Worldpackers website makes changes to membership plan

The work-exchange website Worldpackers has made some important changes to their membership plans this month. These changes could improve the quality of workers applying to help in hostels by eliminating those travelers who are not really serious about volunteering.

This works in the same way that tightening down your Booking com cancellation policy reduces the number of fake bookings that weren’t really serious about showing up for their reservation in the first place.

By requiring an initial commitment from volunteers, Worldpackers are filtering the applicant pool to provide only the people who are really interested in working during their trip.

Here is some information from an email announcement about the changes:

Worldpackers is chang... Evolving.

Starting on October 15, only travelers who join the Worldpackers annual Membership plan will be able to apply to, contact, and stay with our community hosts.

Before this change, travelers had two options to pay & show commitment:

• The per-stay plan, where the traveler pays a service fee to confirm their stay with a host.
• The annual subscription plan, where the traveler pays an annual service fee that allows them to apply, chat, and confirm unlimited stays during a 1-year period. Starting on October 15, this will be our only plan, for a single payment of $49/year.

This change is essential for us to create specific tools and policies to assure the commitment and engagement of volunteers, such as:

• Ensuring that only the most engaged members will participate
• Verification of volunteers’ ability to pay
• Adoption of more restrictive policies to prevent "no-shows"
• Tools for training and qualification of volunteers

All travelers who join or have already joined the plan will now automatically become Verified Community Members

We believe this is an important step towards a more secure, transparent, and empowered community.

More detailed information about the changes can be found on the Worldpackers helpdesk, along with a FAQ section about membership in general.