How It Works
Firstly, if you’re interested in hosting one or more artists during the Fringe, please please do get in touch! If you have any rooms which are only available for part of August and not the whole month, there will be many artists interested in staying, so please do contact me. This also applies to anyone who has a few spare rooms available, or has advertised on Spareroom and/or Gumtree, or has generally been approached by me and wants to find out more.
What to Charge
If you’re unsure about costs and want to see what the typical going rate might be to help advise you, by all means do check Airbnb and Theatre Digs Booker, but not for any dates in August – the only properties you’ll find on either for August will be those which even the most desperate of Fringe artists cannot afford. We can advise you on ideal price ranges, however as it’s your home, the amount you charge is ultimately up to you. I currently have a small fund available to offer subsidies towards the cost of rent for artists who will need it.
House Visits
Ideally, I’d like us to visit each property to meet the hosts in person and have a chat about all this plus take photos, but it may be that some visits can only be done over Zoom or similar. This gives us an opportunity to ask and answer questions, address any concerns, review the house rules, the host contract and the lodger tenancy agreement and take photos; these will be used for property details for artists, but will not be available online so as to avoid privacy concerns. I’ll also ask for your houseguest preferences, eg gender, age range, artform, nationality, potential dog walker, ability to keep houseplants alive etc.
Financial Admin
We’ll also agree financial arrangements, eg a deposit scheme, rent payment frequency, plus invoices, receipts and transactions.
Potential Houseguests
Once that’s done, I’ll be in touch when suitable matches have been found, and I’ll provide you with a PDF of each prospective houseguest, with details of their shows and any other information, such as examples of their work, websites, previous productions and videos. Once you’ve found people you’re interested in having stay with you, we’d like you to meet over Zoom if possible or by phone if not so that you can decide if you’d like to proceed. All artists are vetted before we put them forward.
Staying in Touch
If you’re happy with the people you’ve chosen and after you’ve invited them to stay with you, we’ll continue to check in with you to see how things are going and if we can help out at all with anything. I bonded a lot with last year’s hosts, so I’ll enjoy staying in touch. We can also serve as intermediaries, if needed; we’ll check in throughout the month with both hosts and guests to see how things are going, and if any issues arise, we can intervene directly, to reduce the need for friction between both parties.
It’s Free of Charge
And finally, this is free of charge; potential hosts are doing so much and are being so incredibly generous by considering inviting on or more impoverished Fringe artists stay with them, we cannot add to the costs of that, especially when hosts are basically covering their costs and not much else (I’m remembering the eleven bath towels I ended up buying during last year’s Fringe).
Happy Host Alert!
Ultimately, I want to ensure that the hosts have an enjoyable, affordable, supported and stressfree time as possible and are not just being abandoned to fend for themselves with a penniless (but housetrained! – you’d be surprised) stranger in their home.
And Finally….
So for now, the first steps are hello, thank you so much, how many rooms, where, when, roughly how much and when can I – or one of my team – visit?