Yes, hosts can search for and contact Workawayers by skills and last minute availability as well as destinations and location if you have allowed this. This is why it essential you provide accurate information about your skills as well as the dates and places you are travelling to. Destinations can be added or edited here when you are logged in to your account.
You can contact the Workaway team here
We always welcome suggestions and comments and it's always great to hear about your Workaway experiences too :)
When you sign up as a Workawayer you can access the host list and contact host families, NGOs or projects directly for one year to offer your help. You will also be able to find travel buddies, or contact other Workawayers for meet up or language exchange.
Workaway is a cultural exchange, you offer a few hours of help in exchange of food and accommodation.Take a look at the info on the site here again and if you have any more questions drop us a line.
To register as a Workawayer: https://www.workaway.info/en/signup/workawayer
Please check the following:
If you are still having problems contact us with your original email address and/or username and we will reissue you a password manually.
Do you have a single account?
Did you apply to a host as a couple or with a friend?
If so our filters probably took your profile offline.
You have two options:
Alternatively, if you think our system has made a mistake please contact us and we can review your profile for you :)
Couple accounts are made for either friends, couples or families etc that ALWAYS travel together. It means you can share the cost rather than signing up as two individual members!
When you sign up to Workaway as a couple you should both fill in your details in the profile, but it's important to understand that any enquiry you make means you are applying for two.
If you are planning to travel just for a short while with your friend, we recommend that you sign up as individuals and link your profiles together so hosts know you are travelling together for that period of time.
Workaway is primarily for cultural exchange or learning new skills and a way of making new friends.
If a host is looking for help with a business or business activity, they may offer payment to ensure that they are meeting the minimum wage requirements of their country.
Remember you will need the correct visa for any country that you visit.
Where a host is offering payment this will be clearly marked on their profile.
First, make sure you are logged in. Then navigate to your 'My account' page (click on your photo in the top right of a page if you are on a desktop machine or click on the 3 lines at the top right of your mobile device and choose 'My account')
There you will see a green 'Edit profile' button (near your profile image) to enable you to add or change the information in your profile.
Further options can be found in the 'My account' tab drop down menu.
Orphanages on Workaway.
It is generally accepted that when a child has lost their parents the best form of care involves them living with a foster family or carer. Research has shown that when children are placed in institutions their social, physical, intellectual and emotional development all suffer negatively.
Attitudes towards orphanages have changed as more research has been done showing the negative impact on the children. In most countries residential care is considered to be the last option after all community care opportunities have been explored.
For these reasons Workaway generally does not list orphanages on the site. We prefer to explore ways of contributing to organisations providing support to foster families and community care.
By clicking the "PayPal" or "Credit Card" button after filling in your details and creating your profile on the Workawayer sign up page.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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'
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.
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.
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.
