I have been in Boondockers Welcome (BW) for 10 years. When I started, BW was owned and run by a couple of Canadian ladies. It was intended to be a reciprocal type group where members would allow other members to overnight at their property in their RV for 1-3 (maybe 5?) nights. I used it 4-8 nights a year, and probably hosted others about the same. Some were simply driveways, others had larger spreads. Some had electric and or water. I provide water and 20 amp electric. I never had a bad experience both hosting others or staying at a host site; I have met many very nice people. The cost was about $20/year, but after I had hosted so many times my membership was free. I believe there was a membership option for those that could not host, but most that I hosted were hosts as well. I only allow smaller RVs under 25 ft. I especially like hosting folks with Class B RVs as we can exchange ideas. BW was a fairly low key operation and it ran nicely.
One concern I had was that a large number of full time RVers would join and overload the system. This was not a problem until the owner of Harvest Hosts (HH) bought BW. Now BW is highly advertised, like HH. I just saw an add touting BW as free camping, after the now $80 annual member fee. Hosts that provide utilities can charge up to $15 a night. I do not charge as I do not want to appear to be running a business., which would negate my homeowners insurance. There are many more BW members that do not host others now. And I think there are many more full-timers or extended time campers using the system because it is so cheap when used a lot. I have had more requests to host since the HH purchase of BW, but not an overwhelming amount as I am not in a tourist location. Some of the hosts in popular places have hosted hundreds of times. I have met some of these hosts and they like meeting people and are fine with it. I like meeting people too but there is a limit (for me, but more-so for my wife). As a host you are under no obligation to accept a request, and you can block out times on your host calendar when you are not able to host. I have noticed some hosts presently have a total block on availability. Perhaps they are on the road, but I suspect some got overloaded with requests and backed off of hosting. Both hosts and guests are encouraged to write a review, which should help weed out problem folks. As I said, I never had any problems.
That’s my experience with BW. It has been nice, and I continue to use it on a small scale.
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