You stay in private homes of travelers like yourself, paying a small gratuity.  In the 'private home hospitality accommodation', the hosts are individuals who enjoy meeting other people, sharing their homes and communities, and perhaps even serving their favorite breakfast recipe.

With over 2,000 host locations (47 states and 50 countries), there is a wide assortment of homes both in atmosphere and location: urban, suburban, rural and resort.  It is a 'home away from home' experience, only better, since you don't have to cook breakfast!

Although many of the hosts are retired, others have jobs outside the home during the day but enjoy taking guests when their schedules allow.  Amenities vary with each home.  Sometimes, for special consideration, your host will act as a guide in the area or go to dinner with you on a "Dutch Treat" basis.  Most important, your host knows the area and can give you information on tourist attractions and the best places to dine.

What we have experienced in our travels and the goal we have for the Affordable Travel Club are best expressed by Arthur Frommer in his book New World of Travel:

My mature travel tastes are for places as yet uninundated by commercial tourism.  Ultimately, the experienced traveller concludes that people are the highlight of any vacation trip.  With maturity, with the personal humility that comes with years, I now want to know what other inhabitants of this planet are thinking, and I value the chance to meet them as a supreme travel goal, fully as important as the many minor museums and lifeless monuments to which the younger tourists are madly dashing.

Think back on it: your fondest travel memories are of the islands and towns where you arrived before the others did, where prices and amenities were gently human on scale, where residents smiled as you approached.  In the last analysis, mature travel consists of continuing to act as a travel pioneer, always seeking out the new, keeping juices and spirits flowing, pursuing the dream of discovery and challenge,retaining the very best form of youth, that of an ever-questing open mind.
 

The Wall Street Journal recently published a front page article in its Weekend Journal declaring that the newest trend in traveler accommodations is also the oldest: Staying in someone else's house.  The Journal called it a "status symbol" to do so.  "The new destination of choice for many travelers isn't some crowded beach resort or an impersonal rental.  Rather, it's the downstairs den, former kids' bedroom--or in the most upscale cases, the fully appointed guest house--of a friend". 

You will love the Affordable Travel Club if you want to travel in a different and delightful way.  If you are missing the personal touch in your travels and want to feel like a visiting friend, rather than a patron in a hotel, then you'll love the Affordable Travel Club.