Barter B&Bs in Italy

You can sleep for free in Italy at these B&Bs open to barter deals

On the heels of the successful "B&B Barter Week" (usually in November) organized by www.bed-and-breakfast.it comes a year-round service, a website where the owners of Italian B&Bs—and affittacamere (rental rooms), apartments, agriturismi (farm stay), and vacation rentals—can post offers of free rooms in exchange for some service or good: www.barattobb.it. At last count, there were more than 750 opportunities scattered across every Italian region

OK, so it's not free-free; but you won't have to pay cash for the room. Just offer some skill, manual labor, or object in return.

Have mad HTML/CSS skills? There's a B&B in central Venice that will let you stay for free if you build them a new website. Computer-illiterate? No problem; they're also looking for someone to repaint the rooms.

In fact, any sort of handyman skills are in high demand and you could stay just about anywhere. Thousands of properties are looking for a bit of carpentry, plumbing, gardening, electrical work, painting, masonry, or general work to be done around the place. (Undoubtedly, part of this has to do with the Byzantine paperwork and requirements for getting any sort of "official" contracting work done in Italy.)

But you don't have to be good with your hands. There's an agriturismo in Tuscany offering two free nights to anyone who can provide them with artistic photos and videos of their property for their brochures and website.

Another near Siena will let you stay for free if you perform a concert or put on a show—yes, you can literally sing for your supper (because this one includes meals).

Some requests will be a bit hard for a non-Italian to fulfill, such as those who want furnishings, a working moped, or a swap for a stay at your B&B. There as even one in Sicily that wants a pony (girl ponies only, please—though they will also settle for a Sardegnan donkey, or some geese and ducks).

So, no, you probably can't provide a woman's bicycle to the owner of that B&B near the Vatican in Rome—but the good news is that she's also willing to trade for a selection of wines and oils, or a baritone ukelele (she already owns a soprano one—which is shame, since I actually have one of those I'm not using).

The site is currently in Italian only, but if you use the Google Chrome browser you already know it gives you the pop-up option of instantly translating any foreign-language page.

When you land on a property's description page, the barter "wants" are listed in the right column, just below the general contact information.

Have fun, and happy B&B bartering!

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