FAQ for: Workawayers | Hosts

By clicking the "PayPal" or "Credit Card" button after filling in your details and creating your profile on the Workawayer sign up page.

We are unable to provide info about visas as there are so many variables depending on nationality and the country being visited. It is up to the Workawayer to find out about any visa requirements depending on the country they are from and the country they are going to. All Workawayers must obtain the relevant visa (working , volunteering or otherwise) for the country they are travelling to.
Couple accounts are for friends, families (with children under 18 years old) or partners who ALWAYS travel and volunteer together. If you plan to travel together for only part of your trip it is best to buy two single accounts and then link them together within your profiles.
One month before your membership ends you will receive an email reminding you and a message displayed on your profile. Click on the link in the email or on your profile to extend your membership for another year at a special discounted rate.
Workaway will never take money automatically for your subscription. You will be sent two reminders. However if you choose not to renew you will not be charged again.

If you tried to pay with PayPal you will need to contact them directly if your payment is refused.

If you tried to pay directly with a card, most credit and debit cards are accepted, however American Express cards cannot be processed and some debit cards that do not have a CVV code on the back will not be accepted.

We would advise using PayPal if your card cannot be processed.

If you have a code that you received as a gift, add your details to create your profile here: https://www.workaway.info/en/signup/workawayer 

When you reach the payment page, just input your code.

A gift code must be redeemed within 1 year of being received.

We don't accept payment by Western Union. PayPal is the easiest way to send payment. 

A Workaway subscription lasts for 1 year. It starts from the date the money is received.
Your profile and all the information will still be active and available to you on Workaway. Once you decide that you want to contact hosts again just follow the payment advice in your profile.
In the last month of your membership you can upgrade your single account to a couple account for free so you can renew your account easily. Upgrading is accessible from your settings page when logged in to your account: Workaway Account Settings

Once you are logged-in, all options for privacy can be found here in your profile.

When you click the "Keep my profile private" check box only logged in hosts will be able to see your photos and the information you write in your profile.

You can choose in your privacy settings which other members can see your approximate location.

Your profile will not show up in any Google (or other search engines) searches.

For more information about our privacy policy, see our Data protection page.

We never reveal email addresses or your personal information to any third party. We do not sell on your information or use it in any way to target advertising.

We only use the information you provide about yourself to enable you to contact hosts and travel worldwide.

For more information, take a look at our Data protection policy.

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.

Select 'my profile photos' found in your 'My account' dropdown and follow the online instructions. This is accessed by clicking your round profile photo in the top right of the screen or the three lines on mobile when logged in. It is essential you have uploaded a good photo when contacting hosts. It's the first impression they get of you and influences greatly their decision on whether to invite you or not.

To upgrade to a couple account, login to your profile and go to the "Upgrade to a couple account" link. When you upgrade to a couple account, your account still ends 1 year from the date of your current subscription's payment (not from when you upgrade.)

Remember, you should only get a couple profile if you will always be travelling together, you should not apply to hosts for just one person from a couple profile.

Access your 'Account' by clicking your round profile photo in the top right of the screen or the three lines on mobile when logged in. Then go to 'My settings' and choose 'Pause / deactivate my account'. If you wish to turn your profile back on, simply choose 'Reactivate my account' from the same menu. If you are a host you also have the option to choose a date for your profile to be automatically reactivated.

By logging into your profile and choosing 'Leave feedback' on your 'Account' dropdown. This is accessed by clicking your round profile photo in the top right of the screen or the three lines on mobile when logged in.

Here you can search for the host or workawayer using username, name or email address. Once on the correct profile scroll to the bottom and leave your comments. We will verify feedback before it is put online.

Please note we will not publish insulting feedback, try to be constructive in anything you write.

Please check that emails are not going to your junk or spam. Addresses from @workaway.info and @workawaymail.info (which indicates all messages from those domains) need to be set to safe addresses via your email client.

All messages sent to you should arrive in your Workaway inbox AND your email. If you still think there is a problem let us know and we can cross check the emails that are already in your inbox for you.

Once feedback has been left it is non editable. Please make sure that the feedback you leave is the feedback you want published! Please note: We do not publish insulting feedback.

This is how you indicate to hosts that you are travelling with another workawayer for a while:

After signing in, click on the "Connect your profile" button, and enter the USERNAME of the workawayer you want to connect your profile with.

An email will be sent to the second workawayer to confirm that they wish to have their profile connected to yours. Once they have responded and given permission your profiles will appear connected.

When you decide that you will not be travelling together, you easily can separate your profiles by clicking on the "disconnect profiles" link on your "My account" page next to the picture of the workawayer that your profile is joined to.

Make sure that localisation services are activated. There are also settings for localisation by GPS and/or using WiFi networks. At least one of these has to be active. On Android: Settings > Localization ... On Apple iOS: Settings > Privacy > Location Services

First make sure you're logged in. Then go to your 'Account' dropdown. This is accessed by clicking your round profile photo in the top right of the screen or the three lines on mobile when logged in. Choose 'My profile photos' then hover over the image you want and click on the pen icon - select 'Make this my profile photo'

If our system detects the same message being sent out repeatedly it will get marked as spam and you may be automatically put offline. Therefore, please make sure that you write personalised messages to anyone that you contact through the site.
To change your couple account into a single, sign in to your profile, then go to 'Account' by your round profile photo. Next choose 'My settings' where you will find the 'Change to single account' option. Please note: You can change your account from a couple to a single, but if you decide that you need a couple account again with another person who is not currently listed on the account, you will need to pay to upgrade it.
If parts of the site seem to not be working, it's worth deactivating any browser extensions or add ons that you might be running because these can sometimes interfere. Try with another browser or device to see if you can isolate the problem.
If you have sent multiple copy/pasted or numerous one line messages it's possible that your profile will have been put offline by our spam filter. We ask that users of Workaway do not copy/paste messages, please make sure that you write a personal message to hosts expressing why you are interested in visiting them and how your skills can help them.
Pausing your profile just puts it in hibernation, all the info (including feedback, messages...etc) is retained and available again when you reactivate. The 'Pause' and 'Reactivate' options are available on your profile page. You can also access these via your settings. Pausing your Workawayer profile does not change the end date of your membership.

Usually this issue is caused by your browser's settings.

We'd suggest trying a different browser to see if the icons are showing correctly.

If the problem persists:

- Make sure your browser's extensions are not blocking webfonts (noscript, ublock or adblockplus, etc.)

- You should also check your operating system's settings to ensure that webfonts are not being blocked.

First of all make sure you are logged in to your profile. Usernames can then be found by going to your 'My account' page - it's displayed just under your name at the top of your profile.

Every Workawayer has a personal Workaway advisor who can be asked questions using live chat via your ‘My account’ profile page on the site.

Live chat is basically an instant messenger where we can provide answers quickly. We are humans though so we do have to sleep! If your advisor is not online you can still contact us via the help desk and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Your advisor is there to offer support and help with setting up your profile. We cannot however advise on visa requirements or insurance as there are too many variables for us to offer accurate information, nor can we plan your trip for you.

The personal Workaway advisor is only available for paid members.

This information is private, it’s not possible for a member to see who has favourited their profile. If you favourite another member’s profile they cannot see who has done this.

Badges are our way of rewarding members for certain achievements.

The 'explorer' badge is given to Workawayers who are the first to leave a feedback for a new host. There are also badges that show when a Workawayer has received a certain amount of 5 star feedback and for members that have verified their profile via Facebook.

The 'advocate' badge is earned by Workawayers who are taking initiative to help spread the Workaway word, and promote the value of cultural exchange and giving back while travelling.

The other badges available are for 'photographers' who have won a prize in our photo competition and for members who have featured as 'Workawayer of the month' on the Workaway blog.

You can see any badges that you currently have by viewing your profile as it appears online.