Got Couch?
I’ve been a part of a project for a while now that has gotten to the point where I feel the need to make a more public note about it.
The project is called Couch Surfing and it is a website that connects people who want to travel with people who have a couch for them to sleep on. Through the website’s contacts, you find people in the area you are going, ask them if they would share their couch, and then go there and sleep on their couch. Unlike a hotel room, staying with a local gives you the real experience of an area. They can suggest things to do around town, places to eat (the good hole in the wall places that you’d never find as a regular tourist), etc. Plus, its free!
In return, can choose to offer your couch up for travellers. There is no pressure to offer your couch, and you are free to politely deny couch surfing requests for any reason, but once people have had a chance to enjoy meeting someone new and being shown around their town, they usually seek to offer the same experience to someone else.
The network is built from the ground up, and only recently has begun allowing in ‘new’ members. Prior to that, membership was by referal only, you could only join if you were vouched for by an existing member. Hence, the core membership is very strongly tied, and there is a good system for identifying friendships, leaving feedback and referrals, and they even offer an optional verification system that uses your credit card information to verify that you are telling the truth about your address and name. They also have a vouching system that retains the tight-knit feel of the original network. The creator of the site was the first person to have the ability to vouch for others, but anyone he vouched for could begin to vouch as well. The idea is, if you stay with someone who has been vouched for, they will vouch for you (assuming the experience was good, of course), and if you are vouched for, and someone stays with you, you can vouch for them. Thus an internal network is created that connects everyone’s good experiences. Between all that, the process has become very safe, and reinforces my thought that 99.999% of all people on the internet are good, fun people just like you, and just because you meet someone online, doesn’t mean they are a wacko. In fact, if you meet them on a site like Couch Surfing then they are pretty interesting folk who you’d like to meet.
If anyone reading this signs up, feel free to message me, and if I know you, I’ll leave a referral. And maybe I’ll stay on your couch!
Thursday 15 Jul 2004 | Sam | Lovely Links
Hey Sam, this is a very cool concept, thanks for sharing it. I think I would much rather do something like this than stay at a hostel if’n I was travelling on the cheap. Even better to me is the ability to host people and then direct them to the sights that really make where you live special. Thanks again for this neat post.
Echoing Jim’s thoughts – yes, this is a cool concept – although I must admit I would feel a little odd signing up for it when I have no couch myself to offer.
Maybe when I get one. But yeah, thanks for sharing this with us – this is something worth letting the world know about.
I think it’s okay that you don’t have a couch to offer. Couchsurfing was started to give people who want to travel the means to do so. There is also a couchsurfing tribe on tribe.net. Where you sometimes get even more information about the kind of people who want to stay on your couch. I think its interesting to look at the other tribes that they belong to.
Andrew, you should just sign up. Lots of people don’t have a couch to share at the moment, and there is no pressure to do so. You could still surf yourself, and many people seem to use the site just to get info about an area. They might be visiting and already have housing arrangements, but might want a local’s advice on what to do, where to go, where to eat, etc, and it would be a neat way to meet interesting people and give them a good way to experience your town.
How do I put a posting? Or how do i sign up and become a member?
I am a member of Couchsurfing! that site changed my life!!
100% recommended!
I am from the cochsurfing project, this is really a great concept and experience. I don’t travel a lot, i haven’t got a couch to chare yet but i go to a lot of Cs meeting oragnized in France and maybe soon in Germany.
couchsurfing as really change my life because i was shy and i didn’t trusst anyone, now that’s exactly the contrary, i’ve met a lot of very interresting people.
If you want to share, GO ON COUCHSURFING!