Not honouring commitments

Hi Jo
I totally agree with you, the same thing happened to me My guy actually did't contact me to say he was staying where he was until I had emailed him three times. he came back to me in the afternoon of the day I was supposed to pick him up. We are on a limited income. I had shopped buying things for him, that we would not normally have. Made up his room and bought wood for fencing, also asked a neighbour to give him a hand.
I felt rather stupid, when friends came and said where is your wwhoofer, they all make them so welcome this is the second time that I have been let down at the last minute.
I hope my summer ones are better mannered.

Yes the 'no shows' for whatever reason are awful. I've had the same kinda thing happen 3 times this year. Now I don't do my wwoof shopping until they arrive which is awkward but the only way I can get round it. It's also a pain for other wwoofers if others don't show and they can end being here on their own. And yes you organise and plan work for them and it can ruin plans especially if I take days off work to be ehre to do things with them. Dunno how we can round it but it's definitely not fair on hosts or other wwoofers.

I am not host, I am a WWOOFer, but i totally agree with all of you. It is a bit disrespectful to have someone open their house to you and give you a place to stay and meals, and then just not go. It is not easy working on a farm and any help has always been greatly appreciated. It is not fair to cancel last minute, when someone is really depending on you. I think that it is important to give a host at least two months notice, in order to give them time to find another WWOOFer. I am sorry for the trouble that other WWOOFers have caused you and I hope that you can find the help you need.

I sympathise; I went shopping with my 1st wwoofer and bought everything he likes, including meat and salmon . He left after a day and I was left with the meat! Luckily, I found a wwoofer to come 2 days later, and , although he is vegetarian, he is worth his weight in gold, and I couldn't recommend him highly enough. (courteous, considerate, helpful, pleasant, interesting, a good worker )I personally think there should be a way to leave feedback , both positive and negative.

sometimes they do,sometimes they don't! travel is a big investment, sometimes its better to make the most of the opportunities that manifest, and judgements must sometimes be made on the hoof. We should all give due consideration regarding the efforts of others in the furtherance of collective plans, but do not at all times succeed! A percentage of 'no-shows' seems unavoidable, and must be expected, and not always in circumstances we can agree with, given the broad cross section of applicants, and the unpredictable nature of events.

I do agree that it is not nice to be let down but I personally prefer not to have a Wwoofer here than someone who would rather be somewhere else (and therefore would not put the effort in).

Lets not forget that wwoofers are volunteers, they are not paid workers committing to a contract or anything like that. They offer their help in order to travel cheaply, learn English, have a good time.

Not to get in touch or at the last minute is completely out of order but otherwise plans can always change. If hosts have a problem with the lack of commitment of wwoofers maybe they shouldn't have them but pay people to do the work- I'm sure that would change a lot in regards to honouring committments.

If I have a project that needs doing at a particular time I will let my wwoofers know in advance so they know I need notice.

So far People have always showed up or given me plenty of notice if they found somewhere else but it does happen that they find another place while they are staying here and I will always let them go. Anything they did not finish can always be left for the next wwoofer to come. For me that works.

I absolutely agree that WWOOFers are volunteers, and we respect that, massively!
There are times however when you're booked up and turn someone away, only to find that because one backs out (which is their right) another WWOOFer may be on their own.
We always try to think about WWOOFer's needs and when they ask if there will be others here to work with, I don't like that we tell them yes, then let them down. Meeting other WWOOFers from different parts of the world does very much enrich the whole experience.
Incidentaly, are WWOOFers really only doing it to learn English, travel cheaply and have a good time?
Is it not for the joy of living closer to nature, working with animals or growing food organically? Does some kind of interest in sustainability not also enter the equation?

So, to WWOOFers past, present, and for the future, we love having you, and enjoy your company greatly!
Thank you!

My business is providing people with meals and accommodation and teaching them how to work with and ride horses using natural horsemanship principles.Before I joined wwoof ireland I was inundated with requests by young people to be allowed to stay for work. Fairly often they would arrive, stay for a few days, get a nice free little riding holiday, and then I would discover that they had a family crisis, debilitating medical condition, incurable homesickness and they would toddle off back home. This was so disruptive that I implemented a policy whereby they had to pay me for a week's full board riding holiday and if they completed their term satisfactorily I refunded them their money. Under those terms my student workers always completed their stays. When I joined wwoof I abandoned that policy because it didn't seem to fit with the wooffing ethos. Like all wwoof hosts I put a lot of time and effort into making sure that my wwoofers are happy and doing tasks that they like and will learn from, as well as being comfortable and well fed. And now I am back to square one. One of my summer wwoofers (who booked her stay in January) announced after a few days that she was desperately homesick and had to return home. Not only that, but she told me that the last time she had decided to go away two years previously she had had to return because she missed home so much. So hosts, what do you think about drawing up some kind of wwoofing contract? I know that not all of you have the same kind of tourism business as I do and so maybe aren't such targets for people looking for a free ride, but I know that every host on this site is serious about running a business and committed to helping wwoofers and it is a pain in the backside for all of us when people do not fulfill their commitments.

On another note, maybe we should have a link on this site to 'www.couchsurfing.org'. Couch surfers can stay with a host for free for a night or two or longer (by agreement) without having to work/learn in return. That way we might filter out the people who want to explore a country cheaply or non-commitally from those who are genuinely interested in learning about (and experiencing the hard labour of) an environmentally sustainable lifestyle.

couchsurfing.org link is a great idea i think!
we only had 1 couple take off so far (for a week in the middle of their 3 week stay...) but it actually worked out for the better - we were happy to get somebody else instead of them - or nobody at all. Or at least so we thought.... But the ones that came after them were even worse!! Actually ended up sending them away, they caused so much damage and had no common sense at all...

It's happened yet again although I suppose 1 days cancellation notice is better than none. So to the host who is hosting the 4 French male wwoofers who are now arriving to them on 7th July - good luck! I have food and supplies and work here for 3 young men here if you need it (1 of them was due to arrive next week!). This is becoming unfunny and I'm so angry at how unreliable wwoofers are becoming. It is detracting from the ethos of wwoofing and is neither fun for hosts or for exisitng wwoofers at places.

I'm reading all this as I'm starting my WWOOFing adventure in about a week, and I'm shocked at how inconsiderate some WWOOFers apparently are. I really think giving WWOOFers feedback should be an option, as it gives some clarity as to what you can expect from a person. Also it would be fairer, as WWOOFers can also give feedback about hosts.

There is a way for hosts to give feedback about WWOOFers - it's the 'Contact us' button at the top of every page. If you contact us, we will do everything we can to solve problems to improve the WWOOF experience for everyone. We think that is the most effective, and fairest arrangement.

We have just completed our first woofing fortnight with 3 really charming people. It was a wonderful experience and we will definitely be doing it again. We should have had a fourth but I just had a feeling he was not going to turn up. So when it was close to the time and I hadn't heard from him I emailed him to ask when he was coming. Sure enough I got an offhand reply saying the project he was on had not been finished and he was staying there. It didn't matter to us, but I was concerned that I now had one young man on his own with two women. I felt he might be lonely. (That didn't matter in fact, it worked very well, we all got on like a house on fire!) So I emailed back and gently told him that if this situation arose again he should think about his commitments. He replied that it didn't matter I could soon get someone else off the site. We asked our young man if he would like us to do this, but he was happy so we didn't.The point I would like to make to those hosts who keep wwoofas beyond their time, is that apart from the inconvenience to the next host....this I know has been discussed before....I feel quite strongly that we should set the young people an example. I was brought up to honour my commitments, and that if something else came along that seemed better, it was tough, you should stick to an original agreement. We both feel that as well as practical examples, we would like our wwoofas to feel we are are good moral and ethical examples too....maybe we are just old-fashioned.

We have had four lots of Wwoofers not turn up this year and two of them never bothered to tell us that they were not coming. It is obvious that some people have been double booking and then deciding at the last minute whether they will be coming or going somewhere else. As we can't leave feedback about the Wwoofers the problem will persist and these people will go on to do this again with no warning or maybe occasionally leaving a quick message like "not coming due to unforeseen circumstances" etc. but we have never had more than 2 weeks warning. Most of the hosts we knew who normally took wwoofers have not had any, or taken less this time, as we have too. This is possibly because of the extra hassle that they can sometimes cause, and perhaps the fact that there is no satisfactory way to "preview" applicants (by checking what other hosts have said) as there is for wwoofers who look for hosts. I think that we take the greater risks though by inviting strangers into our lives and homes, and should be allowed to share our experiences (with individual Wwoofers) whatever they are, with other hosts. Instead we must always rely solely upon what the wwoofers are prepared to say about themselves, which if you look at some profiles is almost nothing.

We don't think that is is the fairest or indeed most effective arrangement, as we are the ones who have to try to decide who we should open our homes to; and yet we (as hosts) are the only party who is not privy to any reviews or feedback that may exist. Maybe in the absence of any other information we should ask for references?

There are several points raised by Russel and Monica's posts.

It is unlikely that feedback about WWOOFers would be available when WWOOFers make a booking as most make arrangements before they even start their journey.

If WWOOFers have inadequate profiles, then don't offer them a place! As I do see ALL profiles on the site I can say that the majority are very informative. Some may be brief due to language difficulties, but that should be expected. In the end, it is for hosts to decide if a place will be offered.

There are over 2000 WWOOFers on this site - it is inevitable that a few will not meet expectations, and some will have genuine reasons for not being able to come. To put some perspective on this, we have also had several complaints from WWOOFers about hosts who have cancelled with no notice - and that does create problems for young travellers. I think it is just a fact of life that some commitments will not be kept and usually the reasons are understandable.

As has been said before, there IS a way for hosts to contact us about problems with individual WWOOFers by using the 'Contact us' button at the top of every page. There has been some feedback and we have taken action when necessary - but really there has been very little, for whatever reason.

If a WWOOFer cancels, the noticeboard usually has notices from others who are seeking places - two weeks is not inadequate notice in my opinion.

Although hosts are opening their homes, WWOOFers are also taking a lot on trust, arriving at a place where they may encounter unfamiliar lifestyles, language barriers and very occasionally, I regret to say, unwelcoming attitudes. WWOOF is an exchange and trust works both ways. Taking a WWOOFer into your home does require time and commitment - but it's worth it in my opinion.