Stephanie Frias, her husband and her two kids are currently living their dream of traveling across South America by car while integrating themselves into the local cultures. They even brought their dog along for the journey!
The adventurous family of four found a way to travel the world with free lodging thanks to the travel startup Arrivedo. The California-based online platform for hotel recommendations and hotel booking hooks savvy travelers up with free rooms if they are willing to write professional neighborhood guides for their searchable directory aimed at giving travelers easier access to “local experiences”.
Arrivedo’s core business model is based on making it easier for travelers to search for accommodations based on the neighborhoods that they are located in and the traveler’s interests.
The platform’s “neighborhood guides” are put together by experienced travel writers who have a sense of local expertise for the location they write about. The neighborhood guides are expertly written and include a list of articles with maps, routes, restaurants, tours, bars, listicles and more.
And the Frias family turned the opportunity into a life changing travel experience. Stephanie is just one of the many travel writer’s for Arrivedo. She puts together neighborhood guides and shares her unique travel experiences on the platform.
In exchange for writing up neighborhood guides for Arrivedo, Frias and her family have already managed to stay at a total of seven different hotels for free.
Frias revealed that staying at accommodations for free isn’t the only way that she and her family have benefited from her being a freelance writer for Arrivedo. According to Frias, it also greatly enriched their travel experience, enabling them to live the type of local experiences that they wouldn’t be able to otherwise.
“Not only does writing for Arrivedo give us the opportunity to get to know locals, but it also give us access to the amazing insights of tourism professionals. Every single time we visit a hotel, we learn about a lesser known destination that we would have missed otherwise.” said Frias.
“We learned to shoot poison dart arrows and to fish with nets. We ate huge, palm grubs and lemon ants. We even learned how to make a traditional liquor called chicha and a regional dish known as Maito, which is fish cooked in banana leaves. Most importantly, we made friends for a lifetime” she added.
