inyourvillages

Can't speak for London, but I'll say this for one summer I hosted in Prague: tons of messages every day, often from people who clearly had not read your profile, often from people who had never surfed or hosted, often from people who didn't even take the time to fill out a profile.

E.g.: My profile says I can host one surfer (only had a single mattress and didn't have the space to permit sleeping bags). Over 50% of the requests were from people who had more than one person in their group.

Or the ones who had friends in town (why can't you stay with them?), so they wouldn't be around at all or expect you to show them around (aka, don't want to spend any time with you). So they're looking for a free hotel.

So a lot of people who are "desirable hosts" (and by that I mean definitely have a couch, have verification and references, live in the center) put 'restrictions' in their profile, or 'demand' that you include a certain phrase in your request, to show that you actually read the profile. After all, if someone doesn't take the time to read a couple hundred words of someone they're planning to live with for however long, do you really trust them to follow any guidelines when they show up?

That said, I've actually only had really positive couchsurfing experiences. But part of that was because I was somewhat selective in picking who could stay with me, and who I approached about surfing with. That doesn't mean to sound snobby, just that, like most things, the more work you put in, the better your results will be.

CosmosHuman

I guess I would be too scared to use the service. I a very private person, well I need my privacy.

But for many it works out.

EmailKid

Exactly as i7654 says @:-)

There should be things for guests to do during the day, they don't need to stay at the house.

The one and only time I had an opportunity to host my guests had their own sleeping bags, as my house was recently renovated after Hurricane Ike, and I had no furniture (still don't).

I allowed them to stay in the house during the day, in fact I let them lock up after themselves as I worked (at the time) 50 miles away in Houston. Of course I have not replaced any of the things I lost during the hurricane, so there was not much to take from the house

All in all a decent experience.

EmailKid

smibay

I went to one of their Boston meetups (hopefully to also get a couple references) and it was a variety of people who all seemed pretty nice. I haven't hosted or been hosted yet but Couch Surfing definitely seems like a great project.

exquisitered

I haven't given my keys to most of my CSers...I tell them that during the day if I'm at work that they should be out exploring! I did give my spare key to one who stayed for about a week, but he was a Nomadic Ambassador with more than twice the references I had, plus I had already met him and kind of gotten a "feel" for how comfortable I was around him. Ended up surfing with him in his hometown a few months down the road!

My most recent hostess actually had the same rule...while she's gone, I was to be gone...of course, I was out and about all day anyway--she ended up being me back every single night. It's really all about what you're comfortable with.

deniah

not an uncommon concern -- some hosts simply DONT leave their strangers in their house "unsupervised".

it goes without saying that you need to exercise due diligence in researching the guest (and also likewise as a guest looking for a host). between photos, their messages, their profile and reviews, its not difficult to gauge a persons character. if it is -- due to lack of information or otherwise -- dont host. stick to your comfort level. if you sniff even a hint of shadyness - no go.

that said, i leave keys for all my guests, including some "fresh" members and have had no problems at all. once a braided/weaved hippie brought friends at last minute who stunk up my room and left it unkempt; i now dont accept hippies simply for hygienic reasons. otherwise, everyone else has been extremely respectful of my space and my place

karead7

We love couchsurfing!

In fact, we use it a lot when travelling with our motorhome.

http://www.travelwithkevinandruth.co...chsurfing.html

SirJman

My Seoul flat is very small, and I often feel bad about making the CS'er sleep on the floor, so I will often let them take my bed and I will sleep at my girlfriends who just lives down the street. Now, I will meet the person before making the decision about leaving them or not, but I have yet to host a person I'd felt uncomfortable about leaving.

Naturally, I don't state this in my profile, because I don't want people thinking they are going to have a free flat during their stay and party it up.

i7654

A bit OT, but has anyone else seen the google ad that comes up at the bottom of the screen. its for a SFO hostel, and the ad says "cant find a couch in San francisco, then come stat with us, we love international couchsurfers"

ginteralaska

My college age daughter and her friends use a web site called couchsurfing.com to find places to stay around the world. I checked it out and it seems interesting!

Just wondering if it is something that us aging baby boomers might use, or is it mainly for college kids?

Does anyone have any experience with it?

Thanks!

Crazyhotelguy

Somehow I think the FT crowd tends to avoid any place that does not give hotel points or FF miles....

aaron1262

You might want to check the following thread


Couchsurfing - have you used it?

EmailKid

Thank you aaron1262 for pointing ginteralaska in the right direction. The search feature is great ^

Since this is a related topic, I merged the threads.

Guess I'm old enough to have a college age kid, had I not used reason to consider pros and cons. Haven't attempted to be a guest, but hosted a mother and daughter duo who are travelling to Latin America on their bicyles.

Did not realize they had a web site when they got in touch with me. Good experience, and as an added bonus they spent years in the Czech Republic, and the daughter still remembered some of the Czech she learned, so I got to speak a little of my native tongue

EmailKid
in Budget Travel moderator mode to merge the posts

EmailKid

Some of us on FT, particularly here in Budget Travel, have been known to stay at hostels and bid on hotels at Priceline Heck, there's a whole forum devoted to bidding ....

Now as for flying, it's been a LOOOOONG time since I flew without gaining or using miles

EmailKid

exquisitered

I would say it's not mainly just for college kids...though maybe more towards 20s-30s than the baby boomer crowd. But don't let that stop you! It's more about travel junkies than anything, people who want to have unique travel experiences rather than a cookie cutter tourist experience...& yeah, the budget part helps too...but I'd say my favorite part about it is knowing that even if I don't have anyone to travel with that I always have someone to hang out with in just about every city!