In just more than two years, David Wang has hosted more than 3,000 overnight guests at his 40-acre Dan Dan Farm in Napa — no bedroom needed.

The same holds true, in the hundreds, for Karen and John Taylor, who own Bianchini Ranch, a fifth-generation dairy farm in West Marin overlooking Tomales Bay.

They’ve hosted overnight guests from around the world, including the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, Israel and beyond.

These hosts and guests are part of Harvest Hosts, an annual membership program — $99 to $179 for guests — that lets people book their fully self-contained recreational vehicles for overnight stays at participating locations.

“Harvest Hosts offers guests unique and affordable places to stay on their RV journey,” says Stephanie Baber, a spokesperson for Harvest Hosts. “With Harvest Hosts, RVers can stay at amazing locations that they couldn’t otherwise. It’s a priceless experience.”

There’s no financial obligation for hosts.

“They simply have to offer up an area for a Harvest Hosts member to park and allow them to stay overnight,” Baber says. “The hosts keep every penny of the incremental sales they generate from members.”

That might include products such as Dan Dan Farms’ olive oil, eggs and other seasonal farm products or Bianchini’s organic packages of cheese and butter, and humanely raised beef.

“Hosts benefit from the additional foot traffic of guests who may not have stopped by their business,” Baber says. “We encourage all guests to patronize the business they are staying at, and we find most members spend about $50 at a host location when they stay.”

On average, she adds, “businesses make between $15,000 and $20,000 per year through Harvest Hosts.”

Besides any financial benefit, she says, hosts really enjoy meeting “interesting and fun travelers from all over the world, while also sharing their passion and craft.”Hosts may accept requests from guests to stay extra nights for a fee, but that’s a private transaction between the two parties.

Harvest Hosts is sort of like Airbnb meets Farmstay but without the option of housing or payment.

Guests can choose venues that offer amenities, such as water, electricity, a level parking pad or field, a warm shower — in the case of Dan Dan Farm — great views and allowing pets.

They can also choose various unique experiences.

For example, they might choose to stay at reindeer farms; an underground salt museum in Kansas; a cave in Texas; an ice cave and volcano in New Mexico; or with American bison in West Virginia.

Founded in 2010 by Don and Kim Greene, Harvest Hosts was purchased in 2018 by Joel Holland, who developed it into an organization that now offers almost 6,000 locations, including farms, wineries, breweries, distilleries, museums and other attractions throughout North America, and more than 250,000 members.

Dan Dan Farm’s Wang first became intrigued with Harvest Hosts when he and his partner traveled the West Coast in their new RV during the latter part of the pandemic, and stayed at a few farms in the Harvest Hosts program.

“We loved it, and were pleasantly surprised with how wonderful the experience was to meet with small farm owners,” he says.

After their traveling slowed down in 2022, he said they had an epiphany.

“We said to ourselves, ‘We can be a host,’” he says. “We have a wonderful property here in Napa, and we said, ‘Good things are to be shared.’”

His property, surrounded by vineyards and graced with more than 1,000 productive olive trees, is home to his goats, cows and horses that were introduced to help control weeds and grass, and chickens.

Guests can stay on a dedicated leveled gravel area without hook-ups or by the barn with electricity.

A renovated barn includes a self-serve store, where he sells his extra-virgin olive oil, two bathrooms with one shower and a large kitchen.

“Having a warm shower seems to be a great luxury for many guests,” he says. “And we love the fact that we provided something extra. We have a stunning view, too, from the hillside overseeing Napa Valley.”

Wang enjoys being a host. The friendly conversations and the compliments, including more than 500 heartwarming reviews, are a constant reminder of how wonderful his farm is, and he also gets the sense of virtual travel through his guests’ experiences.

At Bianchini Ranch, guests park their RVs in a hay field overlooking Tomales Bay with only the sounds of nature surrounding them. This off-the-grid RV camping is what is known at Harvest Hosts as “boondocking.”

Offering guests the chance to experience the ranch’s dairy farm operations and its regenerative agricultural practices “is always the best interactions with our guests,” Taylor says.

“Our guests get a grassroots look into the innovation developed on our farm that’s making a tremendous impact in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, a positive increase of our pastures sequestering carbon in the atmosphere into the soil during photosynthesis and numerous conservation projects on the farm,” she adds.

And some become familiar faces.

“Returning guests are very common,” Taylor says. “Even for just a quick trip to the farm to pick up products.”

The Taylors say they stay “too busy” to travel as guests to other farms, but they enjoy meeting people from all over the world and “hear how much they appreciate what we are doing on the farm,” she says.

There’s no keeping Wang down on the farm, though.

He has already traveled to an olive farm in Paso Robles, where his partner learned to cure olives. Together, they plan to stay at four farms — at least — on their next trip to Vancouver, Canada, and he plans to reconnect with his past guests as he and his partner travel throughout the world.

Show off

If you have a beautiful or interesting Marin garden or a newly designed Marin home, I’d love to know about it.

Please send an email describing either one (or both), what you love most about it and a photograph or two. I will post the best ones in upcoming columns. Your name will be published and you must be over 18 years old and a Marin resident.

PJ Bremier writes on home, garden, design and entertaining topics every Saturday. She may be contacted at P.O. Box 412, Kentfield 94914, or at pj@pjbremier.com.