r/couchsurfing

This space is to talk about who you hosted over the last month, who you stayed with, where you went, and what you did. Exchange advice and give recommendations!

Most of all: be civil. The rules against bigotry and vulgarity of any kind apply here.

Hey guys! Do you have problems with the app???

I'm a light skinned Egyptian female moving to Portugal but i'm couch surfing my way there due to several egyptian reasons...so would it be difficult to find people willing to host me? are people racist or rude to middle eastern black people or what...i know how to deal with people but will they accept my skin and ethnicity?

I’ve used CS only once a few years ago and like it. I liked that it has a lot of host even for smaller cities. Many have raved about CS to me

As I read post in this sub, I hear about other sites that I didn’t know existed. What are your thoughts? How do these compare to CS?

I made a wholesome Pay during the pandemic totaling around 70 bucks (correct me if my memories don't serve well)

Yesterday when I checked my transaction in my bank App I found they charged me 14.99 bucks on the credit card used for verification. Then I checked the setting and found it was subscribed then I cancelled it but the payment was not back.

I don't remember subscribed to anything on CS and chances they may have charged me the same amount last year without me having noticed it. This is very shady.

Hi!

I used CS before Covid (surfed 6 times and got 6 positive reviews). I wanted to check the app again, but right now I can't unless I pay. Since apparently everyone has to pay, I was wondering whether people still use it, just to understand how viable it would be to meet people in 2024.

I'd like to know specifically about Firenze/Florence and Madrid. How hard is it to find someone willing to host me in those 2 cities? I'm a 38M from Brazil, if that matters.

I was changing my account location from India to Canada and the website started to ask for payment before I login in my application again. Anyone help ?

Hi!

I used to be a regular CouchSurfer both as a host/Guest until 2020. I need to know from folks if people are still actively using it, considering that it's a walled garden with membership fees and stuff. I'm Located in Canada East Side (Toronto).

How many people do you normally ask, until someone let you couchsurf by their home? I wrote 6 People, but nobody replied at this loment. Pls Help!

I accidently bought a Verifikation for 56€, how can i get this cash back and for what die i pay?

I've been on CS since 2012 and I've been actively surfing and hosting since 2016. Met my fair share of cool folks and was proud of never having a bad encounter until my most recent guest.

I always heard about how some people treat hosts' places like hostels, and I can now safely say I know what that feels like. First of all, she looked nothing like her pictures, which is absolutely fine since I don't host people based on looks. That said, it felt a little suspicious/dishonest. I personally always try to add recent photos of myself because it's not fair for people to think they'll be meeting a version of me that's 5+ years younger.

Secondly, she showed up with another local Couchsurfer she met at the airport. Never thought to mention it on her way to my place and I was pretty surprised and wondered if he was expecting to be hosted/entertained as well. Thankfully, he was just there to make sure she made it safely. Thirdly, I really went above and beyond for this guest. Maybe not especially for her because it just so happened that I had old friends of mine coming over to visit from overseas at the same time but I certainly didn't need to do that. I'm talking 4-course meal, homemade bread, the works. My friend drove us to see the country's most prominent attraction. I paid for her breakfast and drinks. I freaking did her laundry while she was out visiting another city. I love cooking and my fridge is always well-stocked but she wasn't around much to use my stuff and when she was, she didn't take me up on my offer to share any food, leftovers, etc.

I wouldn't have minded any of that if hadn't been for the lukewarm reference she left me. It was a positive one but it just came off like an Airbnb review or something. She chose to focus on the location of my place which I had told her about in advance. She complained about it being far from city center meaning the capital. Well duh, lady! I live in a different city which is about 45 minutes away from the capital. She said using public transport to get to mine was a hassle. I had already explained to her that it'd be much easier and safer to use apps like Uber and the like. She never bothered to ask me about public transport directions to my place in the first place but relied on the advice of other Couchsurfers' she met on Hangouts.

She flat out lied about my place not having shops nearby. There's every type of shop you can imagine just a short walk away from my building (3-5 minutes). And she never even bothered to ask me. Not to mention, delivery services are practically free in my country and you can order almost anything on the phone or apps. She told prospective surfers to "stock up on food before coming to my place" making it seem like I live in the middle of nowhere which couldn't be further from the truth.

Here's the cherry on top: after she left, I found out that she'd spilled her baby-diarrhea-colored nail polish on the floor of the room she was sleeping in. Never occurred to her to mention it or even try to clean it. By that point, I had already left her a positive reference. It's just the sheer ungratefulness that bothers me.

Rant over.

How much costs a couch night in for example Bolognia ( italien city)? I'm new in couch serving and don't have the App at this Moment. Pls helpdesk me!

So I planned a trip to Verona a few months ago to see my long distance girlfriend, I booked the flights in advance but not the accommodation because I am supposed to stay in her house with her family.

And unfortunately we broke up, I don’t get to stay in her place but my flight is still valid, I don’t want to waste it. Plus booking a hotel for 2 weeks is just too much to afford. And I just thought of couch surfing.

I read quite a lot of articles regarding couch surfing in general and I came up with some idea.

I’ll stay in a total of 2 weeks in Verona, and i noticed that Verona isn’t that much of a popular tourist destination so there’s not much active hosts there.

So what I would do is I book a hostel for the first few days, and I’ll look for hosts a week in advance to travel there. That way at least I don’t have to worry about a place to sleep for the first few days.

What do you guys think of this idea ?

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EDIT: solution in the comments!

Hi. So I gave this strongly negative reference to someone on CS, while asking her to give one back, she gave a good one.

Few weeks later, a newly opened profile with just one line of text is created, with pictures I tracked down to some strangers girl Instagram. Profile gives me a made up reference how I sexually texted to her (none of that has a basis or even one line of chat on CS or anywhere, no couch request either. Profile name is made up, as are the allegations).

CS won't delete it at all. I reiterated multiple times. Can only hope German police helps, because I don't want to hire a lawyer over this.

A Chinese girl asked to host her on Mykonos! She took money of me 1000€ approx and the key of my house! What I can do? She also deactivate her account!

Hello, I am very new to Couch Surfing and I have only met a few people just to hangout so far.

Now that I am going to start treveling, I got 3 offers from people(all men) to host me. I am a woman. One of them has quite a good review, the other two has only like 2 references so I declined. And it's all for the entire year..? Which means if I accept the offer, I get to stay the entire year??? This cannot be how it works, right?

The thing is I myself don't have any references at all and only have 2 friends. Even though I met more than 2 people and I thought we had a good time, they didn't accept my friend request lol. I have a long profile, but that's it. So I don't think I would have a good chance if I submit requests.

Are these offers quite common and safe enough? Am I overthinking? What do you think?

I've had surfers delete their profiles for various reasons before, but wasn't aware doing so would also remove any references from my account (positive)... is there no way around this?

I reported this a couple days ago, but this guy keeps spamming new events with his likely fake profile:

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I live in central London and receive multiple couch requests every week, which I understand due to the high touristic demand and costs. However, most of the requests are very impersonal, consisting of copy-pasted texts. I often end up setting my hosting availability to 'unavailable' for a while because replying to these requests requires more effort than the requester put in, and I get overwhelmed by the amount of times I have to do this. I genuinely enjoy hosting, and I don't want genuine people to be discouraged by a very low response rate on my profile. Therefore, I continue to reply to requests that I don't find genuine, politely declining them. How do you go about such requests?

Hi guys, I'm just curious to know how many actual monthly active users of CS, not what CS claims?

Edit: It was my first question on Reddit and I never expected to get so many replies. Thankyou all.

I'm completely new to couchsurfing and have little idea how this operates. I'm looking to travel around the US all summer, but mostly Pacific Northwest and Colorado.

I have an apartment in New York City, but I'm thinking I'll sublet it for the summer, and use the rent to travel.

What I'm concerned about is how do I travel between towns and hamlets, how do I get to trailheads etc. if I won't be having a car - because there is no central place I can rent it from? Or should I rent it from say Seattle, and then roam around with it for a few weeks, and then return it back? Wouldn't that get very expensive? Or should I be only looking for hosts who would hike with me etc?

Additionally, how active is couchsurfing across remote parts of PNW/CO? Would there be nights I'd have nowhere to sleep?