CouchsurfingReviews of couchsurfing.com

This bunch of crooks asked me to verify my account using a card and billed 47 GBP.. verification is NOT subscription. Now they are not responding. AVOID AT ALL COSTS

If you are female young up to 40 and you think someone who has 100-200 refs is safe to meet in public space... In my case at least, it was not only NOT safe, but he hit me when I denied spending the night at his ''luxury flat''. Stay away, if you are woman but also a man living alone and vulnerable to be targeted by cs members. Many with a lot of refs and who seem 'safe to meet up BUT ARENT SAFE AT ALL. THey just play by some social rules and make sure they are nice but when they meet a vulnerable person, a woman living obviously alone and is unmarried or a man who is alone, they will harass and do as much crime as the law allows them without getting caught. Its weird that many rape cases in Couchsurfing ,the rapist has many good references. So their ''safety '' system of references is poignant.

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

Couchsurfing is what you make it. I have been using CS for a few years now and it has made traveling around the world such an enjoyable experience. I also love meeting local surfers and hosts at meetups where we can share our stories. Really, it is what you make it. When you are involved in the community, you can learn from the friends you make where the good spots are. I am someone who is fortunate enough to have the option to travel regularly and stay in nice hotels. However, I choose to surf because it makes the experience much more authentic and also has a smaller carbon footprint compared to staying in hotels. I am not saying that every host is going to be perfect, but it is really up to you to try and figure out the hints people are giving in their reviews of hosts/surfers. They are usually discrete. It is a fact that most people don't want to give negative feedback, but usually if the reviews are short or they give hints at certain problems, they are telling you to avoid those hosts if you don't like a certain type of person. I always recommend you start by hosting so that you can build a reputation and learn the process. My final recommendation is to have a real CS mentality, this is about making bonds with people and enjoying the community experience. It is not about having a free place to stay or expecting to be compensated for hosting. That is out of the spirit of CS. If you really like your host, sure, offer to take them out for dinner or get them a drink, but it shouldn't be an inate expectation and that is also the same for the reverse. Also, common decency on both the side of the surfer and the host. It is about being empathetic towards each others needs. In my experience, this isn't usually a problem. But to wrap this all up, CS is a unique and special experience and I highly recommend it. You will definetly have lots of positive experiences!

I’ve had unforgettable experiences and made great friends through Couchsurfing. Though the community culture has definitely changed over the past few years and a lot of people use it for ‘ulterior motives’ now (since the community expanded). I prefer to camp now when possible. It’s also a shame that it became a for-profit, it was a great to have something that was from people and for people and no money involved. When money is involved the attitudes are different. I still recommend Couchsurfing as one of the best ways to travel and truly experience the places you visit and exchange knowledge and experience with local communities. I have grown so much as a person thanks to couchsurfing and more so thanks to the wonderful people out there, I learned to live and share with others beyond cultural differences.

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

It is a cool platform, i use it from time to time and it helps a lot to save your money, if you looking for a host or to meet new people if you just looking for a company to spend free time in a new city.

Salut, je viens d'ouvrir le site et je me dis naivement je vais vérifier mon compte avec ma carte bleue, marqué en grisé 52€ pour vérifier votre compte à vie, je me dis c'est une option, que neni, le site couche surfing débite directement sans coup fait rire 52€, ni autorisation de prélévement. Je confirme donc une pratique de scam frauduleuse. Je leur ai demandé le remboursement, la confiance ne s'achète pas, ça se saurait.