Warm Showers

Warm Showers (WS) is a non-profit hospitality exchange service and support network for people engaging in bicycle touring, whereby members offer each other free lodging, meals, and support.³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸ It is operated by WARMSHOWERS ORG, a Colorado 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, US.¹ It is accessible via a website and mobile app. It uses a subscription business model, and while hosts are not allowed to charge for lodging, members must pay a fee to access the platform.

The concept was inspired by cyclist John Mosley in 1976 by placing an ad in the U.S. magazine Bike World, which requested to sign up for a hospitality list.⁹ A list of 800 names and contact infos was put into a rolodex for almost 30 years. The name of the organization was Touring Cyclist Hospitality Directory. Mosley provided touring cyclists with copies of pages from the rolodex.

A Canadian couple, Terry Zmrhal and Geoff Cashmen, founded Warm Showers in 1993 as a continuation of Touring Cyclist Hospitality Directory.⁹¹⁰¹¹ They created a database from the existing members of biking-hospitality organizations. In 1996, Roger Gravel became responsible for the platform.¹² In 2005, Randy Fay created the website based on the existing database.¹⁰