Going on an adventure can be exhilarating and nerve-wracking at the same time, especially if this is your first big trip abroad as a workawayer or solo traveller! Here at Workaway we strive to provide all the resources and implement the best safety measures for our community members to feel as safe as possible during their Workaway trips.
Our team manually verifies every new workawayer and host profile before they are listed on the site. To help keep our community safe and fair, and to allow our members to make informed decisions when arranging potential exchanges, we also review every new and renewing workawayer, as well as every new and updated host listing.
If there’s an emergency issue where the host has failed to fulfil their accommodation commitments and the Workawayer has been left in a difficult situation, we will try our best to provide advice and help with unforeseen costs by offering assistance up to the amount of your subscription fee.
We have a 24-hour email support team who are here to respond to enquiries and offer advice in dealing with issues if any arise. Workawayers or hosts can Contact Us on the help desk page or via live chat which is accessible for all paid members.
As a way to inspire trust and promote safety in the community, hosts and workawayers can now verify their identity securely via official ID without disclosing any sensitive data.
Insurance is essential not just for workawayers, but for every traveller planning to go abroad. Workaway lists a wide range of projects and learning opportunities with different activities or settings, so keep in mind to choose an insurance plan that covers you for what you need.
We have detailed guidelines on child protection for hosts such as schools, organisations or families with children, as well as workawayers who might be interacting with children during their stay. Workaway projects that involve children are required to establish and comply with these guidelines.
If you encounter a serious issue that you'd like to make us aware of you should directly report the other member’s profile. Once a report is received, we start an investigation. A member of our team may contact you for further information.
When you sign up as a Workawayer you can access the host list and contact host families, NGOs or projects directly for one year to offer your help. You will also be able to find travel buddies, or contact other Workawayers for meet up or language exchange.
Workaway is a cultural exchange, you offer a few hours of help in exchange of food and accommodation.Take a look at the info on the site here again and if you have any more questions drop us a line.
To register as a Workawayer: https://www.workaway.info/en/signup/workawayer
Here at Workaway safety is our top priority. We strive to provide all the resources for our community members to feel as safe as possible during their Workaway trips.
For more details about our safety measures please read our notes on safety: https://www.workaway.info/en/info/safety
You will also find some more advice and recommendation on how to travel safely as a workawayer: https://www.workaway.info/en/info/safety/traveladvice
Workaway was created over 20 years ago. As the leading travel community for cultural exchange, volunteering and working holidays, our website has been featured on The Guardian, Forbes, Lonely Planet, and The New York Times among many other press.
Since then we have received thousands of feedbacks left by travellers and hosts who have connected and arranged exchanges with each other through the site! You can read the feedbacks here.
If you are still not sure, feel free to also check us out on social media (links are at the bottom of this page) to find out more about our members’ first hand experience.
At Workaway we strive to provide our members with the right tools to make informed decisions regarding who they interact with online and in real life.
Please remember Workaway is a tool to facilitate contact, we do not act as agents. While we don't routinely perform background checks, we do however reserve the right to do so. To help ensure safety within the community, we actively review every profile that is created. Host profiles must meet all of our requirements before we will put them online. We also provide a way for all members to confirm their identity with our "Verify by ID" system.
Miscommunication, cultural differences, diverging expectations or even just clashing personalities… these are all possible reasons that an exchange may not work out as planned. If this happens, we recommend the best course of action is to try and calmly discuss the issues with each other. After all, workawayers travel far beyond their comfort zone to help and bond with hosts, and hosts are also opening their homes or projects to workawayers. So, it is always mutually beneficial for both parties if conflicts can be avoided or resolved. If the issue still cannot be solved, remember safety always comes first and you are free to end any arrangement you are no longer comfortable with.
We also highly recommend that you have a back up plan (as you should in any travel situation)!
Workaway provides the platform for members to contact each other, however if you think a situation is serious and puts either the workawayer or host at risk then we want to hear about it. We will investigate both sides of the story and take action if we deem it appropriate.
You can contact the Workaway team here
We always welcome suggestions and comments and it's always great to hear about your Workaway experiences too :)
Workaway works on trust! Having said that, it is important not to take unnecessary risks. Read on for more advice and recommendations on how to travel safely as a workawayer...
