Community for women business travellers with Host A Sister

Kiran Sidhu
Kiran Sidhu
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A survey by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) shows that 83% of women business travellers experience safety-related issues during business-related travels. The same study states only 53% of them would report this to their travel managers at work and 71% believe that they face a bigger risk compared to men.

In a world of remote work, business travel is increasingly perceived as a job perk. However, visiting unfamiliar destinations can induce some travel anxiety and loneliness. Seeking out unique experiences and immersing oneself in a different culture make business trips that much more enjoyable. We recently came across the Host A Sister community and wanted to share how it can help women business travellers do more than just work on their trips.

The issue of women traveller safety is not foreign to Rashvinda Kaur, the founder of Host A Sister. It is exactly what made her bring Host A Sister to life, a community where women can connect one another during their travels all around the world. Its a commendable effort providing women with safer ventures – members can seek accommodation for free or host others within the Facebook group. Or, for women business travellers, Host A Sister is the perfect avenue for meeting travel buddies or arranging meetups with locals to show you around a new city.

Here is an interview with the Malaysian-born founder of Host A Sister, Rashvinda Kaur and co-admin, Natalie Gomila Cartwright about how it works and their vision for the community.

women business travellers can find networking opportunities with Host A Sister

How Host A Sister started

Rashvinda: 

I started Host A Sister in May 2019. I saw women couch surfers complaining in several women-only travel groups about harassment by their male hosts so I decided to start something for women by women. 

Natalie: 

Host A Sister was founded by Rashvinda in May of 2019 after she noticed a common concern being voiced by the women in various female travel communities that had experienced harassment by a male host or were put in situations that made them uncomfortable.

Rashvinda had the idea to create a space for these women to connect with female hosts. She called me that night to ask me if I would be interested in helping her organize and run the newly founded community. I don’t think either of us realized that night how quickly the community would grow or how much work would be involved in seeing her vision through, but one thing was evident to us from the very beginning. The female travel community needed this. 

How Host a Sister works

Rashvinda:

Members posting in the group whether they are looking for a host/travel buddy/home swap. Some of the most important rules are no compensation offers, no hate speech/negativity, and no requests searching for long-term housemates/room to sublet. 

Natalie: 

Community members can create a post offering to or requesting a host, travel buddy, or meet up with other members. While the community has adapted and evolved over the years, the Host A Sister vision to connect women around the globe has remained the same. To maintain that vision and the Host A Sister community spirit, we do not permit any offers or requests that are not strictly for the purpose of forming connections with other community members. 

Safety in Host A Sister

Rashvinda: 

As admins, we screen members joining profiles. We ensure their profiles are at minimum one year old, with photos, etc. We also encourage our members to at least FaceTime once and meet at a public place before going to anybody’s property. 

Natalie:

As Rashvinda said, we do our best to screen requesting members, however, we encourage members to conduct their own thorough interview prior to meeting in person and use their own judgment. Host A Sister does not guarantee safety and cannot be held liable for any incident that occurs as a result of any encounter, whether in person or otherwise, with a member of the Host A Sister community. 

We encourage members to read our Safety Tips & FAQs page found in the Group Guidelines for a list of suggestions and interview questions to assist members in making an informed decision. Always have a backup plan in place

The most challenging moments

Rashvinda:

The workload of administration. Since there are 270,000 members today, we receive a minimum of 1,000 new member requests, 500 posts submitted, and countless moderation alerts. Since we look at each and every post in detail before approving, that takes up a lot of our time. 

The most rewarding moment so far

Rashvinda: 

The success stories and the kind grateful members messaging us in our inboxes. That’s what keeps us going and to continue to support the group. It makes us happy to see the world being a better place.

Vision for Host A Sister

Rashvinda: 

My vision is to build an app/platform that can make moderation easier at the same time it is always free of charge to members. However, it is difficult to find an app developer who would work pro bono. 

Women business travellers in the network

Natalie:

Women traveling for business face a unique set of challenges that can be both rewarding and isolating at times as they leave their friends and families back home to face the unfamiliar, sometimes for long periods or even permanently. Many women have looked to Host A Sister to meet that need and have formed connections and lasting friendships when they found themselves alone in an unfamiliar city. Regardless of the reason for travel, the women of the Host A Sister community take comfort in knowing that they are never truly alone no matter where they are in the world.  


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