What is Couchsurfing?
Couchsurfing is an app where you can connect with locals and either meet up with them or stay at their residence when you are traveling. It is an ideal way to save costs on lodging, because staying at a host's place is completely free. Also, it is a great way to meet locals who can show you the best places in the area and give you some company if you are traveling solo. Both hosts and surfers use the app, and you can be one or both at the same time! I have made lots of new friends off the app, which has been the most helpful resource for me as a woman living in a new country far away from all her friends and family!
People who use Couchsurfing generally want to meet new people and enjoy the experience of getting an authentic look at the places they are visiting. Surfers who choose Couchsurfing over other forms of accommodation sometimes use it to save money, too, since booking hotels can be expensive. Oftentimes, hosts are previous surfers who want to pay it forward - that is, they have stayed with other hosts while traveling, and now want to be a host for other surfers just like them. There are so many different kinds of people on the app, but in general, the types of people you meet are similar to you, in that they are adventurous, outgoing, and interested in making new friends.
An Important Note Before You Start
Couchsurfing is NOT a free hotel service. Do not expect your host to give you a towel, toiletries, or unlimited access to their place and a key of your own. These are small perks that certain hosts will willingly give you, but do not expect or ask for these things. Hosts are graciously giving you a free place to stay while you travel, so be respectful of their time, space, and personal belongings when you stay.
Be aware that you will probably be sleeping on the floor or on a couch unless the host otherwise specifies on his or her profile. If you are okay with this kind of arrangement, then Couchsurfing is for you! If not, you are better off choosing a hostel or hotel if you prefer to have a more luxurious stay. I prefer Couchsurfing, since if I have a free place to sleep (even if it is on the floor) in a good location with a trustworthy and kind host, I am perfectly happy.
How it Works
You can sign up to be a member of Couchsurfing at any time. The app leads you through adding your location, personal photos, and information about yourself. Then, you have the option of becoming "verified." According to the app, this helps other members know you are who you say you are, and that you are serious about being a good host or surfer. I chose to forego verification because it cost money, and I was sure that my profile spoke for itself.
Once you have made a profile, you can start searching for other members by their location. If you are looking to make new friends in the area, simply search for other members near you. If you want to travel and stay with a host or hang out with a local to get a better perspective on the area, you can also search for members by another location, like "Amsterdam" or "Paris." The app automatically pulls up a list of members, and you can filter the search by gender, how recently the member was active, how close to the center of the city they are, private verses public room, and more. Then, you can scroll through the list, click on profiles, see the members' information, and message people requesting to hang out or surf on their couch. Whether or not the other person replies is up to them. You should always message multiple hosts, because some will not reply.
You can also search for hosts by making your trip public. At the bottom of the main page, you can add a trip and list details such as the date, location, and number of surfers. Then, hosts can see who is visiting their city, and message surfers and offer to host them. Once you or a host has sent an official request, you both must accept or confirm the date and whether or not you are staying with them. Some hosts prefer to continue contact over WhatsApp, but others are fine with just using the app's messaging system to tell you details about where their place is or where they will meet you in the city to show you around.
After you stay with a host, you can write them a reference, and they can write you one as well. If you really enjoyed your stay and want to keep in touch, you can also add each other as a friend. And that is a complete Couchsurfing experience!
How to Find a Good Host
When I schedule a trip to another place and am looking for a host, I make my trip public and add a note that I am looking for a place to stay. I usually get lots of messages, mostly from men. To most of these men, I reply with "Sorry, I am not interested." Why? This is usually because they do not have enough references for me to be comfortable enough to stay with them. Either that, or their profile does not say enough about them.
The great thing about Couchsurfing is that it has a feature called "references." When you meet up with someone or stay at their place, or vice versa, you can leave a reference and state whether or not you had a positive experience with that member and add some details. That way, surfers or hosts can look at a person's profile and determine whether or not they would be comfortable staying with that person or having them surf on their couch. The second helpful feature is that people can fill out their profiles with information about who they are, why they use CS, and the places they have visited. From these two features, you can get a pretty good idea about whether or not you would be a good fit for one another.
I have learned that the safest bet is to only accept hosting offers from people with 20+ references. That way, you are a little more likely to be in a safe and comfortable situation, knowing that 20 or more other people have had positive experiences with that CS member. As such, when lots of guys message me offering to host me for my public trip, I do not think about accepting unless he has a lot of good references. I also look to see if in the references if a reviewer mentioned that the host has a "really good location." That way, I also know that I will not be paying lots of money to get into the city center, but rather, that I can probably just walk and save on transportation costs as well. Depending on personal preference, that is, if you are more interested in hanging out with your host or traveling the city alone, you can also look in the references to see if the host wanted to hang out with their surfer or not.
My Experience with Couchsurfing
I started using Couchsurfing in August when I arrived in Austria to work as an AuPair. I did not know anyone from the area and was looking to both make friends and travel on a tight budget.
One of the ways I use the app is to find friends in the area. Once I settled in Klagenfurt, I knew that one of the most important things for me was to find and make new friends. I opened up Couchsurfing and looked up members near Klagenfurt, and found many people listed as just "wanting to meet up" or "currently accepting guests." I messaged a lot of women who had recently been active on the app and had interesting profiles. Later, I even messaged women with nothing on their profiles, since I figured, why not? I probably received responses from 20-30% of them, which is a pretty good record, since less women verses men respond to my messages on the app in general. I only messaged a few men who seemed nice and had similar interests, because I was more interested in making female friends in the area (just a personal preference, and it does not mean anything about men and their ability to be good friends).
I have met 10 men and women (2 and 8, respectively) off Couchsurfing in Klagenfurt for hangouts. Other CS users in bigger cities will have the opportunity to meet way more people than I did due to a larger pool of people using the app. I told the CS members I messaged that I was new to the area and wanted to meet people who lived there, and voila! coffee hangouts turned into friendships. I am lucky such an app exists, otherwise meeting people in this sleepy town would be much more difficult.
The other way I use the app is to find free accommodation and new friends during my travels. I have surfed with 6 hosts and have had positive, safe experiences with all of them. I stayed with hosts in Ljubljana, Venice, Salzburg, Warsaw, Berlin, and Barcelona. On my other trips, I have stayed with people I know, in my host family's lodging, or with friends in a hostel. During some of these same trips I have mentioned, I have done a couple "hangouts," where locals have offered to show me around the city. In both of these hangouts, I accepted offers from guys who had less than 10 references. The man who showed me around in Ljubljana was quiet but knowledgable, and pointed out a lot of interesting pieces of architecture and told me a bit about the history of the city. The other guy who showed me around Venice was my first and only bad experience with CS so far, and even then, I managed to get out of it safely. It turns out that he had a bit of the wrong idea: it seemed like a date to him, and he kept putting his arm around my shoulder and suggesting places for us to go alone and drink wine, even though I mentioned I had a boyfriend countless times. He had also offered to host me, but I declined and stayed in a hostel that night, before staying in a different CS host's place for my second night there.
My hosts have been really wonderful. In Ljubljana, a guy from India allowed me and another girl to stay in our own bed and have our own key to get in and out as we pleased. He worked that weekend, but I did get to hang out with him once - I invited him to join a "hangout" I had found on the app that consisted of me and 7 other CS'ers.
On my second night in Venice, I stayed with a different host who met me at the central station and accompanied me back to his apartment by bus. We then chatted for 3 hours at his kitchen table about our lives, interests, and philosophies, and then the next day he saved me from missing my bus by running around with me and asking questions in Italian to public transport workers.
In Salzburg, I stayed with an older host who offered to take me on a hike in southern Germany, just across the border. Although we did not have a lot in common to chat about, the hike up Schellenberg was amazing, and it is to date one of the most beautiful places I have been. I slept on a thin mat on the floor, which was fine the first night, but mildly uncomfortable the second night after I was sore from the 14 mile hike up and down a mountain. My host made me breakfast each morning, and we made dinner together one night, which was very kind of him to do.
I stayed with my first female CS host in Warsaw, and she was wonderful. She gave me my own key and paid for my dinner the first night, because "I was her guest." She did not have to do that, but she chose to on her own accord, for which I am grateful. We were both on the same page about wanting to go to bed early both nights instead of going out, and I appreciated that. She also had to work during the day, but that was okay with me, since I enjoyed exploring the city alone.
In Berlin, I stayed with a host I had met at the hangout in Ljubljana. I slept on his living room couch, and Saturday night he showed me around a bunch of cool places I would never have found on my own. In Barcelona, my host worked nights, so we did not see each other much at all, but the times we did say hello briefly were nice. I slept in the top bunk of the bed in his room, and it was quite comfortable.
Frequent Questions & Concerns // Couchsurfing as a Woman
People always ask me, "Aren't you afraid to travel alone, PLUS stay at a stranger's home?" to which I respond, "Not really, but you always have to be careful."
When staying with hosts, I only accept offers from or message hosts who are male if they have many references. If I look up a female host who only has 5 references, I am not too worried, and I will message her anyway. Most women do not respond to requests to surf at their place, and I have never had a woman offer to host me from my public trip posting, so 5/6 of my hosts have been men with lots of references.
The basic rule is: do not do anything that you would not do at home. Do not accept a hosting offer from a person you do not think you can trust, or who does not have references, just because you need a free place to stay. Hostels are pretty cheap wherever you go, so spending $20 on accommodation for one weekend verses getting yourself in a potentially unsafe situation is worth it. Further, be aware that you have the power to say no, even after you have decided to stay with a host. If, once you get there, you are no longer comfortable, you can leave, and you do not even have to explain why if you do not want to.
Some members use CS as a dating app, but it is easy enough to sift through the pool of hosting and hangout offers to determine the motive behind the message. Further, you can be very clear on your profile and say "I am looking for friends and hosts, not hookups," but that is not necessary. If you are smart, you can avoid awkward or unsafe situations by figuring out the person's motives at the messaging phase, rather than the in-person phase. The former is much easier to get out of, so start making decisions and determinations there.
Also, if you have a bad experience, WRITE A REFERENCE. I made the mistake of not writing a reference for my negative experience, because I thought, "Well, maybe he was just being nice, and I did not have anything to worry about." Whether or not to write a bad reference is a personal choice, but recognize that writing an honest review could help prevent a bad situation from happening to another member on the app later on.
Couchsurfing as a Man
For logical and illogical reasons alike, guys tend to be less trusted on apps such as Couchsurfing, and as a result, it can be difficult as a surfer to find a host if you are a guy with little to no references. How are you supposed to build up references if no one will host you because you have no references? There's a good answer for that: start with friends and hangouts.
If you have other friends on Couchsurfing who you know from another place other than the app, then you can become friends on the app and write references for one another. There are three types of references on CS: Surfers, Hosts, and Personal. So, your friends, people you hangout with off the app, or hosts who did not send you official requests (but you just messaged them and mutually agreed you would stay) can write you references that go under the "Personal" tab. One of the girls I met off CS through a hangout wrote me a reference, and three of my "unofficial" hosts wrote me a reference, all of which ended up under my "Personal" tab. These still count for your overall number of references, and they are a great help to anyone just getting started on the app and needing to prove that they are good company!
Wrapping up Couchsurfing
All in all, Couchsurfing is a wonderful invention, and I am very grateful that it exists and that I can use it during my time here in Austria! It is the main reason I have so many good friends here in Klagenfurt and have not gone bankrupt by traveling every weekend.
I cannot offer to host people at the moment since I live with a family. However, once I go back to the United States (or wherever I end up), I will happily start hosting and offering up my time and expertise to travelers just like me who want to meet new people and have a budget to maintain.
If you are curious about Couchsurfing, or are unsure but interested, please feel free to email me at rguingri@gmail.com, or message me on Instagram @rosemilyg (make sure you mention that you are asking about CS or travel, otherwise I might see a "hey" as some unsolicited greeting and not respond). Even though my experience is so little compared to veteran CS members, I can still help with any questions or concerns you may have that I did not cover in this article. I am happy to help, and will assist you the best I can!
As always, thanks for reading, and if you would like to hear more and keep up with my travels, subscribe at the bottom of this page by adding in your information to the "Join My Mailing List" tab.
Greetings Rose,
As you can see my picture (your grandpa) is on the "Sue Gregg" facebook page and on the photo ID of this form, too. So that gives me "legitimacy" to communicate without having a page in my own name. In fact, I do all of the writing on our facebook page as I am doing here. But as you know I write for both of us. I am assuming unless you tell me otherwise that this communication is visible to others.
Thank you for explaining Couch Surfing. I was curious for a couple of reasons. One is that, as you know, your grandma and I have hosted people, especially internationals, all our married life. Sometimes we've become quite…