Editing Hospitality Club (section)

== Organization and policies ==
The club is based on the work of hundreds of [[volunteer]]s around the world. The motivation behind it is ''the idea that bringing people together and fostering international friendships will increase inter cultural understanding and strengthen peace.'' It is one of the largest hospitality networks, and there is ''a mission to find 1,000,000 friendly people''.

There is no registered organization behind the website in [[Germany]] or other countries, and the domain name is directly registered to the founder of the site, Veit Kühne.<ref>[http://www.raynette.fr/services/whois/index.php?action=domain_info&domain=hospitalityclub.org Registration of hospitalityclub.org] from [[WHOIS]].</ref>, who is working full time on Hospitality Club.<ref>[http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0228/p20s01-wome.html Christian Science Monitor: Backstory: Extreme vacation] (at [[Christian Science Monitor]])</ref> Veit has acknowledged that there will be no official structure for decision taking and that final decisions will always be with him.<ref>[http://wikileaks.nl/leak/veit-hospitality-power-strategy-2009.txt Veit about HC democracy and strategy, January 2009] from [[Wikileaks]]</ref>

As for financial sustainability, the site contains advertising in the form of [[Google]]'s [[AdSense]].

The policy of the organization explicitly forbids alternative uses, such as dating, job-seeking, commercial use, and website promotions.<ref>[http://secure.hospitalityclub.org/hc/stopspam.php Stop Spam in the Hospitality Club]<br /></ref> In order to protect members' mailboxes from spam and to keep trust in the network at high levels a volunteer team scans the messages being sent across the site. Members may also opt-out of this service and receive all messages directly. <!-- and to keep trust in the organization at high levels. [what does this mean and where can I get to know more about it? Guaka. Try reading the HC site. Amarent]-->
The website includes a Forum with certain rules - for example it is forbidden to post personal data of other members, and volunteers prefer not to discuss the organization's strategy on the forum, but encourage members to contact them directly.<ref>[http://secure.hospitalityclub.org/hc/forumrules.php Hospitality Club Forum rules]</ref>

As a result of a disagreement between Veit Kühne and active Hospitality Club volunteers on various club policies, another hospitality exchange network, [[BeWelcome]], was created in 2007.<ref>{{lt icon}} {{cite web | url = http://www.zaliojilietuva.eu/wp-content/uploads/zl_archyvas/298.pdf |format=PDF| title = Apsikeitimas svetingumu | author= Romuald Bokėj | accessdate=2009-05-14 | publisher=''Žalioji Lietuva'' Nr. 6 (298) ISSN 1392-7167 | year=2008}}</ref><ref> {{cite web | url = http://www.bevolunteer.org/blog/?p=11 | title = Focusing Our Vision of BeWelcome | accessdate=2009-05-14 | publisher=bevolunteer.org | year=2007}}</ref>

{{wikinews|Hospitality exchange organisation grows to 100,000 members}}