"Couchsurfing" Travel Takes Off On the Web

mikesd81 writes "The Associated Press writes about a growing network of people online who've gone a step beyond hotels, hostels and even apartment swapping in their travel planning: They sleep on each others' couches. A number of Web sites have sprung up to help pair travelers searching for a place to crash and hosts with a spare couch. Sites like hospitalityclub.org, couchsurfing.com, globalfreeloaders.com and place2stay.net are often free, serving only as middlemen and offering tips on how to find successful matches. The sites are largely the creations of 20-somethings bitten with wanderlust and the hope of helping to bring together people from different cultures. They often depend on volunteer administrators to help manage the Web operations."

Great idea, but probably not good for the ladies

[Salvance]

This is such a great idea, particularly for male college students. I wish something like this existed 10 years ago when my friends and I traveled through Europe. To maximize the length of our stay, we slept in $10 grimy hostels and ate basically nothing (or other people's leftovers). Given that some of these services boast well over 100,000 members, I wonder at what point they start impacting the Hostel industry?

While this is likely a great resource for men, I couldn't imagine using one if I were a woman traveling in Europe. Even the hostels were pretty sketchy, and the women we ran into often traveled in groups (or with a bunch of guys) to make it safer. While they offer feedback systems like eBay, it would be pretty easy for sexual predators to fake the feedback to lure young foreign women.

Meh, I've done the couchsurfing ProAm...

[ktakki]

Back in my twenties and thirties, I did the couch circuit, both pro and amateur.

I was a rock musician from 1978 to 1998 in unsigned bands, and there was an informal couch circuit among bands. An out-of-town band would play a club and make friends with the openers or headlining acts. Phone numbers would be exchanged, and when we hit their town we'd have couch space, maybe an extra bedroom or foam pad if we were lucky. Bands I was in would do three to six week tours and there wasn't room in the budget for a motel room every night. Given that all of us were riding in a van with all of our gear, sleeping in the van wasn't an option. Best case scenario was a couch five nights and a motel room or two for the rest of the week.

This sort of network could be a boon to unsigned bands, sort of an unofficial hostel system.

Then there's the amateur side: getting kicked out of apartments in Boston in the '80s because the landlord wanted to convert to condos, and not having the cash for first and last months rent plus security. The couch circuit was a way of making enough money to get that apartment. The alternatives were camping out in your band's rehearsal space (hey, cockroaches make wonderful pets!) or persuading your girlfriend to let you move in with her (hey, no farting in bed!).

Damn, I wish I had an internets back in 1982.

k.

So far, so good

[ignoramus]

I'm relatively new to couchsurfing but all my experiences to date (various parties, activities and actual couchsurfing) has been better than positive--the folks are open, fun and intelligent.

As a guy, my risk of encountering predators may be reduced... but really, I think it's articles like the above that will attract the crackpots instead of relying on word of mouth to get the message to interesting folks.

Hmm..

[XL70E3]

One of my friend recently went to Europe, relying on that... To her deception in fact, few honored that promise and she actually had to sleep in hotels. And that, in many countries. The idea is all good and fun but so far, has not made its proofs yet; i would not rely on that myself and would be more enclined to pay to sleep, like i actually did in Italy and France. Getting into trouble and into the unexpected is not my idea of fun for my holidays.

Sounds like fun

[glittalogik]

My cousin recently did a 3 month journey across the states, filming a close-to-zero-budget documentary. He only stayed in hostels for 4 or 5 nights all up, and managed to find sofas and spare beds through websites like the abovementioned for the rest of his journey. Open source accommodation, I love it :)

I couchsurfed this past summer

[Babblin' Joe]

I spent the past summer doing the typical cross country road trip thing. I met nothing but nice people all along the way and only ever stayed in a hotel a few times (vegas and reno). With people worrying about safety it is just like any other online venture, if you don't trust someone, don't invite them over, simple as that. I stayed with people in st.louis, albequerque, santa cruz, san diego, L.A., all over. Everyone I met was super nice and just awesome people in general, I recommend couchsurfing highly. I chronicled all of my adventures at http://boxmansion.com/roadtrip [boxmansion.com] in case anyone cares to read

20 yo's? Try 60 yo's!

[grrrl]

In my (limited) experience I've found it's oldies who are loving this kind of site - my dad and his girlfriend have had people from England, France, Ireland come and stay with them and on a recent family trip to France we crashed for two nights at 'friends' of theirs who I later found out they had never met before, but had found on couchsurfing.com!

It makes sense for older couples (50s/60s) whose children have left, who have big houses but time to travel and hang out and just socialise instead of work! Also, there is a more implicit sense of 'safety' when it's an older couple, and when it becomes networked - so-and-so stayed with them so they must be good etc...

Couchsurfer Here

[dastardly_villain]

I actually just got back from a three month European trip where I used the website CouchSurfing.com 50% and stayed at hostels the other 50%. I had been a member of Couchsurfing for only a few months and found the people I met through the website to be all extremely wonderful people. I couchsurfed approximately 13 different times with people in my travels to twenty different countries, including Eastern Europe where I ignorantly thought I was going experience the most problems. As a black male, I had a lot of unnecessary apprehension...I found most people (especially in Eastern Europe) more curious than anything else. In my experience, people around the world have been great, extremely helpful and wonderfully interesting. I look forward to doing a similar trip next year through the Asias.

I'm a member of Couchsurfing.com, Hospitalityclub.org and Globalfreeloaders.com, but I only actively participate in CS as they have a fairly thorough precautionary system. They offer a rating system where hosts or travelers base their experiences with you to warn or encourage other members. They verify a mailing address for members. The address remains secret from users but if you do not complete the process, all users are made aware. You can choose to only travel with people with high levels of verification and high scores from other users. It's a very cool system that favors people who have been members for a long time and who travel frequently.

The disappointing part is with more and more press, people simply looking to save money will undoubtedly flood the site. Nothing wrong with that, but hopefully they don't miss the point entirely. Cultural exchange.