What you should do if someone is trying to surf on your couch!
About a year ago Thom first broached with me the idea of having travellers from around the world to come and stay with us. My initial reaction was at best described as cautious and at worst described as reactionary. I was, I thought naturally, concerned for our safety.
The term applied to this phenomenon of inviting strangers to stay is The Couch Surfing Project, which is the largest hospitality exchange network in the world with more than 1.6 million members in 234 countries. A year later, here I am telling you why I think couch surfing is a must for travellers past, present or future!
We’ve host three times, our first were a lovely French Canadian couple who stayed with us for three nights. It was absolutely amazing to be able to present London to people who had never seen it before and to compare and contrast the centre with our little bit of the edge. We’re still in touch with our first couch surfers and if we were heading to Quebec on our trip we’d definitely be stopping by to say ‘bonjour’.
Our second experience was fantastic – Mary Beth and Andy, a young newly married couple, from Texas stayed with us for not long enough and we thoroughly enjoyed their stay with us. Andy got to play Texas Hold ‘Em poker – for the first time – in London (it is of course illegal in the US). We’re making a special detour to stay with Mary Beth and Andy during our own trip through the States and they’re blog features in our travel buddies section to the right.
Our most recent couch surfer was Jason from Perth, Australia. This was great and Jason was only with us a few days and Thom was able to go out and introduce Jason to his newly found love – Camden Market.
My only regret is that we haven’t been able to fit in more surfers and that we only discovered it a year ago. To ‘pay it forward’ hopefully this post will help to grow the couch surfing community.
Starting up
It’s free to register at Couch Surfing and you can provide as much detail about your self as you like, if you’re looking to host others you can also provide information about your ‘couch’, for some this may only be a bit of floor space, for others like Thom and I it’s a spare double bed! Once you’ve created your profile you’re free to search for hosts in a place that you’re visiting or you can wait for surfers to find you if you’re looking to host others; you can search by a variety of parameters including gender, age and of course – location! The duration of the stay is subject to agreement between you and your guest/host and you are not expected to charge/pay your guests. The only exchange should be a cultural one.
If you can’t host but would like to act as a guide or just a friend whilst people are in town you can do that as well and indicate it on your profile. This can be particularly helpful for surfers looking for activities during their visit. For instance, Thom and I work during the day and mostly socialise with our surfers during the evenings so if there are couch surf tour guides or coffee buddies during the day then our surfers have that as an extra opportunity to see what London has to offer.
Safety
If you’re looking to host or to surf this is going to be at the top of your list of questions. There are three methods of verification, the first is simple feedback that is displayed on other member’s profile pages, from here you can see how others behave towards their guests/hosts. The second method is via credit card payment, this is linked to the billing address which must be the same as the home location of the surfer/address of the host, this small payment (c£20 in the UK) helps to cover the costs of the non-profit organisation that runs the Couch Surfing Project. Finally, and I think most cool, is vouching for one another, in a chain of almost Biblical progeny as a vouch from any member can be directly traced back to the founders of the movement, how cool is that!
Thom and I have only hosted so far and are really looking forward to surfing, primarily in the USA, during our trip and we have had no concerns with anyone who has stayed with us, or even anybody who has asked if we can host them. Once you get past your initial reactionary moment (as I did) you realise that, actually, the world is quite safe and dull and most people aren’t looking to murder each other or cause harm. Unfortunately things can sometimes go wrong and you have to make sure that you take whatever safety steps that you can. If you’re travelling alone then you’re going to have different concerns than couple/group travellers. Thom and I have discovered that as gay men we receive A LOT of attention from young 20-something European girls looking for a safe place from which to party, this bring me on to….
Expectations
If you’re surfing and looking for hosts, please read the profiels! Hosts spend a lot of time trying to convey their personalities in the profiles so that you can find a perfect match for your travel in the place that you’re visiting. For Thom and I there is nothing more frustrating than someone who has asked to surf with us when it’s clear that they wouldn’t appreciate the experience that we would offer. As a (potential) host, make sure that your description is clear about what your surfers can expect of you and their stay with you. This helps everyone and will mean lots of successful couch surfing experiences.
It was really odd when we started out as hosts because of course we had no idea what it was going to be like to host travellers from another country. If you do have expectations we’ve found it best to make these clear from the outset and we’ve made our profile as detailed as possible. For reasons of safety we state on our profile that we’re only willing to host potential surfers are either vouched for or have confirmed their home address with a credit card. This gives us the basic assurance that we need that you’re not abusing the Couch Surfing Project and that you intend to give something back in future. Secondly we make it really clear what our availability is during the stay, this is important because your surfers will want to know how much of your time is available to them – some might want none, some might want tour guides. During the week Thom and I work so there’s not much tour guiding that we can do but in the evenings we try and take our surfers out to see some local sights of interest. On the weekend if our surfers need a guide then we’re happy to help out and join our new found friends!
Etiquette
The mission statement of the Couch Surfing Project is to “Particpate in Creating a Better World, One Couch at a Time.” The ethos of couch surfing is to introduce, educate, and share experiences with people from across the world. The Project also seeks to foster increased tolerance and cultural understanding. The mission goes on to say that it’s not about finding free accomodation, it’s about meeting people and making connections. For Thom and I this is absolutely true of our intention for our trip, we’re travelling through a LOT of the USA and we want to meet *real* Americans who can challenge our assumptions, make us laugh and absolutely crucially – show us what it’s like to live in the place we’re visiting and to tell us about their experience of it.
As hosts, that’s what we get out of it as well, sharing our little view of London with others so that they can go back with real experience of real London, beyond the West End and the traffic and the other tourists that mill about in the usual spots.
As a host you shouldn’t expect anything of your surfing guests other than their polite company. As a surfer you should be looking to demonstrate how much you appreciate the hospitality of your hosts; we’ve been very lucky to receive gifts of music, shot glasses and other fun items to celebrate a shared trip. When we go we’re coming armed with lots of treats not limited to recipes and maybe a bit of craft! The exchange should be culutral and from the heart.
If both host and surfer abide by the Golden Rule of treat others as you’d expect to be treated you’ll have a great time!
Feedback
This is an important aspect of the Couch Surfing Project as it helps everyone to build their own network of couch surfers and you can follow a trail of couch surfers across the world in this manner. It’s also really helpful for others who would like to know how your host enjoyed your visit with them or alternatively how much a surfer enjoyed your hosting skills.
Don’t just take my word for it
I asked tweeters about their experiences and Abbey had this to say when I asked for others’ experience:
“CS is amazing! One of the best resources for long-term travelers. Tips? SIGN UP!”
I followed up with Abbey, who is currently on her own world trip and she had this to add about her experience.
copyright @ahesser
“My CS testimonial begins with a crazy Aussie girl who showed me the site while we were in Italy. I thought she was absolutely nuts, but I was really curious. We Couchsurfed with a guy in Milan mostly to break me in and he didn’t murder either of us, so I was grateful. I realized that staying with regular people (who you get to pre-screen beforehand) is actually a bit nicer than staying in a dorm room with 14 unknowns. However, as this occurred at the end of my backpacking trip, I wasn’t able to do much more surfing, but I knew I wanted to get involved in the community.
“Soon after returning from my first CS experience, I moved to a new city (Los Angeles) and instantly saw the benefit in getting involved with hosting and with the local CS community. As I knew no one in the city, and worked from home, I had no real friends or coworkers with which to socialize with. I started hosting as a way to meet locals. Meaning, that I would host Couchsurfers and then “use” them to a certain extent to accompany me to local bars where I could meet people who actually lived in the area. I would have a couple of surfers, we would go to a local pub for a bite and some pints and next thing you know, I’d met a group of cool guys with whom to watch Monday Night Football with. Hosting allowed me to go out in my new city without feeling like a lonely loser by herself at a bar.
“In addition to hosting, when I moved to LA I immediately got involved with the LA CS community by joining the LA County and Santa Monica City groups and volunteering to bring food for various pot-luck events in the area. I made numerous friends who were local ambassadors and heavily involved in the community which increased my CS street cred (via more references and vouches) and also helped me to get to know my city better. Driving surfers around on day tours let me realize the best and worst places to visit in the city and I got to see all the touristy things without feeling (again) like a lonely newbie in the big city.
“Now as I’m transitioning from CS host to surfer, I’m finding that people are generally more open to host because I have so many positive references. I’ve built up a trust in the community and it’s paying off big time now as my accommodation expenses have taken a serious dive since my last trip.
“The best advice I have for someone wanting to get involved in Couchsurfing is to fill out a complete profile, get step-3 verification and start interacting with the local community. If you’re not new to an area, you likely have some like-minded friends who will attend events with you and if not, Couchsurfers are not exactly a shy group of people and it will not take long before someone strikes up a conversation with you.
“In addition to meeting some of my best friends on Couchsurfing, I’ve also met my travel soul mate, which is something I will be forever grateful to the CS gods for. I’ve spent 100s of hours with new like-minded travelers. I’ve gained friends on every continent in dozens of countries. I’ve easily adjusted to life in a new city. And I look at life a bit differently now. Knowing that a community like Couchsurfing exists just makes you believe that there are still a lot of really good people out there.”
I want more…!
You can find out more about this at the Couch Surfing Project and if you’d like to stay with Thom and I before we leave London in June 2010 please take a look at our couch surfing profile.
If you’ve surfed/hosted it would be great to get your feedback on the experience as well.
Now, go sign up and share the love!
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Great post guys I can’t wait to couchsurf my way through Europe.
Cheers Chris – you’re going to have a great time!
Great post – answered a ton of questions that have been in my mind, so it’s nice to hear it first hand. I had also assumed that I was a bit beyond the demo for couchsurfing, but I’ll check it out and give it a bit more consideration.
Love the post! I’m getting ready for my first couch surfing experience in Malaysia and Singapore in a week! I’m nervous but excited! Its going to be a great way to travel because I won’t feel so alone all the time!!
I am really excited about couchsurfing as I really want to understand the local way of life and you can’t always do that in a hostel.
I do have one question though, how far in advance would you get the requests? My RTW isn’t pre-planned to the day and I’m not sure if I can simply ask people a few days in advance. I’d love thoughts from both people were guests and hosts.
Love all this information. I used to do stuff with the couchsurfing community in London all the time!Still I haven’t actually put it to the test and couchsurfed yet. Hopefully this will be a big and enriching part of my RTW soon!
Couchsurfing is great! We first did it via another site globalfreeloaders, as the couchsurfing.org site was really really bad in the past. But now they rule.
We just made great experiences with it, both ways. Staying somewhere else, but also people staying with us.
I only just signed up for CS but can’t wait to host & be hosted.
PS: Camden Market is awesome.
I completely agree- couchsurfing is great. We have been hosts twice and met some really interesting, lovely people. We’ve been feeling quite sick of Manchester, but giving them tips on where to go made us see the positives that we once loved about the city.
We leave the UK on 1st March to become nomads and we really wanted to try ‘surfing’. We are a bit nervous but I have only heard great reports of it so I think it’ll be amazing once we take the plunge.
Wow!
Thank you to everyone for such a warm and positive response, not only to CS but also to the post
I’m also really pleased that this has helped people to get into it who weren’t sure before.
Aygenlina, as hosts we prefer at least two weeks’ notice really and as surfers we dipped our toe in early to see what it was like and we were pleasantly overwhelmed with positive responses (for requests about six months in advance). I think the optimum would be min 2 weeks and maximum 3 months. If you’re visiting somewhere obscure probably different timescales!
Alessandra – you’ll LOVE it!
Happy surfing!
Wow! What incredible insight from that Abbey chick… she seriously knows her stuff!
For serious. Awesome post Sean. I’m so happy that so many more people are getting involved in couchsurfing. It’s SUCH a great community of people and travelers and I think it’s essential for anyone who’s planning on seriously traveling long-term as it’s such a money-saver.
@Ayngelina – I agree w/ Sean. It should be at least 2 weeks out, but most people would appreciate even more heads up than that. Often times, I would receive requests from people saying something like “Hey – we’ll be traveling in the area sometime in October and are wondering if we can put you on a short-list for hosts in the area” You can then add certain users as “contacts” so you can keep a note as to who replied back positively. I usually didn’t mind if plans changed, as long as you let me know as soon as you do. Obviously, the sooner you can nail down concrete dates the better.
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