Free Travel: A Deep Dive into Kenting’s Work-for-Accommodation Eco-System

Text & Photos /Lu Jiujiu (Fox Lu), excerpted from “Let’s All Join the Passionate World of Work-for-Accommodation!” published by Popular Wind Publishing

The Work-for-Accommodation Ecosystem in Kenting

The astonishing growth rate of homestays in Kenting’s tourist area is beyond description—more than just mushrooming rapidly. From 2011 to 2014 alone, in just three short years, the number of homestays skyrocketed from over 600 to breaking 1,000. It’s easy to imagine that the greatest demand for work-for-accommodation in Kenting comes from homestays—and almost exclusively so.

As I mentioned earlier, the trend of work-for-accommodation in Kenting suddenly became popular around 2013. Prior to that, summer jobs were the main option. The benefit was that summer jobs could cover the entire busiest holiday season, requiring only one round of training for student workers, and allowing longer working hours than typical work-for-accommodation arrangements. However, hourly-paid jobs naturally offered a wider range of tasks and clearer performance standards—just like my role at Beach House Homestay, where I worked as a summer hire rather than through a work-for-accommodation exchange. To offer work-for-accommodation opportunities, hosts typically need to have accommodation available for the work-trader, which is often one of the main reasons many establishments hesitate to participate.

These days, many homestays are still willing to spend a bit more to hire student workers or full-time staff, reducing the hassle of training and ensuring consistent quality of the accommodation environment, without having to worry about where their student workers will stay.

Work-for-accommodation roles in Kenting usually focus on simple housekeeping duties. The typical duration is either two weeks or one month, with daily working hours around 4–6 hours. If the hours extend to about 8 per day, in addition to providing food and lodging, hosts often offer some pocket money as well.

I believe that business owners in the Kenting area generally have quite a correct understanding of work-for-accommodation. They clearly recognize that it’s meant to alleviate the burden on them and their full-time staff—taking on replaceable tasks—rather than involving the work-traders in every little thing and overworking them. They also understand that these young people are here to experience life in Kenting, and should have more time to explore, meet new people, and not be tied down in a homestay as an overused free laborer. More often than not, hosts are actually seeking to meet new friends when they offer work-for-accommodation positions.

Likewise, when they choose to use work-traders instead of student workers, it naturally means they’ll need to retrain these individuals every so often and must have the patience to teach them how to perform housekeeping duties up to the establishment's expectations.

I asked a homestay owner friend of mine, “How many hours should work-for-accommodation be?” Their heartwarming answer was: “Four hours, because they’re here to have fun.” If it goes beyond four hours, they feel that appropriate wages should be paid.

There are also uniquely principled work-for-accommodation arrangements. For example, “Simple Life Homestay” run by Yaokou takes a rather special approach—they believe 21 days is the ideal duration for a stay. When I first heard “21 days,” I immediately understood the reasoning, because 21 days is the time it typically takes to form a habit. Going beyond that, complacency, laziness, and a comfort-zone mentality can set in. The homestay hopes that work-traders remember that travel is the original and fundamental reason for coming here in the first place, and should carry that same mindset to their next destination.

If you’re lucky enough to encounter hosts with such positive and correct attitudes, please also respond with a considerate and responsible attitude, and do your part well.

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