CouchsurfingReviews of couchsurfing.com

Couchsurfing.com used to be a great way for travelers to stay at each others' houses for free. It still worked alright when I last used it in early 2020, despite having changed from a not-for-profit community-built website to a commercial enterprise run by people who don't seem to get it or really care. However, their recent switch to a paid model was done in an extremely irresponsible and despicable way, by suddenly blocking all users from their accounts with zero warning, essentially holding hostage everyone's contacts and years of reviews behind a paywall that no one knew would be put up. They have also been instantly banning anyone who sends a message within the system about any alternative platform for finding hosts, calling it "advertising" even though this was always fine before. Many hosts are leaving the platform because they don't want to have to pay to let people stay in their houses for free. Luckily there are a couple pretty good free non-profit alternatives, BeWelcome and Trustroots, which might one day be as useful as Couchsurfing.com if they can get enough users (I've already used them successfully).

I loved this website, I used it many times and I was able to make great friends with the help of CS community. But how come suddenly they start asking money for sth that was created based on friendship. What CS community brings is totally different from airbnb or other similar sites. I think they didnt stick to their goal and it was really disappointing

I've used it for many years, it's not a scam. But now, since we can't access our profiles, we can pay to do so, but thousands of fake and ghost profiles are there, it doesn't make sense to use CS anymore. I'm devastated... didn't expect that at all. There were plenty of people who shouldn't have an account, so I don't mind paying for example $1 a month to be a verified member, so all the people who don not love CS do not join. But now, there too much to improve for me to join again. I hope CS team will get it right in the future again.

I'm currently getting told on every user profile screen, that " Due to the impact of Covid-19, we need your immediate help to keep Couchsurfing alive Monthly contribution €2.39 Tax and Fees included Annual contribution €14.29 Tax and Fees included All of us who are members of Couchsurfing believe in something greater than money, possessions, and status. It took over 14 years for the Couchsurfing community to come together. Without your immediate help, this community will be lost forever. " with a metropolitain skyscraper skyline in the background and a blonde woman sitting bottom down on a stone wall watching it, the user sees the brown parka'd back. Now I would not say that any management of a free of charge exchange platform ought to extort membership fees and presumably in times of hectic and turmoil, but this is an example of a company that does, depicting unreliability at its peak. The user cannot update any details on the membership platform without making a contribution to the management. The user is not being informed, when this 'pay me' block ends. Stupid. The correct terminology for this fallacy is Despotism. There's no reason to get annoyed or excited. It's basically only an irrelevant gesture of social silliness. Now as I click 'Let Couchsurfing know about your review. Just check the box and we'll notify them. The review will be sent to Couchsurfing', I do also hope for a change to normal and a reconfirmation message, that I, the user, may now utilize my couchsurfing profile again. Because the pandemic haze is over since weeks if not months. As expressed, I don't appreciate this tone, more precise, I consider this not my taste. Monopololists, crazy people. Looking forward to using the portal again and communicate with more salibrious human beings. Happy and glad. Many thanks Oliver

When I first started with couchsurfing Back in 2010 it was truly great. I’ve hosted over 300 people and many of them became my friends and I’ve hosted them over and over again as friends. Along the years, Couchsurfing has changed a lot. For many years I have hosted truly travellers who wanted to explore the world and make new friends, then as the years passed I started getting guests who in fact were not travellers but people who wanted to settle in London, others just wanted to save money but didn’t want to interact with me. I felt used. I had an opportunity to meet one of Couchsurfing founders back in 2011 in London where with other Couchsurfing members we discussed how to get some revenue to Couchsurfing as they didn’t get an approval from the American government to become a charity company. I did understand at the time that the company had to have some some of revenue and I even suggested that every single person hosted should give a certain contribution to the site to each day stayed at someone’s place. There are many members who never hosted, they only use Couchsurfing, so these sort of people should give some sort of contribution if they want to get hosted, not the host. I’ve spent over 4K alone in 2011 alone hosting and feeding CSs and I did it with all my heart, I have no regret. The approach in bar older members from using Couchsurfing unless they pay a monthly or annually membership is a stab on our back. I have paid membership when I first started to prove my address and nothing was said that I had to pay it even again. I would suggest that Couchsurfing take a different route before it lose every single member. Never forget, we can take years building our reputation but we can lose it instantly. Some mistakes can be fixed but don’t take too long, it might be too late.

Their app doesn't work properly and I tried to contact them concerning security reasons without getting any response!

Couchsurfing is dead since 2013, and those who deny this are either young females or still live in a bubble more members, less community, less positive experiences. . Now this may be a long story, so strap yourself in for this bumpy ride. Buckle up! I am a member since 2006 and it has been a glorious time between then and 2011. I will be citing some sections of an Internet article which is written and published by the original author Nithin Coca in 2013. I completely agree with his observations, which is also how I have seen it through my own eyes, however I only agree with a fraction of the comment section. It blows my mind that still that many hosts failed to see the problem back in 2013, if they didn't see the problem in 2013 I highly doubt they see it today. If you haven't read his article by now, I suggest you go look for the rise and fall of couchsurfing on his website. “”The new open couch request feature demonstrates the problem clearly. It is a place where references matter little. I’ve been shocked to see men with 40+ references still seeking a host, while girls with no friends, no references, and bare-bones profiles getting 3+ invites*. Is that the Couchsurfing spirit?”” (Nithin Coca, 2013) *3+ invites meant the girl has received way more than three invites, but since three is the limit the indicator could show, you couldn't tell how many it actually was. But take it from me, much much more. This is how it was back in 2013, now they sort of have removed this indicator but the issue remains the same. No surprise: Only girls get hosted, only guys host. So if this doesn't meet your criterion, or simply put you are a male looking for a (female) host, you are very likely to succeed. Anything else isn't going to work. You're a male who puts up a public couch request, you can wait until the cows come home but no one is going to invite you. You're a male who tries to stay with another male? Well, let's just talk about a practical example now, shall we? “”.i do NOT host males! just saying.I have hosted only 80+ people but in reality I have hosted around 400 (females) from all around the globe over the past 4 years as i have had at least 40 requests from men since i last wrote "i dont host males" i feel i need to write more..if you are male,boy,man,have a penis+testicles or you are travelling with a female do not request as it is a waste of my time answering and I have better things to do in my life than reply to (??) heads..ta! I have received a certain amount of hate mail from other males because (i assume) I host only women..to them I say,w t f is wrong with you when you want to abuse me for this..get a life!!! On the cchsrfing site there are females who only host females,men only host men,many people do not host children or pets and there are many men who state they host "all" but if you look at their references you may notice that the majority or most will be(surprise,surprise) female..it's the hosts home and whom they want in it is entirely their choice so fk off back to your caves if you don't like their choice!!!”” (from someone's profile, 2019) Let's look at one particular quote again from that section: “” if you are male,boy,man,have a penis+testicles or you are travelling with a female do not request as it is a waste of my time answering and I have better things to do in my life than reply to”” Un-be-lie-va-ble!!!..he just blatantly admits it and in a very blunt way at that, which speaks volumes. And then he tells us to get a life..I rest my case, I don't need to say anything else. Now, couchsurfing was never about these kind of gender discrimination which was optional yet uncommon, it is about meeting people, sharing and exchanging culture. That's already bad enough that CS approves this kind of discrimination (btw why is a profile like that not banned by CS), but now it is up to the female surfers to make a stand, make a big clenched fist against gender inequality and boycott this type of unacceptable behaviour. Subsequently, what happens: quite the opposite actually. This man has over 140 references from females! Instead of be vehemently opposed gender discrimination, the females just go with it and eagerly take advantage. So we have established that surfing as a male is almost next to impossible, then what's hosting gonna look like? I haven't received any requests from a single female since 2013 (which is when the open couch request was introduced, so now you know why) but in five years there was actually one: a 35yo woman from Serbia who I agreed to host. I provided her the best information, how-to-get-to tips in lengthy e-mails and I noticed that after some back and forth communication there was no more response but the sound of crickets. The day of her arrival had come at last, but there was no sign of life from her side. So I dropped it and paid no more attention. A few weeks later I wondered what happened to her and checked her profile to find out she probably couldn't resist the offer of a lonesome middle-aged female-only hosting female-crazy man who wouldn't mind paying for all her expenses, restaurant dining, admission fees, tours, train rides, flights..I am dead serious here, this is what I found out in the reference she left on his profile! Holy smokes, I was stunned, are you for real? This is where someone should step in, someone should take action as the gender inequality is becoming disproportionate. Think about this for a minute: do we males have to accept this as a part of life's rich tapestry, is this the natural order of things? Does every female in the world have to be treated like a princess while males get nothing and have to beg for everything? Imagine if it was the males only who could find hosts and hardly the females, just think about it, it would lead to a global outrage, feminist movements would be offended and it would lead to political debates to shut this site down, but since it is only the guys who can't find hosts, no one on this planet seems to care. Why is couchsurfing ridden with gender inequality? One might say is that the genders are imbalanced, and that the females are simply outnumbered, but in fact the ratio is almost pretty even. This is because most female profiles are set to NOT HOSTING which means the profiles cannot be found with the search function. The only way to find these profiles is knowing their names or receive a couch request from them. (or randomly check all the female profiles from some Italian bloke's reference section, then you'll see it too) Because they are NOT HOSTING they aren't bringing anything to the table. In fact, I have seen numerous profiles from girls that signed up solely as a method of free traveling and when their trips are over they never log back in again ever. They are the worst offenders when it comes to taking and never giving anything back to the community. But that's not all, we are just getting started: “”Before the event, I joined some surfers for dinner. Immediately, I noticed this was unlike any other Couchsurfing meetup I’d ever been to. One girl had never used the site as a guest or host, only to meet people to go drinking with. The guys had barely traveled, weren’t interested in talking with me, and didn’t actively host in New York. None of them seemed like real Couchsurfers. At the meetup, it got even more strange. Upstairs, in the dark, loud, and unfriendly room, was a group of nearly two dozen guys, all American, and a single girl, surrounded by guys. No one came up to welcome us, and the atmosphere felt stifling. “Man, where are all the girls?” said one of my dinner mates. I left only 20 minutes later. That didn’t feel like the couchsurfing spirit. Not at all. Little did I realize that site, which had changed my life, had itself changed for the worse.”” ( Nithin Coca, 2013) In the past I've joined fantastic events. You never had to worry about traveling solo, because one could attend weekly meetings, join mountain hikes, beach barbecue parties and what not. I too, noticed a complete change from 2013 when I attended the meeting in Barcelona. No one seemed like genuine members anymore, hardly anyone seemed to host or even have a profile for that matter, random guys would have this “why the heck did you have the nerve to strike up a conversation with me, who do I look like, Liberace?” in their eyes, so this man said..excuse me please I gotta go to the public convenience. Guess what he didn't come back and the first thing I saw him do looking for females and talk to them instead. Great, humiliated me really good. I believe that was the time when I first realised that meet ups now had a completely different purpose. Some months later I was traveling in a big city with a female friend. I still shudder to this day when I think back about it. I noticed when my female friend was right away jumped upon by the hordes of males while I hardly could speak with any of the other attendees, who were mostly thirsty males. So in the end my female friend made a remark about it that I must have spoken to two persons at most for the entire evening, and yes for the most part I stood alone with no one to talk to, whereas she was received like some kind of celebrated v.i.p, she enjoyed the attention and failed to see that in fact, she was that girl surrounded by males, as Nithin described. One of the best events were the NYE meet-ups, because what would be more riveting than to meet new people while celebrating the new year? Sometimes there is a fee because the organizer's investments of renting a pub/cafe/theater you name it, had to meet break even. After a string of amazing participations I couldn't wait to do this again during my visit to another huge European city. At the time of the NYE event we were all let down when we discovered right off the bat that the organizer went full about the money and sold entrance tickets to every local person in the street who was looking for some action. This re

I wanted to check it out because Jeff Yeager mentions using couchsurfing in his writings. When asked for my credit card for verification the site charged me $60 without any obvious warning. It might be a great site and I might be happy to pay $60 to join! But I needed to be clearly told that I was about to get charged something. Came to Trustpilot and found others had the same experience, so it was not my imagination. I have asked for a refund through the site and I will block any charge if it does not come through in 10 days. To bad, because if this site works then I would be happy to pay $60, but I needed to know more first.