Too many of our communities are being transformed into tourist ghettoes, with accommodation & jobs for locals suffering - and yet you'd like to host? Koldrun could be your answer. If you have an active cultural interest and would like to host visitors with artistic, musical, and other creative interests that help keep our communities alive then we welcome you to our site. Feel free to register and build your listing. We do not support 'absentee hosting'.

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FAQ’s & Info

July 14, 2021 by test features

Thats me! Crossing the Himalayas and heading toward the Karakoram Mountains in the far north of India to photograph around Turtuk, India’s northernmost ‘accessible village’ for travellers.

Even when in the middle of nowhere, I can find a signal and will regularly collate your questions and feedback and try to answer any queries here on this page.

If, however, you don’t get the answer you need, or if any of the guidance offered here seems a little too complicated, contact us and we can help you out.


Taking on the Problem of Absentee Hosting and it’s Impact on our Local Communities

There is a growing strength of feeling about the short-term travel accommodation market undermining our communities by taking up too much space in the local housing market and turning some special places into tourist ghettoes.

The shortage of affordable housing & meaningful jobs can follow from an over-saturation of absentee-hosts buying up housing stock and undermining local job availability.

Koldrun encourages and promotes home-sharing, and the presence of the host at the property: the sharing of art, culture, & entertainment interests within communities, rather than absentee-host style property letting, and in so doing I feel that we can protect and invigorate the cultural life and inspiration within our communities.

 

Communications with Koldrun

Please add the following email addresses to your email safe list to avoid notifications etc. going to your junk folder.

info@koldrun.com

admin@koldrun.com


Registration

We accept host registrations from those with a genuine interest in any of the arts and creative industries (hobbyist or pro) and who would enjoy hosting others with the same broad interests.

We want to encourage interest and participation in the arts and so we don’t expect our guests to prove an interest, we hope that by staying with enthusiastic hosts, they take some inspiration from their visit.

This way, we all support others to fund and maintain their interests.,

We also accept registration from teachers, linguists, and similar – it fits well with the general spirit of the site.

Hosts & Course Providers will need a PayPal account so that we can pay you.

You can enter your PayPal ID (usually your email address) on the registration page.

We are a secure site and take your security very seriously, we do not have access to your PayPal account, we simply make payments to you via your PayPal ID.

We do advise, however, that you use a separate password for your Koldrun hosting/listing account than any other online registrations, including PayPal.


Host Registration and Your Subjects of Interest.

1. Click ‘Register’ and select host or course provider.
2. Enter your name and email details.
3. Choose a password – this needs to be as secure as possible.
4. PayPal ID. The email that you use for PayPal so that we can pay you. This will not be visible to anyone else so don’t worry about providing it to us, but a wise precaution is to make sure that your password for koldrun is not the same as your PayPal account password.
5. Select your main subject of interest. This will produce a category listing when a guest searches by subject (for a musician, artist, photographer, writer, tattooist, oenologist, linguist, potter, etc).
6. If you don’t see your subject in the drop-down menu,  select ”User-defined keyword’. This will open another text input box where you can enter your choice.
7. If you have multiple interests then you can add more in the ‘host profile’ page which will become available to you upon acceptance of your registration. This page is your ‘back-office’ where you can manage your profile details, account, bookings and listings, and will open when you sign in.
8. To enter multiple areas of interest: sign in, which will take you to your host profile page
9. In the ‘Area of Interest’ box, type ‘user-defined keyword’ (it will auto-complete).
10. Click on the auto-completed phrase ‘user-defined keyword’
11. In the text entry box, which will then appear below, enter your subject, repeat if necessary for more subjects.
12. Click ‘Update Profile’ – *important your changes will not save unless you click update*
13. The drop-down menu for subjects/areas of interest, in the listings search bar will also update, allowing guests to use your keyword in their searches.

*Because it is necessary to keep the drop-down list concise it may be necessary for Admin to reclassify your subject listing, for example, if you enter Guitarist or Drummer, then we would correct your entry onto the list as Musician. However, you will still be able to use the words Guitarist or Drummer with the main-body text in your listing description.

For a visual guide watch this video on YouTube Multiple Areas of Interest


Currency Input in Listings

At the moment you can only input currency in sterling. This is something that we will change soon. Until it is changed, please convert your rate to sterling. The site will still display your nightly rate in the local currency based on where Google identifies the viewer’s current location.

what3words

An incredibly useful app that we recommend you download to your mobile and use.
What3words graphs and identifies any 3-meter square area, anywhere on Earth making it incredibly easy to locate any destination.
Click on a square that your listing occupies and you will be given a three-word combination that identifies that square.
You can use this 3-word phrase in the description section of your listing to give guests a precise location for your listing in addition to the co-ordinate position that you can enter in the map section of your property listing (latitude & longitude).
It is also an incredibly useful tool for identifying and relaying a precise location in the wilderness or urban areas: for instance a look-out point or a meeting/gathering point.

You can easily list ‘places of interest’ in your accommodation listing using the what3words locator word codes as recommendations to your guests.


Advanced Search

In the advanced search option, you can look for properties within a radius of a chosen location. This is useful when, for instance, you want to find accommodation near to a particular location such as Stonehenge, Durdle Door, Ankhor Wat, O2 Arena, etc
Simply enter a destination and click search, this will take you to the radius search page where you can adjust the search radius slider to find properties in the locality according to your particular set of interests. If you are using a VPN your location may well be hidden and the proximity/radius search will not work.


Images & Video

Along with images and a video of your property and locale, we recommend including some images and/or a video of your particular interest in the arts, music, performance, etc.

You can combine property and art subjects into one video using a free program such as Win Movie Maker for Windows or Mac.

Or you can upload two videos and here’s how…

In order to preserve the speed and responsiveness of the website, videos will need to be uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo first and then we can play them in an ’embedded video player’ window on your listing page.

  1. Create a channel or use your existing YouTube or Vimeo channel
  2. Upload your video
  3. Choose ‘share’ beneath your video, then copy the link.
  4. Sign in to your koldrun.com listing management page.
  5. In the ‘Property Media ‘ section, you will see two boxes, from the ‘video from’ box, choose either YouTube or Vimeo and then enter the link into the ‘Embed video ID’ box.
  6. Delete the first part of the address that reads https://youtu.be/  or   https://vimeo.com/

e.g.  (https://YouTube.be/zMlijqd719OM simply becomes zMljqd7l9OM )

e.g.  (https://vimeo.com 608779057 simply becomes 608779057)

  1. In the ‘virtual tour’ section enter the embed code for your video – if you don’t know what this is then contact us
  2. Save’ the page when you are finished by clicking ‘Update’ in the ‘Publish’ section.
  3. Return to view your listing on the site, refresh the page to ensure that the page has been updated with your new input.
  4. Tell your friends!

Image & Video Service

We offer a photo and video service to produce high-quality images for your listings including, stills, gimbal-mounted interior video & drone photography and video (exterior)

Please contact us for availability and pricing.

We are happy to hear from photographers and videographers that would like to join our register of photo/video service providers: we will create a directory for hosts to access your services.


Google Maps Location Pin Placement

Google maps won’t always accurately get the location pin of your property in the right place. It’s just a quirk of their system.

However, you can manually adjust the pin placement yourself, and here’s how:

Visit https://youtu.be/ZP653VGcJno to see how to manually change the location marker in google maps.

After you have moved and saved the marker, then click on the location tab to show the latitude and longitude coordinates – copy these and then manually enter them in the latitude and longitude coordinate positions text entry field in your listing management page in the map section.

Note. Latitude is predicated by N or S: Longitude by E or W.

Save the page by using the ‘update’ button in the ‘publish section of the page.

Return to your own listing and refresh the page in order to finish the update.

If this all seems rather complicated then just then contact us and we will update your location tab for you.


Google Business Registration

Register and update your listing as a business in ‘google business’.

Use your koldrun accommodation listing URL (the website address of your listing: visible in the address bar when you have searched for your own property in koldrun.com) in your business profile.

This helps to make your listing more visible in google searches and provides a direct link to your listing on koldrun.com.

It will also help to ‘anchor’ your location pin in the correct place on google maps.


Chat Feature & Contact

Once a booking is made then hosts and guests can communicate directly via the messaging app.

When a message/reply is sent, the recipient is notified via email.

You will find the chat link by signing in and going to your bookings page.

Contact with koldrun is made using the ‘contact’ link at the bottom of each page.

We recommend that you have email notifications on your mobile phone set to on in order to receive notice that a chat message is incoming.


Specific Interests

As a guest looking for a host with a particular interest, in a particular destination, you may not see your subject of interest listed in the drop-down search box – yet.

Koldrun is a new enterprise and the ‘drop-down list’ of subjects is a general set of art genres to which many hosts will fit fairly well.

We need to restrict the list to a mangeable length and this means generalizing to some degree.

You can be more specific about your subject interests in your property descriptions.

Hosts can declare their main interests in their host profile and this will identify your listings within those categories in searches.

As more hosts join our registry and enter their details, then our system automatically updates the list in the ‘subject of interest’ search box.

Of course, you are free to book with any host, regardless of your particular interest, we hope that some interesting conversations and collaborations will unfold.


Social Media

We have a Facebook group page  ‘koldrun’ where hosts, course providers and guests can post their articles, etc.

The group is publicly open so that your posts and content can reach more people.

We’re especially excited to see examples of work from our hosts, course leaders and guests, especially where some ‘cross collaborations’ have occurred between the different forms of art and performance.


Courses

The courses section is divided into two parts, for your convenience.

Residential courses are as you would expect an opportunity to learn in a hosted setting with accommodation and meals provided.

Non-residential courses are those that do not offer accommodation.

They may be longer than a single day and you may need to find your own accommodation, and of course, you may search our site for accommodation nearby.

They may be one-day courses without the need for accommodation, or subscription-type courses (online), downloads or hard-copies (books, etc).


Useful Links

These pages are mostly product and service reviews with ‘affiliate links’ to the providers of those services, etc.

This means that we receive a commission on any sales that follow if you connect to another site via the link and subsequently make a purchase.

These will be items of interest to some of you and will include links to ‘green energy’ & transport solutions, eco-cleaning products and options which we feel are of vital importance in the effort to combat global warming and pollution.

As outlined in our About page, we want to encourage our hosts to consider using some of their koldrun income to ‘green’ their homes and for guests to consider green travel solutions, etc.

We will also include such necessities as travel and ‘gear’ insurance, as well as product and equipment recommendations from you, our subscribers.


Currency

At the bottom of each page is a currency converter so that you can display accommodation costs in any currency you prefer. It will initially default to the currency in your current location. This may not be the case if you are using a VPN, in which case you can manually change it from the drop-down list.


Translation

Most folk use Google Chrome these days (PC/Laptop) or Safari (Mac).

You can install the Google Chrome translate extension for windows from here which will allow you to translate the site webpages to a good number of languages.

On Macs, iPads and iPhones, when using Safari, and with IOS 14 or later simply click the ‘Aa’ icon on the left side of the website address bar and select your preferred language.


Payment Options

PayPal & Stripe

Guests: Payment

You have two payment options when making a booking through koldrun: PayPal & Stripe.

We have chosen these two options because they are well-known, trusted, secure and efficient.

Hosts: Payout

After a guest arrives then confirm their arrival via your booking management page and this will automatically trigger your request for payment.

Using these two payment and payout options means that koldrun does not keep your bank or card details, adding to your security and confidence.


Koldrun’s Charges

Koldrun retains 15% of booking totals to run the business, employ various folk, make a profit, improve the service and support chosen causes.

We don’t apply a complicated ‘system of charges’.

It’s a flat 15% –  simple, transparent, easy to calculate for hosts to ensure they get the margins they need.


Featured Listings

I’m not too keen on favouring anyone, I think that if you can make a strong and interesting listing, then that should sell itself and give you a good chance to attract guests.

So, I am inclined to select on the basis of a well-written listing outlining accommodation details as well as an interesting outline of the hosts’ artistic, creative, musical, etc interests, and good reviews.

It’s a very hit-or-miss affair in any case. People, on the whole, know where they want to go and what they’re looking for, and offering up a featured listing that coincidently matches a guests search just at that moment is, well, a piece of luck!

It’s a buzz though, to see one’s listing featured, and so I will keep the facility and hope that you find yourself splashed on the front page of koldrun one day soon.

If you are a host and have a major event happening nearby that guests may be encouraged to visit then please let us know, it’s another good reason to promote your listings. You can also promote an event on the koldrun group page.

 

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