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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 comm
by 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 agoI 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 agoI 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 agoI 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 agohttp://www.horizonapp.co http://www.horizonapp.co may be able to help :) some group unlock codes: couchsurfing airbnbhosts
- gurkendoktor 11y agoI 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 agoI 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.