Slashdot Mirror
"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."
...and leave an itinerary with someone at home, including names and addresses.
None of these sites, TTBOMK, asks for or checks references. And the liability assumed thereunder would be huge if they did, so they probably never will.
99+% of the people in this world are decent folk, but some nutcase is going to take advantage of the situation. Young, often naive travellers who nobody will miss for weeks... Slurp! Yum!
Less horrifying but more likely is the following scenario: you are low on cash, you only speak 10 words of the local language, it is late in the evening, and the weather is turning bad. The couch owner says put out or get out.
Please pardon me for being cynical. I hope these optimists can turn the world into a place of love, brotherhood, and cheap lodging. We tried in the 60s with mixed results.
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.
Crack - Free with every butt and set of boobs
This sounds like a modern take on Hostels. Which from personal experience I've found to be much easier on the wallet when travelling abroad and a lot more interesting than staying in a cookie cutter hotel room.
If you're not paranoid, then you're not paying enough attention. - Unknown, Slashdot
My only experience with Couchsurfing has been excellent.
I'm a Texan who recently went to the Ohio LinuxFest 2006 with three others. We've found a great male couple on Couchsurfing, exchanged some emails, and they seemed normal. We visited them, and they took us into their home for two nights as if we were their long-lost relatives. They were incredibly hospitable, made us a temporary code in their electronic entry lock, and were in general fantastic. And, they did not expect a dime from us.
After we returned to Texas, we bought them Woot Wine as a surprise thank-you gift, and they sent a grateful email after receiving it.
This kind of behavior from your fellow human beings really lifts the spirit and encourages similar kindness from oneself. Although I am certain there are some nuts on sites like this, it always is and always will be "caveat emptor". But if you find a good host, you will forever remember the experience.
I don't know that it's a great idea for guys either, unless you consider anal rape a win win situation.
Don't forget about head lice, either.
The Ski Freak Radical was doing this for ski bums well over a decade ago. I'm sure there have been all sorts of similar niche and less-niche sites serving a similar function. (Admittedly not Web 2.0, though...)
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
We used to call these "hobos".
We recently had heard in the office over one of the Yellow Machine that's made by Anthology Solutions.
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.
"In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart." - Anne Frank
Quick Geocouching.com isn't taken yet!
Have you read my journal today?
My mother let someone she met online stay on the couch in our house a couple of years back.
She turned out to be a 20 something French ballet student that was studying a sexology related major...
In other news I have no more luck for the next 20 years.
On a serious note it was a great experience. We've had someone else from England stay over as well recently and that also worked out really well. It's a good way to meet interesting people.
Someone make dormsurfing.com solely for the purpose of making people miserable by "fitting" an extra person in the dorm room.
Care about privacy? Read this!
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.
I don't know that it's a great idea for guys either, unless you consider anal rape a win win situation.
Hmmm... It seems that trusting the host is a very important thing. As some have pointed out, it could be an opportunity for psychos, sexual predators, etc. So, how are they handling this problem? With feedbacks? This seems to me unreliable. Or with tracking the guests? I don't know, but I couldn't be comfortable with the idea of sleeping in a strangers house.
// You may rejoice.
I don't know that it's a great idea for guys either, unless you consider anal rape a win win situation.
I don't know that it's a great idea for guys either, unless you consider anal rape a win win situation.
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.
Would it be naive to think that these people are NOT on the net? Probably...
// You may rejoice.
What a terrible analogy. That's like comparing bread to a soccer ball or something.
In Soviet Russia.
If you're a serial killer, your victims come to YOU.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
It's just as likely that the person you're letting into your house will rob you. They won't necessarily put a gun to your head, but the may leave in the middle of the night with your jewelry and silverware, or even just pocket a few small items when you're not looking.
For guys as well as women. If you're traveling, especialy to another country, it means you at least had the money to pay for a plane ticket. Bad start. Don't expect your wallet back, IMO. Last I checked, in the last decade(decades?), just taking a ride in a stranger's car (and vice versa) was pretty much out of the question if you valued your ass. Guys will get robbed, women will get abused THEN robbed sooner than you can say "its a bad idea".
You can barely go out beyond midnight outdoor without it being risky in shady districts... now you want to go the extra mile and be straight in the wacko's apartment, saving him the trouble of getting you there? Haha, riiiiiiight...
GoSleepGo.com is doing this as well, but more of their focus is on just showing off your hometown as opposed to giving a place to stay.
Sleeping in Amsterdam was a bit hard-core. We wandered till late at night (until everyone went to sleep), sneaked into a marina (that we used when we arrived) and slept on the ground. One sleeping bag on the ground, and one to cover us. We had to wake up at 6 a.m., cause we didn't want to be discovered by "the boss of marina" (sorry, I don't know English term for it). Luckily, after some time parks were being opened, so we could sleep there. One thing that I remember well - weather was relatively nice (people were wearing t-shirts and shorts), but we were cold while wearing sweaters - now I can understand why all those homeless people have so many layers of clothing on them...
Then we went to Rotterdam and slept there as described in TFA. Our hosts were incredibly hospitable (went on tour with us, paid for everything even if we really didn't want them to, etc.) and even drove us like 30km away from R., till we find a big enough gas station to easily find someone who would go east and take us. We found a ride immediately... and that guy (a programmer, btw
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 :)
You are far more likely to be killed by someone you know than a stranger. Your children are far more likely to be abused by your friends or a relative than a stranger.
We have to make friends and trust people. A lot of commercial transactions depend on trust. eBay relies on trust. Open source is built on trust of others.
I'm on couchsurfing and have had good experiences. It works. We should trust others rather than lock ourselves in gated communities and empty the streets.
Sure, take precautions, but it's really important to get out there and make new connections. It's the way we build social capital.
It exists in Europe, but it is not for everyone, which may make one conclude it does not exist. It exists in various scenes from party scenes to activism related.
For a second there i thought one of my videos made it to slashdot :P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it6_G2_e1Jw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyG_DR_KIck
One cannot mingle with the native women while on a couch at home!
Go out there on your mission to seek out strange new worlds, rip your shirt and get it on with the green skinned women!
I never thought anything like this existed. For the past year, I've been planning to move to India when I turn 20. I planned to stay at cheap 5-dollar hotels. But now that I know this exists, I'll just find cool people to stay with. Even if it means taking a chubby, I'll suck it up.
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 in case anyone cares to read
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...
We need a way to document, rate, review each traveler. We need a way to at least know the difference between the good and bad guests. Perhaps if there is a nice advanced communication system between all of the people involved in this activity, then yes, what can happen is, you can take in strangers, but you'd also know which strangers not to accept based on how they treated that friend of yours who took them in.
I don't worry so much about just the houses, you also have to worry about the guests. As far as sexual predators, and knowing whos house you are in, thats another huge problem. You seem to think only young women would be lured, but young men also could be lured, any situation is possible, all I can say is, we'd need a good safety system in place before this could take off beyond a few hundred people, once you have thousands of people doing it, you will have your percentage of crazies.
There are bound to be people with Jeff Dahmer syndrome, who will just get weird once they get you in their house. So it depends on how it's organized. If the room has a lock on it, or if you are in a group, perhaps you can feel somewhat safer but it still does not seem very safe.
I'm not saying a hostel is completely safe but at least it's well organized. This is free, but it needs to be organized better, a least of names, a list of alias's, just something so people can know who they are dealing with.
Yes there are good people in the world, but there are just as many predators.
Cool guy who likes music. Looking for a place to crash, lemme know!
After about 8 years of hosting an annual group of 12 - 16 randomly collected folks, I have to say that I haven't met a real asshole in the bunch. A bore or drone here and there, to be sure, but no real assholes to speak of. (Just noticing that Firefox 2.0 apparently has "asshole" in its spellchecker dictionary right out of the box... good deal.)
I think the mitigating factor here is that, although these are people from the internets, they're not from a general "find a place to stay" sort of site. These are folks who are willing to spend 24 hours straight watching B-movies (http://www.b-fest.com/), and who have interacted with other groupies long enough to achieve at least a virtual sense of familiarity. So, couch surfers? Sure. But strangers? Only in the physical sense.
Besides... IMO, if someone is willing to watch 24 hours of fare like Tiny Town, Plan 9 from Outer Space, Let my Puppets Come, Kingdom of the Spiders, Robot Monster and Orgy of the Dead just to rape and murder me afterwards, well dammit, they deserve it, and God bless `em. The moral of the story is that I can't vouch for people who're only known by their desire to couch surf at your house. I also can't vouch for people who share whatever quirky interests you happen to be into. But I can vouch for B-Movie fanatics... they tend to bring unexpected housewarming gifts & to leave your place cleaner than they found it. In crowds, they also tend to round up dramatically when a collective restaurant tab goes `round the table. They got my vote.
Pi Ran Out
I've had my CouchSurfing profile for about a year and a half. I used it once to find a place to crash in Norway last year, and have had a couple of folks contact me while they were in Texas. There is a limited verification system involving a donation to the project with a credit card and verifying your address.
I have found there are just two ways to go.
It all comes down to livin' fast or dyin' slow. -REK, Jr.
For the 600th time, another generation has actually discovered sex, drugs, and rock & roll!
People have been crashing on other people's couches since the couch was invented. Of course everything seems so new and exciting when you say "Yes, but now this activity has a web site!"
Networking with other people, socializing, long distance communication, and traveling around like a hobo sleeping wherever someone will let you is not new. The kids who believe web 2 is revolutionary because it fosters socialization are delusional.
Shockingly enough, society had means of coordinating activities before desktop computers. Marker Boards/Cork Boards allowed people to make similar arrangements. You got into town, stopped at the local youth club had a break-dance fight garnering respect from the rival break dance gang so they allowed you to crash on their couch during your journey to find yourself, find love, and gain those amazing teenager insights that will pave the way for you to become an assistant manager at McDonalds in 5 years. But now it's done on computers!
Where is the "itsatrap" tag when you need it?
Philosophy.
Reminds me of lift-trashing (or indeed elevator-trashing) stories from the eighties where you book into a large hotel, and then at night use the elevators to visit each floor and then stuff anything movable (paintings, plants, furniture) from the corridors into the elevator until it's full. This also brings people together.
"growing network"
from 2 to 3 is growth
"A number of Web sites"
zero is a number, so is 8 billion
Sounds like another web-fad the media will be all over for a couple days and we'll never hear about again, described in their usual vague, trying to make it sound explosive and epidemic, manner.
...and tells me to go sleep on the sofa, is that considered couch-surfing?
'He who has to break a thing to find out what it is, has left the path of wisdom.' -- Gandalf to Saruman
"Couchsurfing", "global freeloading", and the such... it's all old news... I did it back in '92 when I Interrailed, I would even do it again now, and I know plenty of women, including solo travellers, who do it now. WITHOUT ANY PROBLEMS. I've hosted both male and female travellers who have been nothing other than kind and civilized. NO PROBLEMS WHATSOEVER.
It's a matter of doing your research properly and trusting your instincts.
In all my discussions with other travellers, men and women, it's men who are more likely to be a victim of some kind of crime. Not women. And in case something does happen, women are more likely to get help than men.
People say I'm crazy, I got diamonds on the soles of my shoes...
I recently took a 10,000 mile road trip around the States (soon to be chronicled on my journal) and seriously considered doing this. I even set up a profile and started contacting people but, in the end, the safety concerns kept we away. Now I don't believe that the world is as scary as the media portrays it, and I'm sure I missed out on meeting some great people and learning more about the local areas (Not to mention saving £1,000) but in the end, I just couldn't feel secure knowing I was going to some random house at the end of the night.
-Grey.
Silver Clipboard: Time Management Tips
The Esperanto language community has something called "Pasporta Servo" (English wikipedia article here).
:-)
It always seemed to me that this would be a fun way to travel. You can go to foreign countries, get a place to crash, an interesting host, and not feel like a clod for only speaking English. I guess I like the idea of traveling and meeting people half-way.
Plus, it's a way to expand your mind and make a statement for peace and global understanding by learning esperanto (as if you needed a reason!)
Hmm... that reminds me, I'm behind on my language lessons at lernu.
. Penguins Surely Ca
Convention goers have been doing this for ages as have SCA, deadheads and other groups. You put out a call to share a hotel room, either for free space, share some of the hotel bill or something and see if anyone is interested. It's now much easier with the internet. Having a group of like minded people goes a long way to vetting them as trustworthy or at least mostly harmless.
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
Of all the stories to *not* be tagged with "itsatrap" - just think, you could use this to lure beautiful hitchhiker chicks to your couch or something...
couch cluster of them.
But the only new thing here is the internet being used to hook up people.
Most interest groups like bands, SCA, rpg/con/fandom etc have used something like this.
See my art -> http://herbevore.deviantart.com
stealin ur change
To all the people who wrote frightened comments: I'm surfing couches and let people surf mine since over two years ago, mostly with hospitalityclub and some couchsurfing. With all the about 80 people I hosted, I never ever had a single bad experience but great adventures, fun - or at least a decent time while I had to work or study. In summer, I was hitchhiking 2 1/2 months through eastern europe (from Helsinki to Sarajevo) and only stayed at members of hospitalityclub - and one night at home of one of my hitchhiking-drivers who offered a place to stay, because it was raining real hard. The Hospitalityclub-members as well as the Couchsurfing-members meet regularly at parties to get to know each other and see old friends. With the comments you can leave on other people's profiles, there exists a good working, relyable network of trust. A friend of a friend is your friend. It's easy and it works. Like this, I'm connected to people all over the world - and the more active you are, the easier it is for you to be trusted in and to help newbies to be trusted. Talking about HC and CS, people who don't use or know these services always come up with the: ok for boys, too dangerous for girls topic. For me, this assumption is most of all sexistic. Based on all the experiences told by the many, many travelling girls I met in cs and hc, travelling alone as a girl needs some special attention in some areas. But at the same time, it's so easy, as you will encounter many helping hands and open arms, that make your life easier and your trip even better. And basically, the real threats are the same for boys and girls, men and women and don't connect to the whole couchsurfing-thing - being mugged or robbed, the typical threat for any tourist. But that's why we are surfing couches: because we're living together with the locals for a few days, see their city and meet their people. That way, you're not a stranger but for a short while a friend of these people. As a friend once put it: Travelling as a tourist, you can see a city. With hospitalityclub you can experience it. It's like you lived there and return to the places you always hang out with your friends. This not only offers a unique experience, but also makes it safer for you. And even if you don't want to use other couches - getting guests from all over the world in the last two years was like travelling without leaving my livingroom. I met so many nice people, had so many interesting talks and just great and insane parties. Thinking of hostels and hotels just makes me wonder, how anyone can chose that instead of - just for one weekend - living with friends I never met before - and which will most probably stay in my heart forever.
None of these sites, TTBOMK, asks for or checks references. And the liability assumed thereunder would be huge if they did, so they probably never will.
That simply isn't true. I can't speak for the other sites, but Casey Fenton, who started couchsurfing.com, is a friend of a friend. I registered with the site a few years ago and am pretty familiar with it. There are multiple forms of verification and safety checks. They are all optional, but it allows you to be fairly discerning about who you stay with, or who you allow to sleep on your couch. Some of the security measures include.
Address verification To become verified, you must make a payment with a credit card in your name with a billing address matching that on record. A letter is sent with a confirmation code to that address that is entered online to verify the profile.
Vouching This system recently changed to become more strict. Basically, starting with the core group of people who began the site, they can vouch for people they know personally. A person vouched for 3 times can in turn vouch for someone else. As part of the user agreement, you can only vouch for friends you know personally--not acquaintances or people you have only spoken to online. Obviously this can't be very well policed, but anyone found in violation is immediately and irrevocably banned from the site, so it is taken seriously.
Feedback You can leave feedback on the profile for anyone whose couch you surf. Likewise, they can rate you as their guest.
Connection Strength Like any other social networking site, you link your profile to those of your friends. Unlike other sites, you also rate how well you know the person on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being "I don't really know this person" up to "I trust this person with my life." So besides looking at feedback from previous couchsurfers, you can gauge what sort of people the couch owner hangs out with, and to some extent how trustworthy those people consider him/her.
Email Records You are encouraged to use the web sites messaging service to communicate with the other party rather than by phone or private email. Records are kept of the communication, so if someone disappears, there are some pretty strait-forward clues as to where to look for them. This doesn't necessarily prevent a crime from happening, but it makes it unlikely the criminal would get away with anything if it did occur.
Clearly it is still possible something could go wrong and a psycho could get through the cracks and kill you. You might also get hit by a meteor. Its up to you to decide what risks you are willing to take, but honestly I would feel at least as safe staying at the house of someone who has passed all the above hurdles as I would checking into a cheap hotel I know nothing about in a town I'm not familiar with.
8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
How come we haven't got a "bad experience" post over here yet?
I couldn't imagine using one if I were a woman traveling in Europe
There are civilised parts of Europe, you know? Or have you seen "Hostel" recently?
Get your own free personal location tracker
Well...It did. I often go on trips carrying only enough clothes for two days and nothing else except for my laptop. When I get some where I like I find an open access point and jump onto the local IRC channel for that area and shout out for a roof. If you are prepared to accept as little as a roof (backpacks are good pillows, and your towel - which you always carry - is a good blanket) you can be pleasantly surprised; most people are more than willing to lend you some form of bedding and many will offer you food - usually the quality that they are eating (which can get a bit hairy!) but on the whole good.
;) so yeah - don't be shy to try...And remember to always have a backup plan - I suggest becoming Catholic, the seats aren't comfy but the churches don't usually get cold. :P
Many geeks will happily accept your nerdy company as repayment or, as I've more often found, they don't want to see you at all and they want you to stay out of their way. Either way as long as you are smart and polite it turns out well and remember to repay the favor to the next person needing the floor for the night.
Of course as I said above this did exist 10 years ago, further back as well. I know BBS used to be used to do the shout outs I was talking about before. Anyway I've been doing it for around six years now and I've had about ten geeks crash on my floor (I offer a fold out bed now
I ate your fish.
Hmm, sometimes it's not even a good idea for the host either. What if you take in a gay man, and he brings home another gay man that he just met in the woods?
My wife and I are extremely active on Couchsurfing: http://www.couchsurfing.com/profile.html?id=3Q8M8P is my profile. My wife's profile has username MOKSHA and is linked from mine. Apart from having hosted a huge number of people, many of them women travelling alone or as a pair, my wife has travelled in India, China and a lot of Europe using Couchsurfing. It's been the source of some of our best experiences travelling, and I can't recommend it enough. In fact, we've just finished hosting two friends from Mumbai who we met whilst Couchsurfing there, and we're hosting an Australian woman travelling alone right now.
At a technical level, the reference system works very well. Beyond that, the idea of Couchsurfing is all about trusting people. I won't deny that there are dangerous people out there, but I am very happy for my wife to travel alone using Couchsurfing; and when we travel together I prefer to use Couchsurfing to meet people who invite us into their homes and let us see the place we're visiting in a way that you never see as just a tourist.
Couchsurfing has a vouching system whereby you can vouch for another person only if you yourself have been vouched for three times. This allows for a reasonably high degree of trust in people who have been vouched for. Also, the system displays the shortest possible path from you to the person's profile that you are viewing. If you know people in the system, you can follow this path to reassure yourself about your prospective host.
I understand that you might instantly feel concerned about the idea. You have no idea how many people say: "What if they're an axe-murderer!". (It's always an axe-murderer for some reason.) My response is this: one day I, or Emily, might meet an axe murderer, but the chance is incredibly small and until then we're going to have the most amazing experiences and meet the most amazing people. The alternative is to not have those experiences, and I'm more than willing to take that tiny risk for the amazing rewards. I know that Emily is the same.
Seriously. Look into the idea and think about it. You don't have to offer your couch, and no-one will force you to travel and stay with people you don't trust; but the more that you use the system, the more you will get out of it. On top of that, if you're ever in the North of England then you've got my profile link right there.
I was convinced couchsurfing would be doing your "holiday" using webcams... ie. I couchsurfed to Hawaii today...
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
You said yourself you didn't stay in hotels....well not the ones that would keep track of the market impact. But hey, I've stayed in some bad places before. Have to say I would prefer a stranger's couch to some of them.
(and may not actually be valid, as I am AT work and this URL is from, cough, memory
I imagine this is more closely described as "geobedding" ...
I wish something like this existed 10 years ago when my friends and I traveled through Europe.
Something like this has existed in Europe since 1949. I was a happy Servas traveller in 1980's.
If you stay with somebody you can ask for proof of identity and address in advance, as should be done by the hosts.
Only the most idiotic of wackos would risk doing something in the knowledge that you have got information about him.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
The mod system needs a +1 troll. I laughed.
Can I crash at your place again? ...Couch surfer. ...I figured it was free.
...Yeah, I'm going.
Just one more night?
I'm couch surfing. I'm a couch surfer,
Locked on the inside.
I'm locked in but you locked me on the outside,
Inside of no longer me;
Move to tears beyond into a pond of cool quivers.
My being shivers.
I'm pure energy beyond the sun,
I'm utterly complete union:
I'm a couch surfer.
Mind if I eat those chips?
Oh, that's okay,
I don't like salt and vinegar anyways.
No, I didn't use Pay-Per-View...
Perhaps life really is full of possibilities.
How the hell is anal rape funny you sick fuckers?!
I can't really speak to everyone's paranoia, but I can say that my girlfriend and I stayed with two different people via hospitalityclub.org in Paris, and it was amazing! They took us out and we met their friends and saw a much better part of the city than we would have, had we stayed in hotels the entire time. We still keep in touch every once in a while and we'll probably say hi the next time we are in Paris, even if we don't need a place to stay. After we got back, we hosted a few different people - a few from Germany and a few from France and also had a great time. It was actually very fun showing someone around the city and rediscovering all of the fun things that are in your own backyard. I'm not sure I'd go to another country without some kind of emergency money or something, but I'd say everyone I met was very nice and smart. People aren't a-holes everywhere else, as much as in the U.S. Or rather, the concept of hospitality is much different.
Coming a little late to the game here with this comment, but I live in NYC and my wife and I have hosted several couchsurfers from couchsurfing.org. Every time it has been a great experience. Usually it is couples looking for somewhere to stay, and feeling more comfortable staying with another couple. They've come, done their tourist thing, hung out with us, and provided us great stories about their travels and experiences, and even cooked us dinner once or twice. Usually our only worry is giving them a key to our apartment, so we only do that if we trust them after a day or two, or they have good references.
:)
We host couch surfers because we have traveled a good amount and we know how much better your trip is when you get to meet and hang out with the locals. We also expect to take advantage of couchsurfing when we travel next, and so we feel it is only fair that we host others. On top of that we know how expensive it is to stay in NYC! Hosting someone here really saves them a *lot* of money
I highly recommend hosting a couchsurfer if you can, expect to learn a lot about different parts of the world, and to make some new friends.
You can barely fake a name on a month-to-month in a shady district... But now we have the convienience of being invited to the victim's apartment, saving you the trouble of cleaning up your own crime scene. Muhahahaha!
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
B. C. (Before Computers) there were lists in many big cities of people willing to share their floor space with passing hippies, backpackers, and whatnot. It sure made traveling cheaper and easier when it was around, and you met the greatest people. Worked beautifully for a while, but then I guess the whatnots got too numerous, and the whole thing kind of melted away. It gives me a warm fuzzy to see open source traveling being rebooted.
There are other international organizations I've heard of, such as the Hash House Harriers which are great way to meet folks in other towns. I've talked with one member at length, who very frequently stayed with friends all over the world met through the organization.
I'm sure there are others, such as Freemasonry, that would allow similar ways to meet potential friends abroad (although the Mason's per se, aren't typically a younger, hipper, net-enabled crowd).
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
you are wrong. there are many, many women who travel the world in search of cock. and why shouldn't they? if they can score a good poling along with a free place to stay for the night, so much the better. why does everyone assume that women must be the victims of sexual predators? women enjoy sex just as much as men; sometimes even more. so don't assume.
I'm sure there are lot of good experiences, but I don't want to sleep on someone's semen and farts.
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.
Somehow, thoughts of bad-things done on purpose can scare people more then chances of some accident which are waaaay bigger - I read this statement in some article not so long time ago, and I must agree... I mean, you can take any existing "service" in the world, and think of some horrible situation taken from some teenage thriller-movies.
:-P
Your post reminds me of the urban legend of razorblades hidden inside apples given to children on helloween in the US. This is something that actually never happen, but it still fills the fear-angry hearts of some parents. And I guess if the services described in the article would ever become significantly successfull, many people would find it important to warn the world of the possible if not "highly possible" horrible things that may happen - hey, if the established hotel-industry would be threatened, they would probably even pay some money to spread this kind of crap.
The truth is that people usually do tell some of their near where they are going and how to get in touch with them, and the chance of meeting some psychopath that would kill/rape/take advantage of you is less then being hit by a car (with fatal result) while walking down to the train station. The chance of a psychopath wanting to register himself on a public website is even lower I think
I'm always amazed at the people who prophecise rape and death and mutilation by muppets to anyone not following the standard tourist model. "Alright people, now stay in the lines, lock your hotel rooms at night and remember to meet up with the group at 8 for breakfast. And always hold your buddy's hand."
As some of the other posters mentioned - the relatively amount of danger in the world is pretty much the same. As a society, we've just grown more fearful of it.
I've never couchsurfed through the net, but I have several friends who have (most on my recommendation) hosted and surfed. Everyone one of them has had a wonderful time doing it too. Personally, I spent the summer hitchhiking around the US, from Texas to DC. I got the same comments from people - the running odds on me dying this summer were pretty high from everything I heard. Instead of listening to all that, I went out and wandered over 6000 miles in two months. I met a lot of awesome people and didn't have any 'life-threatening' situations. A few quirky people, but I've met worse in Walmart.
Put a little trust in your fellow person. I don't mean blind trust - keep your wits, watch your surroundings, but give people a chance. Life's too short not to go beyond the cubical sometimes.
- The Hitchhiking Geek.
My girlfriend and I are currently traveling around Europe for that past two months with a month more to go. We have stayed mostly hostels, one-star hotels, a B&B in Tuscany, friends and few couch surfers. In total so far we have "couchsurfed" for 8 days in 3 locations. Munich for Oktoberfest, London England, and Edinburgh in Scotland. Oktoberfest was our first couch surf experience and it was great, My girlfriend was very hesitant at first but we finally did it to save on costs and to get to know local people better.
Our first host was a German born native in his late 30s that is a traveler himself with who enjoys meeting people from all over the world. Being Oktoberfest his 2 room apartment was packed with several couchsurfers 5 the first night and 6 the second night mostly sleeping on the floor. It was tight but comfortable. It felt like a giant sleep over of many friends back in high school. Since we were the only couple the host was kind enough to give us the only air mattress, It was good mixed of men and women either traveling on their own or with friends all in their mid 20s from all over the world. Everyone spoke decent English so there was no language barrier. He let us use his laptop for internet and pretty much anything else in his home. His only request was after drinking so many liters a beer at the beer tents try and not pee outside of the toilet. =) I feel that one of the philosophy's of couch surfing is too leave a place a little cleaner then you left it.
The most amazing thing of all our 3 couch surfing experiences was that each host gave us a spare key so that we may come and go as we wish. Giving keys to almost total strangers. Amazing! I am sure not all couchsurfers are like this but from what I have talked with other couch surfers this level of trust is not uncommon. It gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling inside.
If you want more information check out our travel blog at www.travelmonkeys.net and look to the couch surfing category.
-chris
To "err" is to be human. To "moo" is to be bovine.
OK, then I won't slap her on her a$$...I'll settle for something else :)
The best planning can be done after the project completes.
HAHAHa, hey just because you have a lower user ID doesn't mean you can get away with that!
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