Non arrival of WWoofers

Funny thing is, this is the first year we've had any "no - shows".
Usually, if they've confirmed well in advance I email a month before, and act according to their reply. If it's a general enquiry I make it clear we're only regarding it as a tentative booking until they give me a definite, positive date they expect to arrive.
I wonder if we maybe need a firmer, clearer directive on the site for prospective WWOOFers, indicating that they are acting selfishly, in that other WWOOFers may be rejected because there appears to be no room for them.
Is there a possibility that some are booking themselves in to more than one farm at once, then seeing which way the fancy takes them?

Me too! Sounds possible that some may be 'playing the field'! It is a problem for other wwoofers too indeed, especially as say, for the likes of here its nice for there to be a few wwoofers here for company in the 'wilderness' as well as for projects that can be done. hmmmmmmmm hard to know, cos i've had 'definites' too who just haven't turned up and I have talked to a few other hosts who had the same experience this year. Head scratching stuff

Its good to get the feedback that there has been this problem for hosts!  What we would encourage you to do is to let us know - after all, we don't know if they have just disappeared off the face of the earth or not really!  And it IS very irritating, has happened to me only once this year, but I was able to trace them and it was a misunderstanding because of language. So if any don't appear in the future, or you have any other concerns, just send in a note to us on the 'contact' button and we will always do what we can.
Thanks for using the forum! - Annie

Hi,

I thought the problem of wwoofers not arriving and not letting know might have something to do with the other topic on this forum called 'Host doesn't react.'

I'm a wooffer myself and about two months ago I started looking for a host. A few didn't react at all and it can be disappointing having to wait while you're ready to go. So that's why wooffers react at more hosts at the same time I think.
And because the hosts might have internet problems due to them being located in the country side it might happen that just when you've arranged an arrival time with a host that a 'better' hosts react.
I think that wooffers should realise that it's not nice to then not react at all and not show up with the host they initially arranged a visit with. Clear comunication about each others plans is very important and people should realise that we're one big community where each of us has to take self-responsibility for their actions.

Please send out this message with love and don't set rules too quickly please. Most people are willing to take self-responsibility if you approach them in a kind matter.

Greetings,

Luuk Kauffmann

Hello,

I am a wwoofer as well. I do apologize for wwoofers being inconsiderate and not notifying hosts of their decision not to come in an adequate amount of time. When I began searching for sites, I wrote several, because out of let us say 5, 3 would say no room, one would say they are waiting on others to respond and one would say definitely. I am not sure what level of commitment was reached before the non-arrival, but some things do come up and when they do, courtesy should be considered on their part because you are opening your homes, families, and communities to strangers. I would suggest you also detail what it is the wwoofer will be doing. They get an idea from your site description, but sometimes people 'read into' what they read. I can only imagine that some fancy a place due to things like learning you have horses and ponies at your farm and they feel that working with the animals will be first and foremost. Then they learn that they will only be doing gardening work and not animal care at all. When you are upfront through personal contact (via email or phone) and you make that clear, maybe that will cut down on no-shows and you will get a better crop of individuals who are committed to doing the job you need done.

Thank you for taking part in this discussion, it really seems that communication and courtesy is the key to all this from both sides, and I hope that this exchange between WWOOFers and hosts will help to increase both!
Annie, WWOOF Ireland team

After speaking to a few WWOOFers about this, one problem they have is finding hosts in the list after receiving an email reply from them. I did provide an extra search facility to help find hosts from their email address, but some WWOOFers have not noticed it.

Hosts can help by mentioning their site name in any replies to WWOOFers' messages, or by including a link to their page on the site. This won't solve the no-show issue but it may help to prevent confusion over bookings which does seem to be a small part of the problem.

I think it would seroiusly help wwoofers if hosts were to state clearly in their profile if they're not looking for volunteers, for certain periods of time or indeed for the time being. It would cut out a lot of wasted looking and waiting for replies on the wwoofers part, and subsequently make things easier for hosts in need of workers.

Hi everybody! and a happy new year to you all!
Well-it's starting quite miserably.
We've read Jo's comment and wondered what's happening,but now 2 of our
supposed to be wwoofers haven't shown with no explanation whatsoever.
Since most of the wwoofers are quite young,travelling in a foreign country
we were quite worried.
We try to reply to every enquiry we're getting,but it can take up to two weeks,
depending on the work load we're having.
I find it really annoying if wwoofers don't show up.First of all they're letting us down and secondly they rob other potential wwoofers of the space they'd have taken.This January is the first time it happened to us and,if it should happen more often,we'll have to rethink taking wwoofers inn.
Jo-I wonder if our problem is/was caused by the same wwoofers?
Let's hope,it won't happen again this year.

Hi Peter,
the problem you mentioned,I find,is only with wwoofers that send multi E-mails to
a lot of farms.
I reply to wwoofers that mention our names,the name of the farm and show a genuine interest in our work.
When we started,we took in everybody who applied,but after four years we changed our tune a bit.We tell interested parties about the bad sides of the work,and since then,fingers crossed,ended up with brilliant wwoofers.
We like to make sure that they'll fit in and after being told about the bad bits
only the determend ones usually come.
We had around 15 wwoofers last year and apart from one they all fitted in nicely.
We still got friends who started as wwoofers during the first two years coming back as friends.
I know a lot of hosts will disagree with me,but you'll have to be cruel to be kind.