5 ms·

i used couchsurfing myself, as a host and guest all over the world. one point the article didn't talk about - Airbnb. once people realized they can charge money

by sagivo 11y ago

i used couchsurfing myself, as a host and guest all over the world. one point the article didn't talk about - Airbnb. once people realized they can charge money for the empty room/couch they ditched couchserfing. i find it too bad because in a way we all hurt ourself by charging each other. there was something magical about the vision that says - host someone from other county for free and next time you'll visit there you have a free place too.

emerongi 11y ago
Couchsurfing is not that effective if 95% of the community is just looking for a free place and 5% actually hosts. You've got way too many parasites in the community. With Airbnb, that problem is solved - people who don't host have to pay and the people who do host can still reduce their costs significantly when they go for a trip themselves.
- 3stripe 11y ago
  I live in a rented apartment so I can't legally host on Airbnb - but I'd love to simultaneously room-swap with people in other cities when I travel... (Eg swap my place in London with someone in Berlin for a week or two)
  - beagle3 11y ago
    I don't think you can legally do that if you can't legally host in AirBnB. You may, but e.g. my lease (before I owned my apartment) specifically limited non-family[0] stays to no more than 1 week at a time, and no more than 4 weeks per year total. On one hand, it is non-trivially onerous. On the other hand, I really liked the apartment, and I understood the rationale. [0] the "family" was very broadly defined - e.g it explicitly included unmarried S/O and their family, and implicitly close friends. but it wouldn't have included "someone I never met and who found me on couchsurfing.org".
  - carrotleads 11y ago
    I had seen a site that does this[1] but think they are more geared to bigger residences. May have small setups too.. [1] http://lovehomeswap.com http://lovehomeswap.com
  - drewmeyers24 11y ago
    http://www.horizonapp.co http://www.horizonapp.co may be able to help :) some group unlock codes: couchsurfing airbnbhosts
- gurkendoktor 11y ago
  I think the parasite problem is/was not that bad outside of tourist hotspots. In fact, one couple that hosted me in Eastern Russia is frustrated that there are not enough visitors anymore, probably both because of CouchSurfing's decline and the Ukraine crisis. I've hosted a dozen people or so in an obscure Asian city, and none of them were parasites either.
  - abricot 11y ago
    I think the key here is "outside of large business/cultural hubs". If you had hosted in NYC or Hamburg your story could be different altogether.
ShellfishMeme 11y ago
Together with my friends, we are living in a large apartment, so there's often one room empty or extra space for people to sleep. We used to frequently host couch surfers, but in the end we have made the most friends and had the best experience with airbnb priced to just cover the room rent. We found it to greatly reduce conflicts between guests and hosts, and actually get people more engaged in our small community. With couch surfing, I often had thoughts like "I pay for your room and you can't even put your dirty dishes away". Since we offered the room for free, we kind of expected some sort of autonomy from their side to help us out in the household or maybe cook some dinner for everyone if they stay longer than one night. They often expected that we would go explore the city with them and give them a lot of attention. On airbnb that problem somehow mostly vanished. If things with the guest aren't great, at least you get paid. Thus you also don't need such a strict screening process anymore. Due to this, there seems to be much more diversity regarding the types of people we get to meet. Many of them actually just want a quiet room to sleep in, and it's absolutely fine. Some people however really get involved and become good friends. Especially when they stay longer (which almost never happens on couch surfing), the fact that they pay rent just like everyone else seems to make some of them much more open to suggest improvements and be proactive. We've met a lot of diverse, interesting people through airbnb, some of which ended up staying for a long time, some coming back regularly. On couch surfing we've mostly met the traveling couple, group of friends coming here to party and young backpacker stereotypes. What killed couch surfing for me personally though, was that no matter how many people I've hosted, I could never find anyone who would host me when I was traveling somewhere. That really destroyed the magical vision for me.
- snogglethorpe 11y ago
  > Thus you also don't need such a strict screening process anymore Is that true? I'd think screening would be more for keeping out the nutters than anything else... and I suspect most people wouldn't want to host nutters even if they got paid.
  - ShellfishMeme 11y ago
    I meant something like "cultural fit" screening. If you pay, I don't care if you are a freelance developer, a young couple, whether you are introvert and stay in your room, or tell us your whole life story over dinner. If you pay for it and want to spend two weeks alone in your room and never talk to us, that's more or less fine. If you live in my apartment for free and you're not getting involved in at least some way, I'll be angry and disappointed. So that way, screening on CS needs to be much more thorough and the chance that you get disappointed is much higher.

by sagivo 11y ago

emerongi 11y ago

Couchsurfing is not that effective if 95% of the community is just looking for a free place and 5% actually hosts. You've got way too many parasites in the community. With Airbnb, that problem is solved - people who don't host have to pay and the people who do host can still reduce their costs significantly when they go for a trip themselves.

3stripe 11y ago
I live in a rented apartment so I can't legally host on Airbnb - but I'd love to simultaneously room-swap with people in other cities when I travel... (Eg swap my place in London with someone in Berlin for a week or two)
- beagle3 11y ago
  I don't think you can legally do that if you can't legally host in AirBnB. You may, but e.g. my lease (before I owned my apartment) specifically limited non-family[0] stays to no more than 1 week at a time, and no more than 4 weeks per year total. On one hand, it is non-trivially onerous. On the other hand, I really liked the apartment, and I understood the rationale. [0] the "family" was very broadly defined - e.g it explicitly included unmarried S/O and their family, and implicitly close friends. but it wouldn't have included "someone I never met and who found me on couchsurfing.org".
- carrotleads 11y ago
  I had seen a site that does this[1] but think they are more geared to bigger residences. May have small setups too.. [1] http://lovehomeswap.com http://lovehomeswap.com
- drewmeyers24 11y ago
  http://www.horizonapp.co http://www.horizonapp.co may be able to help :) some group unlock codes: couchsurfing airbnbhosts
gurkendoktor 11y ago
I think the parasite problem is/was not that bad outside of tourist hotspots. In fact, one couple that hosted me in Eastern Russia is frustrated that there are not enough visitors anymore, probably both because of CouchSurfing's decline and the Ukraine crisis. I've hosted a dozen people or so in an obscure Asian city, and none of them were parasites either.
- abricot 11y ago
  I think the key here is "outside of large business/cultural hubs". If you had hosted in NYC or Hamburg your story could be different altogether.

ShellfishMeme 11y ago

Together with my friends, we are living in a large apartment, so there's often one room empty or extra space for people to sleep. We used to frequently host couch surfers, but in the end we have made the most friends and had the best experience with airbnb priced to just cover the room rent. We found it to greatly reduce conflicts between guests and hosts, and actually get people more engaged in our small community. With couch surfing, I often had thoughts like "I pay for your room and you can't even put your dirty dishes away". Since we offered the room for free, we kind of expected some sort of autonomy from their side to help us out in the household or maybe cook some dinner for everyone if they stay longer than one night. They often expected that we would go explore the city with them and give them a lot of attention. On airbnb that problem somehow mostly vanished. If things with the guest aren't great, at least you get paid. Thus you also don't need such a strict screening process anymore. Due to this, there seems to be much more diversity regarding the types of people we get to meet. Many of them actually just want a quiet room to sleep in, and it's absolutely fine. Some people however really get involved and become good friends. Especially when they stay longer (which almost never happens on couch surfing), the fact that they pay rent just like everyone else seems to make some of them much more open to suggest improvements and be proactive. We've met a lot of diverse, interesting people through airbnb, some of which ended up staying for a long time, some coming back regularly. On couch surfing we've mostly met the traveling couple, group of friends coming here to party and young backpacker stereotypes. What killed couch surfing for me personally though, was that no matter how many people I've hosted, I could never find anyone who would host me when I was traveling somewhere. That really destroyed the magical vision for me.

snogglethorpe 11y ago
> Thus you also don't need such a strict screening process anymore Is that true? I'd think screening would be more for keeping out the nutters than anything else... and I suspect most people wouldn't want to host nutters even if they got paid.
- ShellfishMeme 11y ago
  I meant something like "cultural fit" screening. If you pay, I don't care if you are a freelance developer, a young couple, whether you are introvert and stay in your room, or tell us your whole life story over dinner. If you pay for it and want to spend two weeks alone in your room and never talk to us, that's more or less fine. If you live in my apartment for free and you're not getting involved in at least some way, I'll be angry and disappointed. So that way, screening on CS needs to be much more thorough and the chance that you get disappointed is much higher.