How much does verification cost on couchsurfing? CouchSurfing what is it and how to use it

Good day, dear readers! Today, my copywriter colleague (a big fan of part-time travel) and I decided to write our review about couchsurfing. Moreover, I don’t travel far anywhere yet and mostly go to the mountains near my hometown of Almaty. And, to be honest, I’m very happy about it.

But let's get back to couchsurfing. This social network has more than seven million active users from almost all countries of the world. Couchsurfing is a reflection of the modern world and its changes brought about by the advent of the Internet. People have been traveling since they began to walk on two legs. About how I already wrote.

Once upon a time, the journey took many years, and refuge became caves and grass under a luxurious tree. Now a warm overnight stay is just a few clicks away, and communication with the other side of the world is possible online. However, is everything so rosy?

The creators state that the main mission of Couchsurfing is to enhance cultural exchange between representatives of different countries. Mutual assistance and support of active travelers for each other erases boundaries and unites all people.

How it works

Registration in the online service is absolutely free. However, some additional features are only available for money. Each participant has their own account. In it, he can briefly talk about himself, his hobbies, preferences, knowledge of languages and post several photographs.

My wonderful girls from St. Petersburg, with whom I lived for 5 days

The main option is the ability to receive guests. The user can indicate in which city he is ready to shelter travelers, what is the desired gender, age and other parameters of the latter.

To find your entry in the right place, you need to use the search filter, which is quite functional and convenient. You can choose geographical parameters, wishes for a place to stay, and so on. Once the system shows you eligible users, you can send them a request. The “hosts” may agree or refuse to accept the “guest”.

Each user, regardless of his specialization (“host” or “guest”), has a reviews section in his profile. There, other participants can leave their opinion about the person or talk about their experience of working with him. I have used Couchsurfing many times during my travels and often heard about it from my friends. Now I’ll just tell you stories from my life, from which you will get a complete picture of this service.

I thought you were cool...

It is clear that the main participants in couchsurfing are volunteers and people with an active lifestyle. Their main goal is to exchange experiences and gain new impressions. Many times I met interesting people in different countries. Some showed me their collection of beer labels, some treated me to coconuts and beer, and some scared me with horror stories in the spirit of “you can stay with me, but know: I’m gay and I snore.”

But not all owners leave a good impression of themselves. Here you need to understand that most people, even though they are in volunteer positions, expect something from you.

So, one day in Poland.

I traveled partly by bus, partly by train to Germany through Belarus and Poland. Polish electric trains differ from domestic ones in comfort, but not in speed. In short, after twenty hours of endless driving in the May heat, I arrived in a small Polish town, where the shelter of a couchsurfer awaited me.

The “owner” turned out to be a forty-year-old man who worked for a transport company. Immediately after arriving, he fed me a good (even too good) dinner. After that I felt tired and I really wanted to sleep. For the sake of decency, he began to communicate with the owner. But after a long conversation about his ex-wife, I hinted that I wouldn't mind getting some sleep.

The Pole took this as a signal to action and invited him to take a walk around the city. Then I was asked to play the PlayStation. In general, after listing all the possible entertainment, I said that we can chat in the morning, but now I just want to sleep. The man got really angry and started shouting in English, mixed with Polish, that I was treated to his holiday food, was allowed into his house, which was seized from his wife, and I didn’t want to give anything in return. I spent that night at the hotel.

Security and insurance

A quarrel with a Pole is, of course, unpleasant. But this is far from the worst thing that has happened to users of the service. In the spring of 2009, a twenty-nine-year-old Chinese woman stayed with a Moroccan man using couchsurfing and was raped by him. Negative reviews about the service regarding gender harassment can be read quite often.

To minimize the chance of encountering “inhospitable” hosts, you can follow these tips:

Contact only verified users. There are three verification stages in total. If there is a mark about the completion of the latter, the user provided all his personal data to the service. This minimizes the chance of falling for scammers and other scoundrels.
Also read reviews. Even if there are negative ones among them, but there are just a lot of them, then this is already good. This way you will understand that the person at least writes it down accurately, and do not forget that guests are also different.
If you are a girl and traveling alone, then try to avoid men who have specified female gender in their preferences for guests.
Some quite normal people do not quite understand the purpose of the service and believe that it is something like a dating site. According to friends, Russia suffers from this problem.

Communication is the key to success

The main insurance is live communication with a person. After your request has been responded to, be sure to contact the owner.

Preferably through voice messengers. This way you can get to know the other user better and discuss all the details with him. Don't neglect the "interests" section. If you are looking for a listing in a large city like St. Petersburg, then try to first look for users with similar interests. This way you will have something to talk about and the owner himself will not be disappointed.

Of course, it is not always possible to establish good contact with couchsurfers. Very often the owners refuse, and even more often they simply do not answer. However, sometimes miracles happen and you get to fit in somewhere very close to the airport, as it happened to me, where we were sheltered by a local motorcycle racer and adventure lover, Noel.

Me and Noel in Negombo

Hospitable hosts and good internet to you!

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For a number of articles now, we have been convincing you, dear readers, that traveling to different countries can be done cheaply. We talked about ways, with and, now it’s the turn of couchsurfing - another way to reduce your travel budget.

What is couchsurfing?

Or couchsurfing? Or is it Couchsurfing? Not only is it a foreign word, but there are also so many varieties of its spelling! Alas, we have not yet found an equivalent in our rich Russian language that accurately and succinctly reflects the essence of this phenomenon. Actually, this is an organization that has a worldwide distribution and exists as an online service.

Its function, very simply, can be reduced to the task of connecting people who are looking for a place to stay overnight, and inexpensively, in a variety of cities around the world with people who can provide this place. It covers more than 250 countries and more than 6 million users. It can be said that it is the largest online guest network.

The main mission of couchsurfing is to expand the perception of the world and different cultures, learn tolerance, find new friends, and see countries far and near. And do all this for the maximum possible number of people, so that they make their trips with minimal financial costs.

Couchsurfer terminology: host- a person with whom you can find shelter, surfer- someone who is looking for shelter.

In practice, everything is done as follows: you study the options, choose, go to your favorite country, they meet you there and settle you. Moreover, everything is free. The people who shelter the traveler will help the guest see the sights, have an interesting and informative time, and give valuable advice.

In gratitude, the guest can bring something as a gift from his country and bring a little joy to his host. And, of course, his help with the housework is very welcome during your stay. Having become a member of the community, a person himself must receive guests. As a rule, the majority of people in this society are young people and students, but there are also respectable wealthy people among them.

The project itself is very good, but there are a lot of subtle delicate moments in it.

What are its pros and cons?

Security issue. Couchsurfing presupposes the presence of a certain adventurous streak in the soul of a surfer, because he is invited to a foreign country by total strangers, the whole trip is based on trust in each other. What can I say? Of course, vigilance will not be superfluous. But from the reviews, the picture emerges that open, kind, sympathetic people are taking part in the project. There is only one unpleasant story in the history of couchsurfing, when a female surfer was raped in England. Yes, and you need to carefully read the host’s profile, find out more about him through correspondence through the site, and reviews about him.
Free. This is, of course, true, but expenses for travel, souvenirs and transportation within the country - all this adds up to a certain amount.
There are options when surfers do not spend the night with the host, but negotiate and actively use his services as a guide who knows his city perfectly and will show it in a way that no guide can.
Here everyone can get what they need: some language practice, some to replenish their cultural baggage, some just to see other people's cities, get new acquaintances.
Often the living conditions leave much to be desired, sometimes they are simply extremely spartan - even spending the night on the floor; many hosts do not leave their guests at home when they leave, and this may be due to a very early wake-up and a very late return of the host.

Remember, the main advantage of this type of travel is the many wonderful, like-minded people you can get to know. They may have different skin colors, they may speak different languages, they may have a different eye shape, but they profess kindness, hospitality and help. Traveling with them is great!

The second significant advantage is that you will always be in the company of people close to you in spirit. You can select couchsurfers by age, hobbies, language - whatever you like. You will always be interested in communicating.

website www.couchsurfing.org

There is a website for the unique couchsurfing project www.couchsurfing.org, there are several others that deserve attention. With their help, thrifty travelers can plan their itineraries and discover a world without borders, learn new facets of different cultures, and gain new experiences with new friends.

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We planned to write about couchsurfing a long time ago, because, firstly, at one time our travels were very closely connected with it (our profile contains more than 100 reviews from hosts and guests from all over the world), and secondly, we are constantly asked talk about what it is, how to use it, how safe it is, about various pitfalls, etc., so now – about everything in detail and in order.

Couchsurfing (www.couchsurfing.org) is the largest international community of travelers and travelers with a common goal of "sharing hospitality" around the world. The essence of this community can be conveyed by the phrase that is the motto of couchsurfing: " You have friends all over the world, you just haven't met them yet"

The concept of couchsurfing involves free assistance from community members to each other, which can be expressed in anything - providing housing and/or food

getting to know local culture, traditions and attractions, spending leisure time together or joining together for trips somewhere

or just relax in nature

Of course, couchsurfing is not a unique system; it has both direct analogues (hospitalityclub.org) and highly specialized ones, for example, for cyclists (warmshowers.org), for women (womenwelcomewomen.org.uk), etc., but they are all much smaller in scale. According to rough estimates, the number of participants in couchsurfing exceeds 6 million people.

Our experience in couchsurfing

Our first acquaintance with such guest networks took place in 2007. We first used the hospitalityclub.org network for a trip to Helsinki, and learned about couchsurfing a year later from a German who stayed with us.

We were so impressed by our first trip - free accommodation in the expensive Finnish capital, meeting and communicating with a living Finn, walking around non-tourist places that we became infected with this idea, and since then it’s difficult to remember at least one of our trips in which we would not have taken advantage of guest networks.

Over 6 years, we have met an incredible number of interesting people around the world, among our friends there are students and teachers, engineers and businessmen, artists, writers and performers, farmers and real estate agents, former military and civilian pilots; Orthodox and Catholics, Muslims and Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jews - in general, people from completely different segments of the population, different incomes, education and religion

For a long time we actively traveled around Europe. One of our very first and most memorable trips was a trip to Portugal. We dreamed of taking a ride along the ocean in a convertible, but the budget for the trip was limited and we had to choose - either hotels or a convertible :) We chose the second and in 12 days we drove the entire country from north to south, stopping every day with new couchsurfers, and Having gained, at the same time, an incredibly positive experience of communicating with the Portuguese.

When, after we first arrived in , we completely let couchsurfing out of our heads - Asia was so wild in our minds that we didn’t even think about the fact that it could also be developed here, but in the end it turned out that Eastern hospitality does not suit no comparison with European

A few days before the trip, we published an announcement in the appropriate group that we were coming to Delhi and would be glad to meet local couchsurfers. Literally a few hours later, we were simply inundated with offers to meet :)

As a result, on the very first day we met an international group consisting of both local residents and visitors

On the second, we were taken to sights and introduced to local cuisine, and on the third, we were invited to an Indian wedding, which, by Russian standards, was simply incredible in size - several thousand people were present.

Since then, in every country in Southeast Asia, we have been actively communicating with local residents and never cease to be amazed by their cordiality

In addition, we often gain interesting experiences that can only be gained by closely communicating with locals. We planted a tree in , participated in Bali and observed family rituals in

We went trekking in groups of 2 to 15 people

Ours was especially eventful - for 5 months we practically did not stay anywhere for more than 2-3 days, and many positive memories are associated with our Indian friends.

If all this time we had lived only in guesthouses and hotels, and had not met anyone, then the impression of the country would have been completely different

Moreover, one of the interesting features of Indian couchsurfing is that mostly wealthy people can afford it, and the people who earn good money in India are mainly entrepreneurs. That is why more than half of our Indian friends are businessmen of various levels, from the owner of a small retail outlet to the owner of an IT business that employs several hundred people

As an example, a few stories of our communication with couchsurfers in Asia:

What is couchsurfing for us?

Couchsurfing for us is, first of all, a cultural exchange. Arriving somewhere on a tour, or even on your own, but without communicating with the locals, it is impossible to understand how people live, what they are interested in, what they think about.

If for some reason you don’t want to stay in an unfamiliar house, then you can simply meet and chat with the locals - there will always be people who want to have lunch together, drink coffee (or something stronger)

And just show your hometown

Walking together is always more fun

Local residents, as a rule, know interesting non-tourist places, restaurants that serve something special or simply delicious food

But at the same time, a meeting is only 2-3-4 hours a day, and by staying at a couchsurfer’s house, you are immersed in the life of the locals for 24 hours, you have the opportunity to get to know them better, get to know their traditions and culture more closely - for example, learn how to cook national dish. We always try to pick up some interesting recipe, for example, recently, in Thailand there was an original chili sauce, and in – dal :)

And, of course, one cannot fail to mention such an important factor as savings. Many people have a negative attitude towards this, but, by and large, this is the basis of couchsurfing, which is why it has become so popular. In most Southeast Asian countries, where housing itself is quite inexpensive, this is less pronounced, but in (or countries such as Hong Kong and), couchsurfing helps to save a lot of money.

Moreover, there is a stereotype that in Asia everyone lives either under a palm tree or in a clay hut. As our experience shows, in Southeast Asia there are many rich people who live in large, modern, bright and comfortable houses

Or in not very modern, but tastefully furnished with antiques and antiques

At the same time, it is still worth maintaining a reasonable balance between the pursuit of free housing and cultural exchange. If you come to visit someone and lock yourself in a room, the owner is unlikely to be very happy about it. Although, of course, it also happens that the host only provides accommodation, but is busy himself, but more often, nevertheless, they will expect some kind of communication from you.

Sometimes, in hosts’ profiles you can even find warnings like: “ My home is not a free hotel. If you come to visit me, don't forget to pay attention to me".

Terms and definitions found on couchsurfing.org

For those who are hearing about couchsurfing for the first time, some of the terms used on the site may not be entirely clear. Here is a breakdown of frequently used words and expressions:

Couchsurfer– any community member. Sometimes in Russian you can hear the abbreviation “kauch”, but it is not entirely adequate. It’s kind of strange to call a person a sofa :)
Host- a person who receives guests. Literally translated into Russian as “master”, but in Russian this term is rarely used.
Surfer– Couchsurfer looking for accommodation.
Request (request, couch request)– a letter to a potential host, sent through a special form on the website, with a request for housing. The request can be accepted ( accept), rejected ( decline) or left in standby mode ( may be).
Review– an opinion about a community member left on his page by another member. The review can be positive, negative or neutral.
Profile– the main page of a community member, with a description of his hobbies, interests, features of housing, etc.
Friends- everything is clear with this, this is a list of your friends :) in order to add a person to this list, you need to indicate whether you know him personally, where you met and indicate the degree of trust in him. One of the features of this list is that it allows you to see how many people you know a particular couchsurfer through. For example, I know Vasya, and Vasya knows Petya, so when I go to Petya’s page I will see the chain I–>Vasya–>Petya. Mutual acquaintances are, in fact, another way of recommendations in couchsurfing.
Verification– the process of identifying the couchsurfer’s personality. For verification, you must provide passport data, actual residence address and pay a fee. Verification is an optional procedure, which, however, increases the chances of finding accommodation or guests, especially at the initial stage. If you are a verified user, a mark indicating this will be placed in the upper left corner of your profile.
Guarantee (vouch for) is a recommendation system, in addition to reviews, that allows you to assess a person’s reliability. You can only vouch for a person who is on your friends list and if you already have at least three vouchers from different people.
Ambassador– an experienced couchsurfing participant who actively supports the community in a certain city or region - he organizes events and meetings, helps newcomers get up to speed, and answers questions.

Pros of Couchsurfing

No need to look for accommodation locally. You arrive in a foreign city, knowing that they are already waiting for you there, and not an indifferent manager at a booked hotel, but positive people who are sincerely happy about your arrival.
In most cases, housing will be at least more comfortable than a typical hotel room due to the homely atmosphere. Sometimes we stayed in houses that could give a head start to many 4-star hotels (for example, in,).
Acquaintance with new interesting people.
Opportunity to learn about the country/city There’s a lot of stuff that you can’t find in any guidebook.
Practice English language (or any other).

Cons of Couchsurfing

Addiction. No matter how wonderful a couchsurfer may be, if you stay in their home, you give up some of your freedom. It is necessary to adapt to the schedule, traditions and habits of a stranger and take into account his interests. Sometimes, if the host works a lot and cannot leave the keys with you, you need to leave early in the morning and return with him late in the evening.
Finding a good couchsurfer takes time. Sometimes, if you are traveling to a large city, you will have to spend several hours searching.
No matter how many positive reviews the couchsurfer has, every meeting is almost always a “pig in a poke.” You are never 100% sure what kind of person and conditions await you.

Cautions

Of course, we do not idealize couchsurfing, and when talking about it, one cannot help but mention the negative experience. Despite the fact that we, as a rule, carefully study reviews and carefully approach the selection of a potential host, sometimes discrepancies occur.

Types of misunderstandings that can happen in couchsurfing:

Terrible accommodation. Despite the fact that, most often, the quality of the housing offered is quite high, there are exceptions. Everyone’s comfort level is different, and some couchsurfers sincerely believe that it makes absolutely no difference to all travelers where and in what conditions they sleep - they are ready to accept it in their small, dirty huts with a mattress on the floor. Most directly describe the conditions in their profile, but there are also those who believe that this is not necessary.
Inadequate people. Each person has his own view of this world and sometimes it happens that it is very different from the one we are used to :) We met a girl who threw a tantrum because we took a cup from the shelf without permission. There was a couchsurfer who walked around the house in only a towel, drinking cognac from a bottle and discussing philosophical topics. One day we lent a couchsurfer some money and said goodbye to them.
Demanding money for housing/food. This, rather, applies to very poor regions and occurs in specific situations. For example, in India, couchsurfers – hotel owners – periodically meet. Many of them are wonderful people, but there are also those who understand couchsurfing as a way to attract clients, so in such cases the issue of payment should be discussed in advance.
Harassment. This applies more to single girls traveling around India. For example, in Delhi, some couchsurfers use this system for dating. It must be said that we know couples (Indian + European) who met this way and are happy together, but if this is not part of your plans, you should be on your guard. The advice here is very simple - be reasonable, carefully study reviews and weed out all dubious options.

Despite the fact that these negative situations do occur, they happen extremely rarely, in our practice - no more than 10% of cases. Well, these are, after all, unpleasant moments, more psychologically; most of these situations are resolved quite easily. If you don’t like something, no one is stopping you from packing your things and moving to a hotel. We have never heard from anyone about any real crime in couchsurfing.

Search for couchsurfers

The search is carried out on the page " Find a Couch". You need to indicate the city you are going to, and also briefly describe your trip

Search results can be sorted by:

relevance ( relevance) – we still haven’t understood what this type of sorting is based on =),
from experience ( expirenece) – number of reviews,
by date of last visit to the site ( last login),
by profile newness ( newest or oldest profiles).

What to look for when choosing a host

Number of reviews. Reviews are, in fact, the basis of couchsurfing; it is through them, in addition to the profile, that the main impression of a person is built. A large number of reviews indicates a person’s rich couchsurfing experience, and it is not at all necessary that the more reviews, the better. In our experience, often newcomers without reviews turn out to be very interesting people, and people with a couple of hundred reviews host guests for no reason. for very obvious reasons, and are often already fed up with new people. If you are not in the mood to take risks, choose a person who has 10-30 reviews.

Age and gender. Choose for yourself which people you are interested in communicating with. Despite the fact that the age of our hosts varies from 18 to 75 years, we prefer to stay with people of the same age - as a rule, they have more common interests. Please note that the “gender” column may indicate “several people” - this means that this profile is common to several people (for example, a couple).
Number of persons, which the host can simultaneously accept. Most often, if the profile indicates 1 person, and you are traveling together, then it doesn’t make much sense to write to such a host, only in an emergency. Although there are exceptions, for example, we stayed with a couchsurfer, in a huge, spacious apartment.
Probability of response. This metric is based on the number of requests the host responds to. If this field is 10%, then you can, of course, send a request, but the likelihood of a response is very low.
Date of last visit to the site ( last login) . If the owner of the profile has not visited the site for several years, then it is unlikely that he is still an active participant.
Language. Despite the fact that the vast majority of community members speak English, there are sometimes exceptions, so if you intend to actively communicate, then you should pay attention to this option. If the languages you speak do not match with this couchsurfer, a warning will be displayed in the field " language barrier" (the language barrier).
Accommodations. The host's profile indicates whether the guest will need to share a room or sleeping area with the host or someone else (this happens). Conditions are also often described in more detail, such as “a pull-out sofa in the living room” or “a double bed in a separate air-conditioned room.”

Couch request form

In order to send a request to a couchsurfer, you must fill out a special form in which you must indicate:

arrival and departure dates
number of persons
general information about yourself (it can be the same for all requests)
directly contacting the couchsurfer

How to write a request in couchsurfing

In order to increase the likelihood of a positive response to your request, it is traditionally recommended to carefully study the profile, choose a like-minded person and write an individual request based on personal characteristics. This is indeed a good method and it works great in cases where you are looking for accommodation in some small, provincial city, in which several hosts are sitting and eagerly waiting for your request.

If you go to a big city like Paris, Rome, or where tens of thousands of couchsurfers live, and most of them receive dozens of requests a day, then you can spend several days searching, and in return receive nothing but refusals, that’s how people are at this time they are busy, going out of town or already accepting someone else.

Often on the pages of residents of megacities you can see the entry " Notsend me messages in copy past style, study my profile in detail and write an individual, personal message.". At the same time, the funny thing is that often in this person’s profile there is no individuality at all, so there’s not even anything to write about. In general, in our opinion, such phrases are written only by people who travel little and have no idea imagine what it is like to search for a couchsurfer in a major city.

In addition, as a rule, it is precisely such people who either simply do not consider it necessary to answer if they cannot accept, or answer with short replies, like “sorry, I can’t.”
Of course, impersonal messages are not very healthy. In such cases, we usually do the following: we send one message to everyone, first looking at the profile with one eye, but we observe two important conditions:

First of all, we always address you by name,
secondly, let’s tell you a little about ourselves,
thirdly, we honestly write in the letter that this is not a personal message, but a newsletter. As a rule, adequate people always have a normal attitude towards this.

For example, we initially sent about 50 personal messages (spending several hours on this) and received only 20 responses (refuses due to busyness). After that, within an hour we sent a couple of hundred of these “honest copy-pastes” and quite quickly found a couchsurfer ready to receive us.

Well, you shouldn’t “bombard” absolutely everyone, pay attention to the interests of the host. If you lead a healthy lifestyle and get up at 5 am, you are unlikely to be comfortable in the company of a partygoer who stumbles home drunk in the morning, although if this lifestyle is close to you, then it will be easy for you to find a common language :)

Please note that the request must be sent using the special "" button.

How much better is it to write a request in advance?

In most cases, the closer to the date you need to write, the more replies you will get that the host is already accepting someone on those days. On the other hand, if you write 3 months in advance, then most likely there will be many answers in the style of “I don’t know yet, write closer to the point.”

In general, as a rule, this period is directly proportional to the size of the city, but on average, it is best to write a month in advance to large cities and 1-2 weeks in advance to medium-sized ones - this is especially true in Europe. In Asia, in small cities, we successfully found people willing to accept us within 1-2 days, and there were cases when on the same day.

How many days can you stay with couchsurfing?

This question is individual for each person. Most couchsurfers are willing to host guests for 1-3 days. However, there are those who accept minimum for 3-5 days, explaining this by the fact that otherwise it is simply impossible to recognize a person, and why then is this even necessary? We also have friends who lived with a couchsurfer for several months, but this is rather an exception.

Do I need to pay for anything

Couchsurfing rules straight prohibit take money for housing. At the same time, it is considered good manners (although not obligatory) to thank the person who received you in some way - for example, treat him to a cafe, cook a national dish at home, help with cleaning the apartment, or give him a souvenir.

Couchsurfing with kids

If you are traveling with children, then the number of people willing to accept you is, of course, reduced. But at the same time, the likelihood that you will be accepted by couchsurfers with their children is much higher - as a rule, such people are interested in their children having the opportunity to communicate with their peers. At the same time, it is always worth considering the issue of comfort - how comfortable it will be for you to take care of your child while in someone else’s family. Well, in this case, it makes sense to be more attentive to the choice of conditions - is there hot water, a separate room or anything else that you may consider necessary.

In order to start receiving guests or looking for accommodation, you need to register, fill out your profile in as much detail as possible and add at least a few photos. Do not neglect this stage - the more detailed and interesting information you provide about yourself, your hobbies and outlook on life, the easier it will be to attract attention. Your profile is your face, and it is what people look at first.
One of the popular questions from beginners is: " Do I have to accept the person I was staying with?"

Not at all - neither him specifically, nor anyone else. There are no obligations of this kind in couchsurfing. You can only travel and not receive anyone. Or just accept it, but don’t go anywhere yourself. Or just meet other travelers on neutral territory. It all depends on your capabilities.

For example, in France, we stayed with a cheerful, 80-year-old grandfather, who himself is no longer able to travel anywhere, but happily receives guests; in Latvia, with a married couple who, while the children are growing up, suspended their travels. Thus, they feel involved in the whole world, and there are many such examples

But at the same time, sometimes there are hosts who do not accept those who only travel and do not host anyone themselves.

I want to receive guests

To host travelers, you can wait for someone to send you a request, or you can take matters into your own hands - often surfers leave an "open request" on the page of the city they are going to, and anyone can answer it couchsurfer, an invitation to your place or an offer to meet.

So, we were invited by a wonderful family in Bogor (on the island of Java) and an interesting couchsurfer, with a durian plantation next to their house - in Malaysia, on the island. Borneo.

Of course, especially at first, it is quite difficult for many people to let strangers into their home, much less leave them alone. Moreover, fear for one’s home and property lives firmly for some reason, precisely in the Russian mentality. Both in Europe and Asia, the vast majority of couchsurfers are ready to give duplicate keys and allow them to stay in the apartment/house in their absence.

There are a lot of laudatory reviews about couchsurfing on the Internet, but at the same time people are somehow embarrassed to write about its negative aspects or talk about unpleasant stories related to it. Therefore, beginners may have high expectations, or they may not be ready for some aspects that are usually kept silent. Someone needs to tell the truth, and let it be us :)

I want to write about our experience as a guest during trips to Southeast Asia and Latin America.

We warn you in advance that this article is not written with the idea that couchsurfing is bad or that there are good hosts and bad ones. The main idea is how to prepare mentally and what to take with you to make travel and cultural exchange as enjoyable as possible for you and your hosts.

Educational program: what is couchsurfing, couchsurfer, couchsurfer, host and other scary words

For those who don't know what it is couchsurfing(couchsurfing) is an international hospitality system. You register on the site, and then you can host guests or go to visit other participants, and it’s all free. It's a very positive thing and we've met a lot of great people through couchsurfing, but it shouldn't be idealized. Other countries have their own ideas about comfort and how to receive guests.

The one who invites is called host(host). Who is coming - guest(guest) or couchsurfer.

Couch(couch) is a shortened name for couchsurfing.

Request(request) is a request from a couchsurfer to a host with a request to accept a stay on such and such dates.

As long as they don’t distort the word couchsurfing:D This includes couchsurfing, couchsurfing, couchsurfing, couchserving, couchsurfing, crowdsurfing and even couchsurfing :) :) :)

Couchsurfing website and app

There is only one official couch surfing website - this couchsurfing.com. It is the same for the whole world, be it Ukraine, Russia, Spain, Germany, Italy, etc.

There are also Couchsurfing apps for Android and iPhone. It’s difficult to send requests through them, simply because of the small screen, but it’s just convenient to correspond with hosts or surfers there.

Finding a host on couchsurfing

Don't think that just because you've sent a couple of requests that everyone will immediately want to accept you. You need to send as many requests as possible, and it takes a lot of time, and it's boring, stupid copy-paste. In large tourist cities this could be 50 requests. In small towns there are few hosts, but there are also few chances.

We usually send to those who are more or less active (that is, have visited the site within the last week or month).

In addition to activity, it would be nice to watch reviews: Usually, negative and neutral reviews about hosts contain important information, and so do the responses to these negative and neutral reviews. For example, if a person has a hundred positive reviews, and one negative one about the fact that the person promised to accept someone and disappeared, and he replies that he did not have electricity and the Internet for three days, then this is ok. And if out of four reviews two are negative, about the fact that a person promised to shelter and disappeared, and there are either no responses to these reviews or the response is some kind of inadequate, then of course there is no point in writing to such people.

Another category that you shouldn’t waste time with are tour guides who expect that if they accommodate you, then you are obliged to buy a tour or trip from them for crazy money. Some are not shy about writing directly in their profile that please do not disturb, they only want those guests who are interested in their business! I knocked on such people in couchsurfing (Report a profile), because this site is not for such people, let them not litter it with their advertising profiles.

Also from reviews and host profile you can glean information about security: who the host lives with and in what area. Most often, couchsurfing is safe if you prepare well.

It is recommended to write everywhere personal requests, adapted to each person. But let’s be realistic: you simply don’t have enough time to carefully study all the profiles and write a separate request for each, especially if it’s not a three-day trip to one city every two months, but a big trip. There is a lot of work, but little output.

If someone is ready to accept you, that’s good, but often either simply no one answers, or there are refusals. In any case, you should have a backup option if no one responds or suddenly changes your mind, and this happens often. By backup option, I mean look for a hostel for a hotel on booking or on, or at least look on the map where the hotels for your budget are located.

If no one always wants to accept you, think about it: maybe it’s worth filling out your profile better, or writing requests more attractively, and sending them at a good time (3-7 days in advance), and not too early or too late.

Example of a bad request: “Hi, we are three tourists from Ukraine. Can we stay with you for a couple of weeks? We will be glad to see your city.”

Such requests go to the trash!

In the search for hosts there are also positive side: Many people really try to fill out their profile well. Some profiles look like works of art. Reading them is interesting and useful. Some hosts, when they send a refusal, simultaneously write useful information/life hacks about their city.

Couchsurfing Host's House - What to Expect

The host will most often offer you a sofa in the living room. Quite rarely it will be a separate room, and it may be in a house where every sneeze can be heard. A couple of times we slept on mats in sleeping bags on the dirty floor in the living room.

About a third of our hosts had an actual pigsty at home. Half were fine, and only a few were completely orderly and clean. So if you are a pathological neat person, then think about whether it’s worth using couchsurfing, or whether it’s better to go to a hotel.

Remember that the host does not owe you anything, he is spending his personal time to host you.

You owe it to him, so if you’re not happy with the cleanliness, and you don’t feel like paying for the hostel, then take it and clean it. I’m not advocating doing a spring cleaning and throwing out his long-dead great-grandmother’s old dresses, but washing the dishes or sweeping the floor is ok.

In Southeast Asia and South America, a bed with linens is generally a fantasy. At best, you will be offered a sheet, a pillow without a pillowcase and a blanket without anything. Or no blanket, but only a mattress and pillow, on which dozens of people have already slept before you. It’s just that some of them sleep like that themselves. Therefore, it is better to have with you (if there is a blanket), the sleeping bags themselves (if there are no blankets, and you are not in hot countries) and (if there is no bed, or if it is some kind of non-folding micro-sofa a meter long).

This simple equipment can be purchased inexpensively on the Chinese website Aliexpress, just order in advance - delivery takes from 2 weeks to 2 months.

One of our hosts once came home very drunk and was not thinking straight at all. Fortunately, he was not violent and went to bed. Another came home at six in the morning and then argued loudly with someone. In South America, especially in South America, many hosts smoked joint after joint, but were completely harmless and very friendly.

On the Internet they write about cases of harassment of girls, theft, etc., but we did not have any dangerous or conflict situations. Regarding harassment, there are many profiles on couchsurfing in which men directly write that they live in a “shared bed” and their preferred gender is “women”. Profiles need to be read so that there are no surprises. Especially if you are a girl who travels alone.

Most hosts quietly leave guests the keys to their apartment or house.

2018-05-09T15:17:30+00:00

Today we will talk about the usefulness of a service such as CouchSerfing (coachsurfing) or CS for short. Literally translated as “search for a sofa.” The site has been changing frequently lately, so I also have to update the information periodically.

In my articles on Malaysia, I already mentioned this service and talked about. Lately, many people have been asking me what it is, how to use it, and some difficulties arise when creating a profile on the site. Therefore, I decided to kill several birds with one stone :). Get ready for a long and, naturally, interesting lecture on how to create a page on the CS website and how to use it.

I won’t bog you down with theory, I’ll just tell you a little about what kind of system this is and what it’s needed for.

Couchsurfing is created for the purpose of providing each other with assistance and free overnight stays during travel (unless otherwise agreed). At the moment, there are more than 3 million people in this guest network from all over the world, with whom you can organize joint trips, simply communicate, or visit each other.

Anyone over 18 years of age can register on the site. That's where we'll start.

1. Registration.

We go to the couchserfing website and get to the main page.

We immediately see that the site is in English. This is understandable; what other language will the peoples of the world communicate in? Of course, I would like the whole world to know Russian, but let’s put that off for the future :). The registration button is on the right Join press.

There are two ways to register here:

After logging in, we are immediately taken to our profile page with a bunch of advertisements. Yes...there was no such disgrace in Couchsurfing before. What to do, we have little choice. Now check your mailbox that you specified during registration, find the corresponding letter there, follow the specified link and Hurray! Ready!

2. Setting up and filling out your profile.

Initially, your page may be in English; at the very bottom (scroll through) you can select the language in which it is more convenient for you to read the site. Previously, the Russian language was also present on this list (albeit a crooked one). Now he is missing, apparently he seemed too difficult for the administration.

It doesn’t matter, now all new browsers have the ability to translate pages from bourgeois: in the Google browser, just click on the “cubes” with letters in the address bar. And in the Yandex browser through the context menu, called by right-clicking on an empty space on the page.

Now we “go” upstairs again and find a circle with an empty avatar there. Click on the arrow next to it and select from the drop-down list My Profile to go to your profile. The page is roughly similar in appearance to any social networking page: photo (avatar), personal data, interests, hobbies, friends, etc. I think you can successfully fill out the information about yourself yourself. Again, let me remind you that it is better to do this in English if you are going to communicate and look for “couchsurfers” - foreigners.

To fill out information about yourself, just click on the blue button Edit My Profile.

Let's look at the available tabs:

Don't forget to click at the end of each tab Save(Save).

Photo (avatar)– when you click on the place where your main photo should be, you will be taken to the page for uploading photos not only of you personally ( Profile Photos), but also your home ( Photos of My Home), if you suddenly want to receive guests.

I strongly advise you to choose the main profile photo with you personally, and not with some cartoon or car, and a close-up of your face. This will greatly simplify the task of identifying you during a personal acquaintance or meeting.

Verification – Also on the avatar we see an offer to buy verification, by clicking on which we go to the purchase page. This is necessary for other users to trust you. It is strange that the amount is not indicated now. In fact, verification is completely optional (for example, I don’t use it; people already trust me). We'll talk about this below, but now we need to fill out the profile.

Field Hosting Availability(the opportunity to receive guests) is one of the important things for a couchsurfer. It is used as a kind of status by which other “surfers” will be guided. It will show whether you have the opportunity to receive guests and under what conditions, or maybe you don’t mind showing the city or just having a good time.

My Home tab– this tab is for detailed information about your home where you are going to receive guests. Here, too, it is better to describe in more detail all the “dos” and “nots” so that unpleasant situations do not arise. If I'm going to stay with someone, I always look at the information in this section first.

Account & Settings (account and notification settings) – if we click on the round avatar with an arrow again in the main menu, there is an item there Account & Settings. This page also has several tabs with settings, but now for the entire account. That is, you can add or change basic information about yourself (name, gender, address), as well as set up notifications for certain system events.

Deleting a page (account)– if there is a need to delete the page completely, this setting can be found in Account & Settings - Account. At the very bottom of the page there will be an inscription Deactivate My Account. When you click on it, a second question will pop up whether you really want to delete the page. Click Deactivate and you're done.

In fact, as you can understand from the information window, the page is not deleted at all, it is simply hidden from the CS system and can be restored in the future at your request.

3. Adding friends.

You’ve created a profile, outlined all your wishes and possibilities, but how can you find friends now? This is a really important question, because this is what I personally spent more than one hour on. Previously, Couchsurfing had a very complex scheme for adding friends: you had to write a review to each other and tell each other where and under what circumstances you met this person. On the one hand, it was a hassle, on the other hand, it reduced the risk of running into people with “fake” friends. One could be sure that, if not all, then most of the reviews and friends of a person were real.

Now the process of adding friends has been simplified. Just find the right person, open his profile and click on the button More by selecting the menu item Add Friend. Then just wait for confirmation of the addition. Everything is the same as in regular social networks. networks.

4. Search by name.

But how can I find this very friend or the one I need?

If your friend gave you a link to his profile, then no problem. We enter the link in the address bar and add him as a friend in the already known way. What if there is no link? You can try searching by name. There is a small search box at the top of your profile. Use the arrow to select a menu item Find Members(find users), and in the field next to it we enter keywords, for example, the beginning of the name and city of residence. The complexity of this method is that if the name is not simple (for example, Julia), then you need to clearly guess how exactly your friend wrote this name in Latin (Julia or Iuliya or maybe Guliya).

If you want to find people to stay with, this is the place Find Hosts (search for host). If you want to host someone at home, then this is the point Find Travelers (search for travelers).

5. Groups.

In CS, like in any other social network, you can view and add to various groups by interest (city, country). Let's imagine that I want to go to Bali (Indonesia) and really want to know more about the island and all the events that will be there in the near future.

In the same top menu, select the item Find Groups(find groups). Next, enter keywords, for example, the name of the city, and the search will return a list of groups with this name, if there is one. In the final list of groups, select the most active one (with the largest number of participants and discussions), go to the page and click Join Group.

6. Search for “sofa”.

I think it’s time to move on to the most important and responsible part - finding a “sofa” :). Let's say you plan to visit...hmm...for example, Turkey. You are already like a real “pro” in independent travel, and you roughly estimate what time and place (city) you will be in. Well, let's start the debriefing. There are 3 options for creating requests.

1 . Selective requests through a list of recipients. In the first option, we will need the top menu item Find Hosts (search for host), next to it in the search field we write Istanbul (Turkey). Here it is better to indicate the specific city you want to visit. We automatically find ourselves in a step-by-step travel planner.

We indicate the arrival dates ( Arrival) and date of departure from the city ( Departure).

If you are traveling with several people, be sure to indicate this in the filter and in the subsequent request, since not everyone can host even two.

You will be automatically redirected to a page with a list of all people who are ready to host 2 guests :). In the left column, you can set additional search parameters (language, presence of photos, verified, age, gender, etc.). And then choose who you liked the most and write him a personal message.

This option is of course more labor-intensive, but the chance of getting an answer from people suitable for you is higher;). Requests and announcements have been sent. All we have to do is wait for someone to respond. All responses will be sent to you in private messages.

2 . Create a public request through the travel planner. In the top picture, in front of the list of recipients, you see a blue button Create a Public Trip(create a public traveler request). You can click it here, or you can find exactly the same one on the main page. To do this, just click on the Couchsurfing logo in the upper left corner. Or through a round avatar with an arrow - menu item Dashboard.

On the main page we are interested in the block My Travel Plans(my travel plans). At the bottom of this block there are three links:

the already familiar Create a Public Trip;
My Public Trips (my published trips) - there you can later see all your published trips.
My Couch Requests (my host requests) - here you can see all your active requests for searching for a “sofa” or registration in your home.

Now we are interested in the first point. Click on the first link.

What we see is a dialog box in the form of a questionnaire, where you must enter information about the upcoming trip. Be sure to write in more detail about your plans (in English), how you might be interesting to people who want to host you or just meet you during your trip. Click Create(create).

Ready! Now your request will be visible to all Istanbul residents. All we have to do is wait for an answer. After the expiration date, the request will be deleted from the tab by itself. As you can see, you can create more than one request, the main thing is not to get confused later :)

3 . Message (request) in the corresponding group. We discussed how to search for a group above, write Istanbul and move on.

Don't forget to translate the brief description of the group to avoid awkward situations.

You've chosen the right group! We go in and find a wall with different themes or Discussions. To write a new ad, you need to join the group (later you can easily leave it). A button will appear New Topic(new topic). Click and fill in the fields with all the necessary information. In the text also indicate the dates and number of people.

This option is not very reliable, because in many groups moderators for some reason delete such requests for the reason: “There are public requests for this!” It’s stupid, of course, but it’s better to use several options for entry requests. Which is what I usually do.

7. Exchange of feedback.

After visiting hospitable foreigners and not only in CS, it is customary to exchange reviews. This is beneficial for both parties, as it builds the trust of subsequent guests of your home or hosts who want to host you. To leave a review for a hospitable host or an interesting traveler, you need to go to his page and click on the More button to find the menu item Write Reference(Write a review).

In the window that appears, fill out information about how and under what circumstances you met this person and a personal review.

A small limitation has appeared in CS: if you sent someone a request for a host, then after the expiration of the period specified in the request (the date of departure) there are only 2 weeks to exchange reviews for both parties, then your review will be counted as from a resident with a positive or a negative mark (asterisk). If you don't meet the deadline, the review will look like an ordinary comment.

CouchSurfing is our experience.

safety in Couchsurfing next time. If you have questions, suggestions, additions, you always know that I am very responsive to your comments;). Thank you for your attention.

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