This year, while preparing a business trip to Louisville, KY during the first week of May, I was confronted with a problem. Hotel rates had more than tripled at even the most basic inns. So, I decided to contact a good friend about staying with her.
“I’d love to see you,” my college mate said after I explained my dilemma, “but it is Derby week, and I’m getting out of town to avoid the crowds.”
Not missing a beat, I replied like a job applicant during a recession, “Well, I am a most excellent house sitter.”
Cutting me off, she said, “Tommy, the house is rented already.”
In the past, I might have considered using the fold down seat function in my vehicle when a light went off in my head: “I have options today!”
As I scoured CouchSurfing.org and the local housing listings offered on Craigslist, I weighed my options and eventually rented a tiny apartment in the historic Third Street district next door to one of the rare examples of French chateau-style row houses in America.
I could have stayed 30 miles from my work assignment in a soulless motel, but this two-minute drive in the middle of a transitioning neighborhood seemed a much better fit and more like my style.
The concept of staying with a friend when traveling abroad is not new to me or to many others. Often, when many of us visit friends who live in major cities, crashing on their couch or in their guest room is part of the journey.
It is not to say that hotels are not an option in these markets, but in some cases it can be just a bit out of reach on an artist’s budget. Besides, having access to a friend’s space is also a chance to peer into the world they inhabit on a daily basis.
By choosing to stay hyper-local, I no longer would be bombarded by chance encounters with people like myself traveling to a region. In fact, I’d be rubbing elbows with the locals, right where they live. It provided an experience off the beaten path of guidebooks and local convention center haunts.
For a long time, Grand Rapids has been a place from which we can escape to other shores. We see this in how we are marketing our city as a place to catch a plane from here versus having to drive to a major hub to make this departure.
The same planes that depart here had to arrive, and they often bring people who are visiting now for more than just business.
This change was evident during a recent friend’s conversation with me about the chore of scheduling guests who will be coming and going over the course of the next few weeks.
As the city garners recognition from outsiders, we also get this level of attention from years of being a quietly transformed destination with good word-of-mouth campaigns for the many organic events (without massive PR budgets) that spring up to welcome locals and visitors alike.
My sleepy-eyed friend looked up from his calendar while scheduling visitors to his home. His efforts will attest to the old maxim: Be careful what you wish for.
Personally, I think it is nice to welcome people to one’s home because it means that as major events like LaughFest, ArtPrize and the newly re-launched
Prospecto 2 (our version of SXSW), we begin to see a steady trickle of visitors. And not all will be heading to the JW Marriott or The Holiday Inn as they look for accommodation options.
Recently, I have noticed that not only have Facebook and Craigslist begun to populate with inquiries for places to stay in our region, but our local CouchSurfing ambassadors are debuting the inaugural
ArtCrash this year in the hopes of connecting travelers with local host couches (and beds) all over our city.
They have even created a very aggressive and
localvore-focused schedule of events that will take place this weekend where walking local is encouraged just as freely as eating local.
While this activity is truly only a trickle right now in comparison, if our local cultural events or any other new-to-emerge event continue to populate our events calendar, then I can guarantee the spigot will be wide open at some point in our new future.
So, before you clean out that extra bedroom that has been more of a cast-on-the-bed version of a walk-in closet, you might want to think about what you have to offer our new guests besides a place to crash their head.
My host in Louisville not only added a few amenities to my apartment that I did not expect, but he also made sure I knew where the best French croissants were in my newly adopted neighborhood. (And he was spot on!)
In the end, this off-the-beaten-path experience was indeed a well-worn path created by the people who live and breathe in a city as neighbors. My experience provided a very memorable moment I hope to repeat in other cities as I venture out for business or pleasure.
Certainly when the time comes for Grand Rapids to return the favor, I hope we can repay the karmic universe travel gods by offering up those seeking refuge an alternative to the norm and mundane directions flatly stated like, “There’s a Starbucks down the hall and a Qdoba around the corner.”
Hospitality in our region has to reflect the unique biosphere of our local shops and restaurants. Such a philosophy is something truly worth propagating here at home. Many of our local concierges get it, but when we begin to open our homes to others, a new brand of local homegrown hospitality emerges just as unique and diverse as the people who populate our city.
Traveling should be about new experiences and not just a confirmation of the domination by the well-known locations and oft traveled paths.
The Future Needs All of Us (to be innkeepers at times)
Tommy Allen, Lifestyle Editor
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