4 ms·

Whats really missing from this article, and is alluded to quite frequently, is couchsurfing.com I skimmed the article, seems like a great pitch, but I didn't g

Whats really missing from this article, and is alluded to quite frequently, is couchsurfing.com I skimmed the article, seems like a great pitch, but I didn't get why I would want to use airbnb.com over couchsurfing. couchsurfing.com is pretty mature though not w2.0. It's got the verification system so you can have some peace of mind, and its free.

jdbeast00 17y ago
couchsurfing = free; airbnb = some money. some people wont want to host someone in their house without compensation.
- djb_hackernews 17y ago
  I get that. But from the perspective of a traveler, for any given well traveled city you are going to find an equivalent host with equivalent accommodations at both sites. I wonder if it would have been wiser to start Airbnb.com as the web 2.0 version of couchsurfing, and then go freemium. Something couchsurfing wouldn't do.
  - shiny 17y ago
    I agree. As a budget traveler, I'd love a service like AirBnB, but all of the listings are too pricey. If they targeted the frugal adventurers, I could see a community of such people developing around the site, and all travelers would use AirBnB, not just the richer ones. While this could be painful in the short-term, it would help them achieve the ubiquity that they seem to want.
  - mseebach 17y ago
    It's a different target demographic. In a trip to DC recently, we got a private room on AirBnB and saved roughly $25 pr. night ($75 vs. $100) over the hotel we'd otherwise have used, and we got a better experience for it. We didn't feel any obligation to hang out with the host, bring gifts or stay in touch, or to accommodate our host or anyone else at our home -- which made things a lot easier. I think it's more correct to think of AirBnB as cheap hotel, not premium couchsurfing.
bdr 17y ago
I love couchsurfing, and I've used it a lot as a traveler and a host. The biggest advantage I see for AirBNB is that it makes people's expectations more clear by making it a business transaction. With couchsurfing there's always awkwardness to negotiate about sharing the space, how much does each party expect the other one to hang out with them, and stuff like that. Generosity (CS) can come with all these implicit side-effects that paying for the service (ABNB) eliminates. The UI is also nicer.
salvadors 17y ago
Couchsurfing has a convention that if you're going to surf you should really host as well, unless there's a good reason why not. It's not enforced in any way, but there's definitely an expectation from many hosts that you will at least fill out a half-decent profile and try to build up some decent recommendations from people in your home town by attending a few social events or whatever. In other words, if you haven't hosted a few people, or otherwise gotten at least a couple of recommendation (and taken some time to flesh out your profile to make yourself seem at least a little interesting), a lot of hosts won't take you. CS is fantastic, but it's not simply about free accommodation: to get the most out of it you need to put in quite a bit of effort too (which is as it should be). Airbnb seems to be for people who don't really want to go that route.

jdbeast00 17y ago

couchsurfing = free; airbnb = some money. some people wont want to host someone in their house without compensation.

djb_hackernews 17y ago
I get that. But from the perspective of a traveler, for any given well traveled city you are going to find an equivalent host with equivalent accommodations at both sites. I wonder if it would have been wiser to start Airbnb.com as the web 2.0 version of couchsurfing, and then go freemium. Something couchsurfing wouldn't do.
- shiny 17y ago
  I agree. As a budget traveler, I'd love a service like AirBnB, but all of the listings are too pricey. If they targeted the frugal adventurers, I could see a community of such people developing around the site, and all travelers would use AirBnB, not just the richer ones. While this could be painful in the short-term, it would help them achieve the ubiquity that they seem to want.
- mseebach 17y ago
  It's a different target demographic. In a trip to DC recently, we got a private room on AirBnB and saved roughly $25 pr. night ($75 vs. $100) over the hotel we'd otherwise have used, and we got a better experience for it. We didn't feel any obligation to hang out with the host, bring gifts or stay in touch, or to accommodate our host or anyone else at our home -- which made things a lot easier. I think it's more correct to think of AirBnB as cheap hotel, not premium couchsurfing.

bdr 17y ago

I love couchsurfing, and I've used it a lot as a traveler and a host. The biggest advantage I see for AirBNB is that it makes people's expectations more clear by making it a business transaction. With couchsurfing there's always awkwardness to negotiate about sharing the space, how much does each party expect the other one to hang out with them, and stuff like that. Generosity (CS) can come with all these implicit side-effects that paying for the service (ABNB) eliminates. The UI is also nicer.

salvadors 17y ago

Couchsurfing has a convention that if you're going to surf you should really host as well, unless there's a good reason why not. It's not enforced in any way, but there's definitely an expectation from many hosts that you will at least fill out a half-decent profile and try to build up some decent recommendations from people in your home town by attending a few social events or whatever. In other words, if you haven't hosted a few people, or otherwise gotten at least a couple of recommendation (and taken some time to flesh out your profile to make yourself seem at least a little interesting), a lot of hosts won't take you. CS is fantastic, but it's not simply about free accommodation: to get the most out of it you need to put in quite a bit of effort too (which is as it should be). Airbnb seems to be for people who don't really want to go that route.