CouchSurfing Around the World

 Beyond the sleeping space, CouchSurfing is about meeting interesting people. On a March trip to Barcelona, I stayed with a woman from Shanghai with her roommates for four nights. In Jerusalem, I briefly lived with eight Germans doing their year of civilian service at a home for the disabled. I even found my current roommate in Cairo through the website. In turn, we have used our spare room to host visitors from the US, Switzerland, Poland, France, The Netherlands and Italy. The concept of CouchSurfing is based on trust and, during the stay, being somewhat of an extrovert. Because I am often staying in someone’s home free of charge, I try to be a considerate guest. In the past, I have brought small gifts for the hosts or helped cook — well, usually I buy pizza or take my hosts out because of my inability to perform the aforementioned cooking. On rare occasions money is exchanged, and this is if the surfer is staying for an extended period of time. The website itself has a number of safeguards to protect CouchSurfing members. For example, a surfer or host can have other members vouch for them, saying they can be trusted; only people who have been vouched for themselves three times can vouch for others. Each host and surfer can post a viewable reference that is ‘positive,’ ‘neutral’ or ‘negative,’ with a brief description of the overall experience. You can add and delete friends and report abuses, as well as leave anonymous remarks about how much they know you (and vice versa), as well as rate your trust level of a person on a six-point scale. Most profiles have pictures of the member, his or her ‘couch’ and places traveled. A couch’s description will often list the living arrangements and house rules, such as whether smoking is permitted in the house, whether the host has pets or allergies, meal and sleeping times, work or school schedules, how close the host is to transportation and other information that would help the surfer. A CouchSurfing profile often includes interests, a personal mission and philosophy, favorite books and movies, countries travelled and an enticing entry for ‘one amazing thing I’ve seen or done.’ CouchSurfers that I have spoken to have remarked that they often reply only to personalized CouchSurfing requests that show a member has actually read your profile; they also prefer someone who has put effort into his or her own profile. It definitely helps to have a litany of friends and positive references. Despite the safeguards, CouchSurfing still requires a cautious approach, particularly for young, single women. You will find many men wanting to host only single women for the potential of romance, while many women will only want to host women for safety reasons. There have been incidents of sexual assault reported on CouchSurfing.org, and in 2009, the website responded to news of a sexual assault trial between CouchSurfing members, posting, “CouchSurfing is an open forum. As such, it does not restrict membership and cannot guarantee that aberrant individuals will not attempt to use the service.” While my experiences have been positive, the network can also have a dark downside. My best advice: Read as many host profiles in your destination, gather as much advice about the area and what to expect … and be prepared to surf.