CouchsurfingReviews of couchsurfing.com

I've been a member of couchsurfing for a few years. In May 2020 they locked me out of my profile asking me to pay before using the side. I can't even delete my profil myself. I have to ask them to do it. They don't care if the references are stating wrong things. They won't cancel them. The person writing the reference doesn't have to give proof that what they write is correct. After a few complains to the staff of couchsurfing they might deactivate the profile.

DONT PAY A THING! THE COMMUNITY IS DEAD. I have been a member since 2007, I have met amazing people from all walks of the world, and had the most beautiful adventures. Unfortunately It has changed over time and it became harder and harder to find real people among all the ghost profiles. This auupt charging to belong is just a fraud. Last year I made my profile public and harassed-stalked by a gay Venezuelan(Javier Leon) in Santiago Chile. As an American in Colombia, I looked for the local CS community (Pereira) and again it was all about partying and dating. I really understood how fake the community had become. I knew the pandemic was going to be very serious, and asked for help on finding a place to rent, I didn't ask for a couch, I asked for advice. I did find an answer to my question, but not from the group, but one of the only real active members. Nobody in the group wanted to talk about it. Most of the members just want to practice their English and party. Nobody could hold a decent conversation over 30 seconds; No stories about trips, camping or cultural revelations. Because I just wanted to talk and since I speak fluent Spanish even though I am white, I wasn't really welcome- it is all about letting them practice their English and having them feel good because they can dance salsa, but if you can't contribute there is no middle ground. THE COMMUNITY DIED! SO A WEEK BEFORE THEY HIJACKED "YOUR" COMMUNITY, I WAS EMAILED BY THE AMBASSADOR OF BELGUIM, LIELYANDKIDS, WHO "WELCOMED ME INTO COUCH". IT WAS A COPY PASTE MESSAGE TELLING ME ABOUT HOW MUCH COUCH CHANGED SINCE SHE BECAME A MEMBER. SHE OBVIOUSLY DID NOT READ MY PROFILE, IT WAS VERY WEIRD, I NEVER GOT A MESSAGE LIKE THIS. I SAID YES THE COMMUNITY DID CHANGE SINCE WE JOINED IN 2007. I ASKED HER WHY DID SHE WRITE ME, I AM FROM THE US AND I AM IN SOUTH AMERICA, BUT NOW I UNDERSTAND WHY SHE WROTE. IT WAS APART OF THE SCAM

It was very good in the past when it was driven by volunteers. Thing's became bad when they turned it into a for-profit company - and now since Patrick Dugan is CEO they want to squeeze the last pennies out of this dead horse and take the users profile hostage. They release them for a monthly fee. To bad to see couchsurfing LTD dying. But it is for good! See you on trustroots.org and bewelcome.org

I was a member (mostly host) from early 2008 until today The downfall started in 2011 when they became a for-profit company. Gradually things got worse. Two weeks ago a new low was reached when they held profiles hostage for a ransom. Since I made a donation in the past (before they became for-profit) I got another year to decide if I wanted to become a hostage. Unhappy with the way things were going I made clear on my profile that I preferred to use other platforms. The censors of CS weren't too happy with this and I got an email saying that my account was deactivated without warning. If this is the way they treat old members and reliable hosts, this will be over next year.

I used to be a very active member of couchsurfing, hosting many travellers for free and enjoying the great communities which were popping all around the globe. It used to be excellent, now everything is driven by MONEY and greed, asking people to pay to be host (for free) by stranger. The main point, however, is another. Unfortunately, due to covid they locked without announcing to the people all the accounts, so now IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO ENTER OR EVEN DELETE A PROFILE WITHOUT PAYING. That's illegal, greedy and overall disgusting. Keeping all the data from people and ask for a year subscription just to access and delete the data/profile. I hope that you will find happiness knowing that you are stealing money out of people data.

I used couchsurfing a couple of times. I had mixed experiences with it. I am mainly rating them with the least amount of stars because Couchsurfing has been greedy enough to ask for membership money. The entire idea of it simply goes out the window when you try to do that. I would have been more than okay with the advertisement and to use the pandemic as an excuse is a joke. And do not use "third world countries" as an excuse either. It is 2020 and there is no such thing. At least not in terms of the countries which they would be willing to help. One country has more gem stones the other has more engineers and the third has more money. The idea by itself is racist and is based on the 80s. It wasn't a smart move. I am not okay with it when a company becomes greedy and tries to mask it as helping others. I am also not okay with it when a company is being non-factual about it. Apart from that I had several problems with male hosts who tried to sexually harass me and there are many guys who use it for hooking up too instead of behaving responsibly. I had to open up a second account after some years because couchsurfing didn't let me login to the first one. I couldn't find the contacts again of many dear people after that. So even if I thought that it WOULD be okay to ask for money when they could have made the money with advertisement I still wouldn't do it because they lack in customer support and generally I didn't find the website that reliable. There are a lot of alternatives by now and I won't be using the site any longer. PS: If couchsurfing really did aim at keeping it cheap for users then they would have done the only logical thing by keeping the advertisement.

Couch c'est 10 ans de ma vie, des rassemblements à gogo, des fous rires et des rencontres inoubliable.. et pourtant couch aujourd'hui c'est fini.. avec la crise du COVID le site semble surfer sur la vague du tout payant, ne laissant aucun choix d'abonnement ou non. En tant que CS je suis d'accord pour donner un coup de pouce, mais pour payer un abonnement annuel/ mensuel ? Où va t'on ? Le site bloque par défaut tous les profils et j'espère quand même pouvoir supprimer mes données ! Je suis triste que cette si belle initiative de partage de culture se soit transformée en business et en site de rencontres amoureuses ( car il y a beaucoup d'autres site pour ça ! ). CS vient de signer la mort de cette si belle communauté basée sur le partage et l'entraide... j'espère qu'il y aura rapidement un plan B ( un autre site ? ) où l'on pourra retrouver cet esprit.

Soy miembro de la comunidad couchsurfing desde el 2012, he viajado, alojado y conocidos buenos amigos. Ayer, 14 de Mayo 2020, couchsurfing bloquea mi account pidiendo una donación obligatoria. De hecho no se trata de una donación, sino de un cambio de las condiciones del servicio ocurrido sin preaviso. No quiero entrar en el merito de esta decisión, pero si en la manera. Ha sido una falta de ética y una violación de la ley sobre la privacidad, a lo mejor hubiera hecho una donación si hubiera sido voluntaria. Decepción total, nunca volveré a usar esa plataforma pero antes que me dejen recuperar mis contactos y mis fotos. Dan verguenza