As many of you know, I’ve belong to Hospitality Club for a number of years and have used this website to find lodging and like minded people when I travel. I’ve always had a great experience travelling the world and meeting up with locals from my destination or being hosted by “strangers”. Its an odd phenomenon, because very often you meet the person, know nothing about them, and after a few days of being with them you feel a kinship and must move on. The sad fact is that you may never see them again, but you will always have the memories of a special moment in time. While I did not get the opportunity to travel the world this weekend, I brought the world into my home, Germany to be more specific. I hosted two fine German gentleman for two nights.

The Hospitality Club is an international, internet based hospitality group of 386,550 members in 219 countries. Its members use the website HospitalityClub.org to coordinate accommodation and other services, such as guiding or regaling travelers. Hospitality Club is currently one of the largest such hospitality networks, similary-themed couchsurfing.com generally being acknowledged as the largest.

Hospitality Club was founded by Veit Kühne in 2000 with the help of friends and family as a general-purpose Internet-based hospitality exchange organization. The membership has grown exponentially since its creation.

Membership in the organization is free and is obtained simply by registering on the website. The core activity of the organization is exchange of accommodation. Acting as a host, a member offers the possibility of accommodation at his leisure. As a guest, a traveler may find possible hosts and contact them through the website. No money is involved –guests and hosts do not pay each other.

The duration of the stay, whether food is provided for free, for a fee or not at all, and all other conditions are agreed on beforehand to the convenience of both parties.

After meeting, the host and guest may comment about each other. This provides a means to establish a reputation which is the main security measure. Users have to provide their real identity, which is screened by volunteers, and protected against changes.

Apart from accommodation, members exchange other forms of hospitality, such as guiding visitors or providing travel-related advice. There are also Travel Guide sections and forums where members may seek partners for travels, hitchhiking, or get togethers.

Volunteers within the club often arrange meetings or camps which are events that last several days that bring people together.

The club is based on the work of hundreds of volunteers around the world. The motivation behind it is the idea that bringing people together and fostering international friendships will increase inter cultural understanding and strengthen peace. It is the largest hospitality network, and there is a mission to find 1,000,000 friendly people.

The policy of the organization explicitly forbids alternative uses, such as dating, job-seeking, commercial use, and website promotions. In order to protect members' mailboxes from spam and to keep trust in the network at high levels a volunteer team scans the messages being sent across the site. Members may also opt-out of this service and receive all messages directly. The website includes a Forum with certain rules - for example it is forbidden to post personal data of other members, and volunteers prefer not to discuss the organization's strategy on the forum, but encourage members to contact them directly.

I’ve hosted others before and it is always interesting to see other people’s perspective of Los Angeles or the States or what they find interesting as I show them around Los Angeles.

My guest, Nico and Manuel, arrived Thursday night we went for a walk along the beach. Granted it was dark, but I imagine it is exciting to visit the Pacific ocean for the first time.

Friday I took them on my whirlwind tour of Los Angeles. Our first stop was Alpine Village (just to remind them of their home!) From there we headed to Downtown Los Angeles and drove around Exposition Park and then by the convention center and Staples Center. We stopped at Pershing Square for a walk to the Biltmore Hotel, The Tower Building (the tallest building in Los Angeles), up the Spanish Steps (a mock staircase of the real ones in Rome). We then headed to the Disney Concert Hall and over to Grand Central Market.

Our next stop on the circuit was Olvera Street, the birthplace of Los Angeles where I showed my guest the first home, fire station, church, and street in Los Angeles. This is also where we stopped to have lunch.

We then hopped in the car and I drove them up into the Hollywood Hills for a photo shot of the famous Hollywood Sign and then walked a while around The Hollywood Walk of Fame and Graumans Chinese Theater.

The driving tour continued down Sunset Blvd through the Sunset Strip and Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Brentwood, and finally ending up at the Pacific Ocean in Malibu. Our next stop was Santa Monica Pier which we walked out on and saw a guy actually catch a shark from the pier! Our final stop was Venice Beach and Muscle Beach capped off by a traditional American dinner of Cheeseburger, fries, and shakes!

Unfortunately, the next day my guests headed north to San Francisco. It was a pleasure hosting them and I’ve learned so much by hosting and being hosted. I learn a deeper appreciation for others and other cultures. I love our conversations about politics, religion, and culture. When I host it also gives me a deeper appreciation of where I live. But I think the most magical part is that for a day or two you share a very intimate experience with someone, they leave perhaps never to be seen again but you will always remember that special time and more fully understand how we are all interconnected and interdependent.

So…thank you Manuel and Nico for a wonderful time hosting you…for the memories…and for the deeper insight into the world we live.