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I used to rely on my hostel to meet other travelers in a new place, but now I stay alone in airbnbs so I can work during the day. I’ve found this to be a lot m

I used to rely on my hostel to meet other travelers in a new place, but now I stay alone in airbnbs so I can work during the day. I’ve found this to be a lot more isolating so I’ve created a map where I can add my profile and explore if there are any other travelers nearby to meetup with - https://travelfriends.xyz https://travelfriends.xyz It’s pretty basic but would love some feedback if any of you would use it? My friends liked the idea and a few of them have added their profiles. I’ve also asked the local hostels to post it on their boards because I thought it could also be a nice way for shyer people to meet others in their hostel. What do you think?

ricksunny 5y ago
Good luck! I always miss the travel experiences of meeting temporary friends for a hike or urban exploration. Even for staying in very loose touch on facebook afterward it's not the same thing; There's something to be said for the ephemeral-yet-genuine quality of these kinds of serendipitously shared travel experiences.
Tepix 5y ago
Looks great, i hope it catches on!
- danieltait 5y ago
  Thanks!
hutzlibu 5y ago
I think it is nice and I hope it stays nice, but I would predict, that quality will drop a lot if it goes viral. I mean, there are pictures and contacts of real women in there. That approach works bad with certain parts of the internet. But this part is usually not leaving their basement and goes travelling, so I hope it catches on with the right people and stay nice at least for a while.
- h0l0cube 5y ago
  > that quality will drop a lot if it goes viral One thing I liked about Couchsurfing that I think could have potential is the concept of vouches. You can only vouch for someone once you've received enough vouches. That along with with references provided a good way to quickly gauge the character and trustworthiness of a person. To gain vouches and references you had to have invested in the community. Not perfect, but often good enough. Couchsurfing also had volunteer community safety ambassadors, but I think less people seem motivated to do that kind of thing these days. I think a lot of the oldschool Couchsurfing moved to BeWelcome and Trustroots
  - danieltait 5y ago
    Thanks I like these ideas
- toyg 5y ago
  > But this part is usually not leaving their basement Unless you find a way to validate that one really is travelling, that's a red herring. The issue is that I can see Female X is in London and I can pose as a traveller to catfish her (or worse). Which is annoying, because the idea is good. I guess this is why we can't have nice things.
  - imwillofficial 5y ago
    Why are catfishing targets only limited to women in your examples?
    - toyg 5y ago
      I really didn't, it was just an example, but it's a fact that, on this sort of platform, women tend to get prompted/harassed more.
yholio 5y ago
It's a nice MVP but be prepared for massive troubles if it ever gets traction. The trouble with such sites is getting a revenue stream fast enough to fund moderation before abuse kills the viable idea. But overall, if you can get network effects going, a real gem.
drorco 5y ago
Looks like a great tool for finding hiking partners if you're able to build a large enough network. I'd probably not use it because I'd feel too many things could go wrong with strangers who are not committed to me like a tour guide. I've also never gone through the stage of hiking abroad with strangers in your early 20s so, I'm thinking I'm probably far from your target audience. When my partner and I are traveling abroad, we love signing up to AirBnB experiences as it lets us to socialize with either great guides or other tourists, and not just be on our own all the time. The fact that we pay for it and each guide has reviews, gives us a peace of mind that the trip is almost guaranteed to be a success. @elbajo posted an interesting comment about harassers looking for hookups in couch surfing platforms. I guess this is something that could happen more often if there's no payment involved for participants (unlike AirBnB experiences which is paid). I'm curious to know if you have any ideas on how to prevent that if the system remains free?
pmontra 5y ago
It could be useful for the same person to register in many different places, to check if somebody is interested in visiting that part of the world together in future. Example, I'd like to cross the Simpson Desert by 4WD but unsurprisingly I can't find anybody willing to come with me (let's pretend the pandemic is over.) I don't live in Australia. Maybe a site like this one could let me find people from other parts of the world (or from Australia) willing to do the same journey. Times by other crazy ideas and maybe one of them could come true.
- danieltait 5y ago
  Interesting idea. There is a site callled https://www.joinmytrip.com/en/ https://www.joinmytrip.com/en/ for this purpose which I quite like. Check it out
netcan 5y ago
Nice start. Perhaps try to get it going for one or few places/activities. There's a chicken-eggness to an everywhere and everyone design. ádh mór
fersarr 5y ago
It feels really powerful that you can directly message some of the people via whatsapp/other apps! I hope it doesnt get exploited...
Emma_Goldman 5y ago
Great idea. I would offer two suggestions. One, two of the six people currently registered on the site live in the locations they cite - they aren't travellers at all. Seems like that would undermine the USP of the site and confuse travellers. Looking at Paul's picture, his use of the wink emoji, and the fact he's bragging about his job (inadvertently or not), make it look like he's using the site to meet women. That could be a big problem. Second and relatedly, you need to a way to stop abuse. Up-voting and moderation will be needed in some form. But also some basic safety guidelines, i.e., always meet in groups and in public places.
- rosndo 5y ago
  To be fair, the whole hookup thing hasn’t worked too badly for couchsurfing. Perhaps it’s just inevitable that people will use these sites to get laid?
  - hihihihi1234 5y ago
    Couchsurfing went from being widely used and respected by travellers everywhere to being almost completely dead and forgotten. How did anything work out well for that site?
    - yosito 5y ago
      Couchsurfing has tried to kill their app, but people still somehow use it.
    - nicbou 5y ago
      That's mostly couchsurfing's own doing though
  - yosito 5y ago
    People have been using social things to get laid since the beginning of humanity. Nothing wrong with that. But a site full of low quality thirsty profiles isn't going to appeal to a large group of people.
wombat-man 5y ago
I know this isn't really what you're asking but I know someone who will stay in an AirBnb and register at a hostel for a bunk too since it's pretty low added cost. Then he shows up to the group stuff but actually crashes elsewhere. As for the site, it feels a teeny bit like a dating site right now. Uh, I'd consider taking it a step further and let the travelers say they are "Looking for group" for a specific activity. For example maybe someone would like to go to an amusement park but they'd like to go with up to 3 others. Then other people can request to join the activity and write a short introduction. Good luck!
- jazzyjackson 5y ago
  Love the idea for one person to propose an activity in hopes someone will join them, actually would be just fine for platonic or romantic outcomes, but doesn't have to start with that expectation. If someone I would never ask on a date wants to go play chess in the park with me that's probably still going to be a fun afternoon. Also, I had a better-than-expected experience at the Bikini Hostel in Miami Beach. While there were decidedly fewer bikini clad women than depicted on their website, it was apparent that the patio was used as the neighborhood hangout. Table tennis, Picnic tables, and food being cooked on the grill every night, cigarettes and alcohol shared freely. It didn't matter if you were actually booked into the adjacent building. Many of the guys were construction workers from Argentina, once a guy mentioned he didn't get paid on time so he would sleep on the beach until he could afford a bed again, but there was a share of digital nomads too (god, can we get a different term?). Really walkable neighborhood too, nice spot. Wish they would fix up the kitchen tho.
  - wombat-man 5y ago
    Sounds cool, I've been thinking of heading somewhere sunny soon. Was thinking either Miami or Puerto Rico. I'll check it out.
    - jazzyjackson 5y ago
      The city of Miami itself was dull from the few miles I drove through it, searching for "Little Havana" or a decent waterfront. Miami Beach is much more of a vacation town, endless food and entertainment options, but it's expensive, I mean manhattan prices, really. Puerto Rico is probably just as beatiful and your dollar will go farther, it was actually my first choice but a little harder to drive to ;)
atak1 5y ago
Love it! Like Couchsurfing back in the 2010's where you offer to meet up. It all depends on the community. I'd love to meet more HackerNews folks in person, for example.
0xbadcafebee 5y ago
I'm a long time (10+yrs) Couchsurfing.org member and organizer, and tried out the alternatives (BeWelcome, etc). Here's what I've learned about organizing in these communities: 1. You need a strong community. It is absolutely essential that your membership is responsible for building a culture and reinforcing it. They need to set the standard for your site, and have the tools to keep it going. The community will create and organize events, get to know each other, police its members, form bonds, and welcome newcomers. This isn't easy, but not that hard either. The way it worked on Couchsurfing originally was forums and regular local get-togethers. Nothing fancy, just a regular old forum. But the functionality of the forum is necessary for the members to maintain the community. Having general discussions, pinning topics, 'leaders' of a particular regional community, sorting, advanced search, sub-forum hierarchy. Though unfortunately as with any forum, you'll also have to deal with spam. 2. If your website's features are shallow, so is your membership. Couchsurfing went downhill once their forums went away, but it plummeted into hook-up culture once they added a feature to "find someone near you right now". It just turned into 50 dudes globbing onto the only chick in the area and mini groups forming around someone who's attractive. The profiles and hosting also turned into dudes only hosting chicks and vice versa. The loss of the community destroyed the entire point of the site, which was to meet travelers. If that's what you want then just have the "connect people nearby" feature, and people will just try to meet the hottest, coolest people they can. There's a market for that, but it's not the same as "meeting other travelers". The lack of community engagement also means people won't stay on your site for long, and it's the long-term membership that makes your site a reliable tool to use. 3. Enable the travel aspect. Focus on the places, sights, food, music, culture, of each place. One of the most popular uses of Couchsurfing was just to ask locals "What's a good place to eat?" or "In what neighborhood should I stay?" 4. Use your website to shape the culture. Provide a guide and examples for writing profiles. Add flair for common things people like, like a bowl of ramen, pair of skis, hiking boots, chess board, guitar. Let people personalize their pages with custom CSS/HTML/images - it allows people to express their individuality, which is a part of how people choose who they want to hang with. Suggest local get-togethers (pot-lucks, grabbing beers and hanging in the city square, easy hiking trails, city day tours, etc). 5. Enable the users to add value. Allow them to add things like local attractions, events. This is another part of the core of your website ("finding local travelers") because people want to both know what to do locally, as well as find people to do it with. Make this super convenient and people will use it, and it will connect people. 6. Take safety reports and treat them seriously. If people meet through your site, there's the risk of abuse (trust me, it happens). If you're a man running this site, you probably do not understand how at-risk women are when meeting a stranger, and how important safety is at keeping women on the site (let's face it, people will only use your site if there is a healthy mix of gender and sexuality, just like the real world). Community policing takes a lot of this burden off of you, but you still need to take reports and seriously investigate them, and ban people who cause trouble. Harm of an individual harms the community, which harms your site. I'm sure this will be somewhat "controversial", but it's important if you want people to trust your site. All of that is a crap-ton of work. It may not be worth it for you to sink that much time and effort into your site. Without a community and the tools to develop it, I think your site may become a hook-up site like others before. Trust and community doesn't come easy, but when it works, it's beautiful. Good luck to you, dude!
dorianmariefr 5y ago
why not stay in hostels and work in coworking spaces?
yosito 5y ago
Nice project. As a nomad and app developer, I've thought of creating this many times myself, and have many friends who have tried to build something similar. I think the main problem you're going to run into is network effects and getting people to use it. As it stands, I can find out where more of my friends are with Facebook's Nearby friends feature, and I can find more new people to meet up with using Couchsurfing. Until you've got a significant network, I wouldn't find it worth my time to download yet another app where I have to manually update my information. Do you have a plan or strategy to overcome this challenge?
theklr 5y ago
love the idea, would love for other chat alternatives as well, telegram or signal fields would also be great. As well as mentioned possibly some iconography for the type of friendship you're looking for/ providing. As someone else mentioned, someone's cheekiness in their bio can be misinterpreted as coming on.
MueWi 5y ago
Hi,great idea. Did you already check out https://www.joinmytrip.com https://www.joinmytrip.com ? Is that similar to what you are building?

ricksunny 5y ago

Good luck! I always miss the travel experiences of meeting temporary friends for a hike or urban exploration. Even for staying in very loose touch on facebook afterward it's not the same thing; There's something to be said for the ephemeral-yet-genuine quality of these kinds of serendipitously shared travel experiences.

Tepix 5y ago

Looks great, i hope it catches on!

danieltait 5y ago
Thanks!

hutzlibu 5y ago

I think it is nice and I hope it stays nice, but I would predict, that quality will drop a lot if it goes viral. I mean, there are pictures and contacts of real women in there. That approach works bad with certain parts of the internet. But this part is usually not leaving their basement and goes travelling, so I hope it catches on with the right people and stay nice at least for a while.

h0l0cube 5y ago
> that quality will drop a lot if it goes viral One thing I liked about Couchsurfing that I think could have potential is the concept of vouches. You can only vouch for someone once you've received enough vouches. That along with with references provided a good way to quickly gauge the character and trustworthiness of a person. To gain vouches and references you had to have invested in the community. Not perfect, but often good enough. Couchsurfing also had volunteer community safety ambassadors, but I think less people seem motivated to do that kind of thing these days. I think a lot of the oldschool Couchsurfing moved to BeWelcome and Trustroots
- danieltait 5y ago
  Thanks I like these ideas
toyg 5y ago
> But this part is usually not leaving their basement Unless you find a way to validate that one really is travelling, that's a red herring. The issue is that I can see Female X is in London and I can pose as a traveller to catfish her (or worse). Which is annoying, because the idea is good. I guess this is why we can't have nice things.
- imwillofficial 5y ago
  Why are catfishing targets only limited to women in your examples?
  - toyg 5y ago
    I really didn't, it was just an example, but it's a fact that, on this sort of platform, women tend to get prompted/harassed more.

yholio 5y ago

It's a nice MVP but be prepared for massive troubles if it ever gets traction. The trouble with such sites is getting a revenue stream fast enough to fund moderation before abuse kills the viable idea. But overall, if you can get network effects going, a real gem.

drorco 5y ago

Looks like a great tool for finding hiking partners if you're able to build a large enough network. I'd probably not use it because I'd feel too many things could go wrong with strangers who are not committed to me like a tour guide. I've also never gone through the stage of hiking abroad with strangers in your early 20s so, I'm thinking I'm probably far from your target audience. When my partner and I are traveling abroad, we love signing up to AirBnB experiences as it lets us to socialize with either great guides or other tourists, and not just be on our own all the time. The fact that we pay for it and each guide has reviews, gives us a peace of mind that the trip is almost guaranteed to be a success. @elbajo posted an interesting comment about harassers looking for hookups in couch surfing platforms. I guess this is something that could happen more often if there's no payment involved for participants (unlike AirBnB experiences which is paid). I'm curious to know if you have any ideas on how to prevent that if the system remains free?

pmontra 5y ago

It could be useful for the same person to register in many different places, to check if somebody is interested in visiting that part of the world together in future. Example, I'd like to cross the Simpson Desert by 4WD but unsurprisingly I can't find anybody willing to come with me (let's pretend the pandemic is over.) I don't live in Australia. Maybe a site like this one could let me find people from other parts of the world (or from Australia) willing to do the same journey. Times by other crazy ideas and maybe one of them could come true.

danieltait 5y ago
Interesting idea. There is a site callled https://www.joinmytrip.com/en/ https://www.joinmytrip.com/en/ for this purpose which I quite like. Check it out

netcan 5y ago

Nice start. Perhaps try to get it going for one or few places/activities. There's a chicken-eggness to an everywhere and everyone design. ádh mór

fersarr 5y ago

It feels really powerful that you can directly message some of the people via whatsapp/other apps! I hope it doesnt get exploited...

Emma_Goldman 5y ago

Great idea. I would offer two suggestions. One, two of the six people currently registered on the site live in the locations they cite - they aren't travellers at all. Seems like that would undermine the USP of the site and confuse travellers. Looking at Paul's picture, his use of the wink emoji, and the fact he's bragging about his job (inadvertently or not), make it look like he's using the site to meet women. That could be a big problem. Second and relatedly, you need to a way to stop abuse. Up-voting and moderation will be needed in some form. But also some basic safety guidelines, i.e., always meet in groups and in public places.

rosndo 5y ago
To be fair, the whole hookup thing hasn’t worked too badly for couchsurfing. Perhaps it’s just inevitable that people will use these sites to get laid?
- hihihihi1234 5y ago
  Couchsurfing went from being widely used and respected by travellers everywhere to being almost completely dead and forgotten. How did anything work out well for that site?
  - yosito 5y ago
    Couchsurfing has tried to kill their app, but people still somehow use it.
  - nicbou 5y ago
    That's mostly couchsurfing's own doing though
- yosito 5y ago
  People have been using social things to get laid since the beginning of humanity. Nothing wrong with that. But a site full of low quality thirsty profiles isn't going to appeal to a large group of people.

wombat-man 5y ago

I know this isn't really what you're asking but I know someone who will stay in an AirBnb and register at a hostel for a bunk too since it's pretty low added cost. Then he shows up to the group stuff but actually crashes elsewhere. As for the site, it feels a teeny bit like a dating site right now. Uh, I'd consider taking it a step further and let the travelers say they are "Looking for group" for a specific activity. For example maybe someone would like to go to an amusement park but they'd like to go with up to 3 others. Then other people can request to join the activity and write a short introduction. Good luck!

jazzyjackson 5y ago
Love the idea for one person to propose an activity in hopes someone will join them, actually would be just fine for platonic or romantic outcomes, but doesn't have to start with that expectation. If someone I would never ask on a date wants to go play chess in the park with me that's probably still going to be a fun afternoon. Also, I had a better-than-expected experience at the Bikini Hostel in Miami Beach. While there were decidedly fewer bikini clad women than depicted on their website, it was apparent that the patio was used as the neighborhood hangout. Table tennis, Picnic tables, and food being cooked on the grill every night, cigarettes and alcohol shared freely. It didn't matter if you were actually booked into the adjacent building. Many of the guys were construction workers from Argentina, once a guy mentioned he didn't get paid on time so he would sleep on the beach until he could afford a bed again, but there was a share of digital nomads too (god, can we get a different term?). Really walkable neighborhood too, nice spot. Wish they would fix up the kitchen tho.
- wombat-man 5y ago
  Sounds cool, I've been thinking of heading somewhere sunny soon. Was thinking either Miami or Puerto Rico. I'll check it out.
  - jazzyjackson 5y ago
    The city of Miami itself was dull from the few miles I drove through it, searching for "Little Havana" or a decent waterfront. Miami Beach is much more of a vacation town, endless food and entertainment options, but it's expensive, I mean manhattan prices, really. Puerto Rico is probably just as beatiful and your dollar will go farther, it was actually my first choice but a little harder to drive to ;)

atak1 5y ago

Love it! Like Couchsurfing back in the 2010's where you offer to meet up. It all depends on the community. I'd love to meet more HackerNews folks in person, for example.

0xbadcafebee 5y ago

I'm a long time (10+yrs) Couchsurfing.org member and organizer, and tried out the alternatives (BeWelcome, etc). Here's what I've learned about organizing in these communities: 1. You need a strong community. It is absolutely essential that your membership is responsible for building a culture and reinforcing it. They need to set the standard for your site, and have the tools to keep it going. The community will create and organize events, get to know each other, police its members, form bonds, and welcome newcomers. This isn't easy, but not that hard either. The way it worked on Couchsurfing originally was forums and regular local get-togethers. Nothing fancy, just a regular old forum. But the functionality of the forum is necessary for the members to maintain the community. Having general discussions, pinning topics, 'leaders' of a particular regional community, sorting, advanced search, sub-forum hierarchy. Though unfortunately as with any forum, you'll also have to deal with spam. 2. If your website's features are shallow, so is your membership. Couchsurfing went downhill once their forums went away, but it plummeted into hook-up culture once they added a feature to "find someone near you right now". It just turned into 50 dudes globbing onto the only chick in the area and mini groups forming around someone who's attractive. The profiles and hosting also turned into dudes only hosting chicks and vice versa. The loss of the community destroyed the entire point of the site, which was to meet travelers. If that's what you want then just have the "connect people nearby" feature, and people will just try to meet the hottest, coolest people they can. There's a market for that, but it's not the same as "meeting other travelers". The lack of community engagement also means people won't stay on your site for long, and it's the long-term membership that makes your site a reliable tool to use. 3. Enable the travel aspect. Focus on the places, sights, food, music, culture, of each place. One of the most popular uses of Couchsurfing was just to ask locals "What's a good place to eat?" or "In what neighborhood should I stay?" 4. Use your website to shape the culture. Provide a guide and examples for writing profiles. Add flair for common things people like, like a bowl of ramen, pair of skis, hiking boots, chess board, guitar. Let people personalize their pages with custom CSS/HTML/images - it allows people to express their individuality, which is a part of how people choose who they want to hang with. Suggest local get-togethers (pot-lucks, grabbing beers and hanging in the city square, easy hiking trails, city day tours, etc). 5. Enable the users to add value. Allow them to add things like local attractions, events. This is another part of the core of your website ("finding local travelers") because people want to both know what to do locally, as well as find people to do it with. Make this super convenient and people will use it, and it will connect people. 6. Take safety reports and treat them seriously. If people meet through your site, there's the risk of abuse (trust me, it happens). If you're a man running this site, you probably do not understand how at-risk women are when meeting a stranger, and how important safety is at keeping women on the site (let's face it, people will only use your site if there is a healthy mix of gender and sexuality, just like the real world). Community policing takes a lot of this burden off of you, but you still need to take reports and seriously investigate them, and ban people who cause trouble. Harm of an individual harms the community, which harms your site. I'm sure this will be somewhat "controversial", but it's important if you want people to trust your site. All of that is a crap-ton of work. It may not be worth it for you to sink that much time and effort into your site. Without a community and the tools to develop it, I think your site may become a hook-up site like others before. Trust and community doesn't come easy, but when it works, it's beautiful. Good luck to you, dude!

dorianmariefr 5y ago

why not stay in hostels and work in coworking spaces?

yosito 5y ago

Nice project. As a nomad and app developer, I've thought of creating this many times myself, and have many friends who have tried to build something similar. I think the main problem you're going to run into is network effects and getting people to use it. As it stands, I can find out where more of my friends are with Facebook's Nearby friends feature, and I can find more new people to meet up with using Couchsurfing. Until you've got a significant network, I wouldn't find it worth my time to download yet another app where I have to manually update my information. Do you have a plan or strategy to overcome this challenge?

theklr 5y ago

love the idea, would love for other chat alternatives as well, telegram or signal fields would also be great. As well as mentioned possibly some iconography for the type of friendship you're looking for/ providing. As someone else mentioned, someone's cheekiness in their bio can be misinterpreted as coming on.

MueWi 5y ago

Hi,great idea. Did you already check out https://www.joinmytrip.com https://www.joinmytrip.com ? Is that similar to what you are building?