAXIMUM LENGTH OF THE STAY

90*1*0,5*1

=

45 days



Q. Feedback
A. The feedback will have to be returned from both parties at the end of each stay within 1 month from the experience (we suppose that those people travelling for more than 30 days will have the opportunity to use the net), otherwise they will receive a negative feedback.

The negative feedback can be obtained as follows:

1. a penalty from the website administrator
   A penalty consists of receiving a negative feedback from the host owing to:
   • unavailable;
   • negative or missing answer to the stay request;
   • missing return of the feedback after 30 days from the experience;
   • decrease of the length of time’s availability by more than one third in comparison with the one given at the moment of the registration, after having stayed by other members of the community;
   • a complaint presented by the host/guest to the counterpart and considered as serious and reliable by the administration.
2. from the other members of the community at the end of the stay.
   Those receiving 5 negative feedbacks during 1 year will be expelled from the virtual community.
Q. Is it possible to stay with a friend in the same accommodation?
A. It is possible to stay with a friend in the same accommodation only if the owner has previously given his/her consent; for this reason it is possible to filter the search on the basis of the” number of places available”.

Q. Availability variations
A. The length of time available offered by each member can be modified during the year, on condition that you have not already used the service. Should someone change the time availability of his/her house after having used the service, the following countermeasures will be taken:
• decreasing the time availability by one third in comparison with what was previously declared, implies: the receiving of a negative feedback;
• decreasing the time availability by more than one third in comparison with what previously declared implies the exclusion from the virtual community;
• in case the user, which have already / not already used the service, should modify its own time availability from one to another, leaving the amount of the availability unchanged, he will not receive any warning, on the ground that no traveller has already booked the period previously available;
• in the case, the user should shift its own availability from one period to another, leaving the amount of the availability unmodified, but a traveller would have already chosen to stay by that user during the period previously declared; the user will receive a negative feedback.
Q. Expulsion from the virtual community
A. The expulsion from the community can happen on some occasions; in these cases the associative fee previously paid at the moment of the registration will NOT be refunded. The causes of the expulsion from the community are:
• build-up of 5 negative feedback;
• decreasing the time availability by more than one third in comparison with what previously declared, after having stayed by other community members;
• the host is missing or does not comply with what is declared;
• the traveller shows a passport different from that one used during the registration;
• actions revelead by charge form ritenute by admin so much rude to expel the BEDforBEDder
Q. Charge form
A. In the event that the relationship host/guest would be ruined by HEAVELY rude action (suspiciuous disappearance of objects, passport/ ID non corresponding to what previously declared, host not available at the arrival of the traveller,...), the injured party could denounce such behaviour to the website administration that put off the opportunity to give to the charged party a negative feedback or to expel him/her from the community.