CouchsurfingReviews of couchsurfing.com

Step 1) let some volunteers spend thousands of hours building a community based on generosity allowing people around the world to meet and share culture with no money involved. Step 2) when the community seems big enough, change the status to a for-profit corporation. Put 23 millions on the table. Buy the website. Step 3) Fire the people who’ve made the website on their free time. Hire new developers. Pay them well. Step 4) make the infrastructure of the website much bigger, get fancy new offices in San Francisco. Rely on the gigantic amount of money generated by the maximum load of ads google allows. Make millions and millions. Step 5) realize that COVID-19 is making your website empty, that the developers, the offices and the infratructure cost now much more money than what the ads now generate because nobody travels anymore. Panic because the Shareholder want their money. Step 6) Block every user on a paywall so they can’t login anymore, nor access their messages and communicate with the people they met on the platform. Tell them you have no choice. Shame on you.

This used to be a perfect website. But when the status changed into a corporation everything went to hell. They held the community hostage and extorted all the contacts everybody made by demanding to pay a membership fee. Despicable.

Couchsurfing started dying when the corporates took over; after years of promising no ads and no fees (for life!) they've added both and wiped out all the amazing member content.

I have been a CouchSurfing host for 8 years. There were good experiences and bad (which was not the fault of the company rather than the individuals not really understanding the concept of hospitality or common courtesy) ... but you learn how to pick up your guests over time in order to have a good experience. CouchSurfing as a website was good as long as it was free. As a CS fan I gladly paid my (voluntary) lifetime verification in 2014 to support the existence of the company and look more trustworthy along with my ID and address verification. I only had problem with the payment when they charged for my lifetime verification again in 2015. CouchSurfing did return the payment once I contacted them and pointed out that I already paid my LIFETIME verification and shouldn't be charged again. Another problem I experienced during using the website/app was when I was being regularly blocked from access. Not the best thing that can happen especially when you have accepted guests coming and you can't get it touch with them. My account kept getting suspended because I was receiving up to 30 CouchSurfing requests daily. Even if I wanted to host everybody I was not a hotel and didn't have capacity for 30 people daily so majority of these requests had to be declined. Unfortunately the system kept detecting the large volume of my decline messages as "spam". It took up to 3 days to get my account unblocked by their support. Again, not cool when you have guests coming, you needed to exchange contacts and give address immediately after you accepted your guests because if CS blocked you unexpectedly your guests could easily end up on streets not knowing where to go or whom to call to. These suspensions were happening several times a year. Now since covid happened and the company forces mandatory payments for people to be able to login to their account it doesn't make sense for me as a host to use this hospitality platform any longer. If I was a surfers- sure, no problem. It's nice to get a service from somebody and save money on hotels so the least I can do is pay the "contribution/membership" fee... but as a host I already have extra expenses that come with having an additional person or two under my roof- food, energy, gas, restaurants, tickets etc. Hosting is not free. It costs money to be a CouchSurfing host and I do not think it's right to charge hosts for using CouchSurfing on top of the expenses they already have. I am still very grateful that I got a 1 year complimentary access as a thank you for my lifetime payment. I was able to host a few more people for CouchSurfing this year but now it's finally time to move to non profit hospitality platforms that are not going to charge me for doing them a favor. Being an active host on Couchsurfing is now like being a volunteer who has to pay in order to work for free. Literally it doesn't make any sense at all. Good luck with this business model. I will gladly come back IF it's free again. Until then I am happy to host through Bewelcome, Couchers or Trustroost.

Couchsurfing had a great start, and I was an active participant since 2007, including as an Ambassador since 2011. That was the year they began putting profits over people, a process that was completed in the paywall they put up in 2020. Shortly after 2011 they began focusing more on quantity over quality, and here we are. There's a lot I could say, but to be brief: they claim the paywall is only to get the company through the pandemic, but they haven't said a single thing about when they would bring the paywall down. They have broken bedrock promises, like a free site, numerous times. You can see the other reviews about being charged unwillingly. I and numerous others have been banned from the site without a reason given, though we think it's because they're trying to block anyone from sending a hyperlink in a message within their site. Think about how detached they have become from reality when they ban virtual events in a pandemic. The community lives on, and we will find a new home like BeWelcome or Couchers.

Ah couchsurfing... Heureux d'avoir connu l'âge d'or de ce concept, des rencontres inoubliables dans toute l'Europe et au delà, des invités inoubliables pour la plupart.. Un solide groupe d'amis au sein même de ma ville. La liberté, le partage, l'amitié, parfois plus et peu importe, c'était de la découverte, de la solidarité, du bonheur... désormais payant. Vous vous êtes bien foutus de nous, je n'ose pas imaginer l'horreur que ça a du être au sein de votre "entreprise". Vendre son âme comme ça, monnayer nos échanges, nous retirer nos souvenirs... Pauvre de vous. Bravo aux créateurs, vous avez embelli mon existence et honte aux vampires qui sous couvert de sécurité et pandémie ont retourné leur veste et essayé de nous faire culpabiliser. Vive la relève, gardez-les vos nouveaux membres vérifiés qui payent pour éviter les individus douteux que votre nouvelle politique contribue elle même à attirer !

I was a CS host for 6 years...but in the last 2-3 years the organisation got worse and worse.. treating their hosts terrible...ignoring them and blocking their membership when they didn't like their views. They then used the excuse of Covid to force everyone to pay to access their own profiles, a serious breach of trust. They deserve no support for the way the have acted and destroyed a once wonderful community led organisation.

They ask for money to get access to my own profile even. Without any warning, just one day (a previously non-profit organization) just blocked all access to their website, including for volunteers and people that only share their home with others. You can't even see messages other member sent.