These guidelines are intended to inform potential and current hosts about the mindset needed to create a positive WWOOFing experience.
Additionally, they clarify the expectations from a practical perspective, ensuring that hosts are fully prepared for their role.
🌿 Key Principles and Required Criteria
- Hosts share their daily lives and welcome WWOOFers as friends who come to lend a hand.
- WWOOFers receive no pay and do not replace an employee. As such they are not obligated to create profit for a host and are in no way subordinate to the host.
- Hosts provide three meals a day and accommodations, which are not conditional on the help given but a way of welcoming a guest.
- Hosts are eager to pass on their knowledge and learn from WWOOFers; learning goes both ways!
- Hosts should provide a safe and welcoming environment and have respect for individual dignity.
- Host must practice agriculture to the national organic standards and be committed to a sustainable way of life.
🌿 Farming Practices & WWOOFer Activities
- The focus of the WWOOFer’s time should be related to growing, farming and/or land-based skills.
- Hosts must use organic and ecologically sound techniques; however, organic certification is not required.
- In most cases, animal husbandry should serve an agricultural purpose (e.g., working horses, herding dogs). Equestrian centers, pet farms, and animal shelters run for profit are generally not suitable, unless they have a secondary focus.
- If there’s more than one farm focus, such as an equestrian center alongside a market garden, WWOOFers should mainly be involved with the agricultural activities.
- Eco-construction should be linked to agricultural activity (e.g. structures for farming such as animal housing or housing for WWOOFers – not tourism-related).
- WWOOFers should not be involved in tourism-related activities or expected to fulfill an employee-type role in a professional kitchen, performing guest services, cleaning BnB rooms, etc.
- Variety in activities: where possible, hosts should engage WWOOFers in a variety of activities focused on agriculture and sustainable living. However, there is an understanding that during certain times of year, the seasonal nature of farming may mean WWOOFers are focused on one major task for the duration of their stay (for example lambing or the apple harvest).
- Host profiles should list the current activities available and the opportunities for learning. Hosts should be able to actively teach the hands-on skills, farming practices and methods they highlight in their profile. If hosts have little or no knowledge to share, they should make it clear in their description and clarify in which area they would be interested in learning from WWOOFers.
🌿 Meals
- Hosts should provide adequate food for three meals daily, including rest days.
- Hosts should aim to share at least one meal per day with the WWOOFer, unless agreed otherwise.
- For meals that are not shared, the host should provide:
- A kitchen space
- Varied, nutritionally balanced ingredients in sufficient quality and quantity and include local / organic / produce from the farm when possible
- The host should not give WWOOFers money for shopping. NOTE: This is very important in order to comply with labour laws
- Hosts should only welcome the number of WWOOFers for whom they can provide sufficient food.
🌿 Accommodation
- Hosts should provide safe and secure accommodation that grants sufficient privacy for the WWOOFer.
- Before the visit, hosts should communicate to the WWOOFer the details of the lodging they offer, to set clear expectations.
- Hosts must clearly state in their profile if accommodation is shared.
- Accommodation (and any bedding provided) must be clean, safe, and dry
- Hosts should only welcome the number of WWOOFers for whom they can provide accommodation that meets the requirements set out above.
- If hosts accept only one-day WWOOFers, they must communicate this clearly on their profiles. When accommodation is not offered, sharing at least one meal with the WWOOFer is required.
🌿 Sharing Daily Life
- There should be genuine “personal space” for both the host and WWOOFer. Each should be able to isolate themselves and have moments of privacy in their room, bathroom, etc
- Hosts and WWOOFers share the tasks of domestic life, including meal preparation and clean-up.
- Hosts should clearly state their living situation, indicating who else lives on site and whether they are a family or in a group. They should also indicate if their farm is isolated, if there are neighbors nearby, or if there is no telephone or wifi network.
- Hosts should create a welcoming environment for WWOOFers to share feedback. The relationship between a host and WWOOFer is asymmetrical, making it more difficult for WWOOFers to advocate for themselves. WWOOFers are outside their comfort zone and trying to adapt, making them more vulnerable than the host, who is on familiar ground.
🌿 Stays
- Hosts should be in direct contact with the WWOOFer(s) from the onset and establish clear mutual expectations.
- Hosts should provide sufficient land-based activities to ensure an educational experience for approximately five half-days per week. The exact schedule may vary from host to host and depend on the season and activities present. The host and the WWOOFer should have a common understanding regarding participation.
- Hosts should be available (on site) to provide assistance and guidance to WWOOFers for the majority of the time, and carry out tasks alongside the WWOOFers wherever possible.
- Hosts should treat WWOOFers as friends to ensure the relationship is not hierarchical.
- A WWOOFer should never replace a paid worker. This is to help ensure that WWOOFers are not fulfilling labor, which could put the host at risk for violating labor laws.
- The length of the stay may vary from case to case. Hosts should clearly indicate their availability and reach an agreement with each WWOOFer about their visit dates. In some countries, a visit cannot be longer than one month, while in other countries, a more extended stay is accepted. Please check with your national WWOOF coordinator.