How could it be dead? Contrary to airbnb couchsurfing is not a company, it's a concept. And it has no running costs. People will just pause and get back to it later on.
The Death of Couchsurfing?
161–170 of 321 posts
Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?
#162Man that's a bad way to do it, and it makes me really sad. Couchsurfing has been awesome but this is probably good for the community long-term since the motives of a large part of the users and CS where wildly misaligned after becoming a for-profit corp. With the nail in the coffin hopefully this will lead to a migration to some platform run by the community itself. Trustroots seems like the best existing option right now for future development.
Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?
#163So I imagine there's a lot of people here that don't know Couchsurfing or what the big deal is. Couchsurfing has been one of the most important things in my life, so I'll do my best to explain why it's so special. The basic idea is you stay at a stranger's place, or you host a stranger at yours - completely for free, no money involved. Everyone does it differently. Some people plan their trip meticulously months in a…
It's mostly a sex thing though, no? I can't imagine it isn't.
Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?
#164So I imagine there's a lot of people here that don't know Couchsurfing or what the big deal is. Couchsurfing has been one of the most important things in my life, so I'll do my best to explain why it's so special. The basic idea is you stay at a stranger's place, or you host a stranger at yours - completely for free, no money involved. Everyone does it differently. Some people plan their trip meticulously months in a…
It's mostly a sex thing though, no? I can't imagine it isn't.
Some people abuse it and try and get sex but it’s not the norm. It’s far easier to find sex on one of the many apps designed for that.
Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?
#165So I imagine there's a lot of people here that don't know Couchsurfing or what the big deal is. Couchsurfing has been one of the most important things in my life, so I'll do my best to explain why it's so special. The basic idea is you stay at a stranger's place, or you host a stranger at yours - completely for free, no money involved. Everyone does it differently. Some people plan their trip meticulously months in a…
It's mostly a sex thing though, no? I can't imagine it isn't.
Not at all, it's really about meeting people.
Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?
#166Couchsurfing, I love you, but y'all have a horrible business model.
Between 2017 & 2019, I hosted about Couchsurfers. I initially paid to verify my identity, and I paid a few dollars per quarter (I forget how much) to maintain my membership. Then I needed to change my credit card. There was literally no option to change my credit card. In order to change my credit card, I had to let me credit card expire. Wat.
In there recent email about running out of money, they were looking for people to spend $2.49 USD/month or $14.99 USD/year. I was like "hey, I can finally support them!" So I clicked on the link, and because I already have a verified membership, there was still no option to pay. I contacted support asking how I could pay, and instead of giving me a way to send them cash, they gave me ANOTHER FREE YEAR of verified membership. Wat.
Maybe start a Patreon? It'd be hard to screw that one up.
Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?
#167So sad to see this aggressive shift. I have made many good friends from Couchsurfing, and I was paying the annually fee both to support the site and to be "Verified by CouchSurfing". Even though on March they received my annually payment, today after reading this article I tried to login to CS after some months, only to find out I had to pay _again_ to even access my profile. I could not see my photos, references, me…
I just tried to search for my city on BeWelcome to check it out. When I search from the landing page, I get a CSRF token error. When I then try to search again from the search page, I get a 404 /search/map not found. It seems they still have some way to go..
Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?
#168Man that's a bad way to do it, and it makes me really sad. Couchsurfing has been awesome but this is probably good for the community long-term since the motives of a large part of the users and CS where wildly misaligned after becoming a for-profit corp. With the nail in the coffin hopefully this will lead to a migration to some platform run by the community itself. Trustroots seems like the best existing option righ…
Trustroots has a nice map-based interface, but lacks references and meetups. BeWelcome is my preferred option, and is open-source and has excellent financial transparency.
Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, this does happen, but it's very rare. Anecdotally the most common issue is non-violent sexual assault - e.g. guys hitting on girls. That's largely a risk for solo female travelers unfortunately. If you travel as a couple, for example, the risk is far less. On the other hand the vast majority of solo travelers, male and female, don't have any issues. There are some safety nets in place, like you can get verified…
Guys hitting on girls is sexual assault now?
It's about the power dynamic. You're talking about someone who isn't from the area, who doesn't know anyone nearby, and who is supposed to sleep at your place. If you are aggressively flirting with them, they may be forced into the impression that either they sleep with you or they sleep on the street. And that would definitely be assault
Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?
#170So I imagine there's a lot of people here that don't know Couchsurfing or what the big deal is. Couchsurfing has been one of the most important things in my life, so I'll do my best to explain why it's so special. The basic idea is you stay at a stranger's place, or you host a stranger at yours - completely for free, no money involved. Everyone does it differently. Some people plan their trip meticulously months in a…
Every woman I've met on couch surfing has been a victim of some kind of sexual harassment or violence due to someone they meet on couchsurfing. Basically they stay with a guy and he has expectations and is vocal if not forceful about it. Women would be surprised that I had a bed just for them, didn't expect them to sleep with me, didn't ask them for sex, etc. I hosted for two years living in Berlin.
That being said I also had some amazing experiences through couchsurfing.