Hey, I don't know, what Couchsurfing does with your address, but I'm VERY certain, it's nothing like advertisers.
For Hospitalityclub I KNOW, that nothing happens with your address. It is in an encrypted database and can only be accessed from some volunteers for example for sign-up purposes (plausibility-check and so on). Only if you want to set your address visible to the public, this will happen (I did it like that and didn't receive ANY mail- or phonespam, also because I locked my profile from searchengines). On Hospitalityclub, there's no other advertising then Google-Ads.
Hope, this helped somehow.
My profiles:
HC: tarion
CS: knoke
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.
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Hey, I don't know, what Couchsurfing does with your address, but I'm VERY certain, it's nothing like advertisers. For Hospitalityclub I KNOW, that nothing happens with your address. It is in an encrypted database and can only be accessed from some volunteers for example for sign-up purposes (plausibility-check and so on). Only if you want to set your address visible to the public, this will happen (I did it like that and didn't receive ANY mail- or phonespam, also because I locked my profile from searchengines). On Hospitalityclub, there's no other advertising then Google-Ads. Hope, this helped somehow. My profiles: HC: tarion CS: knoke
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.