Maybe you’ve crashed at a friend’s place for the weekend or have woken up, bleary-eyed, in some unknown person’s bed. The best travel memories always involve befriending locals who take your tourist ass to the neighborhood bar, drag you to the hottest club and end up offering you their couch for a night. At one time or another, we’ve all experienced the pleasures of couchsurfing.
A few brilliant people came up with a clever idea, “What if there was a site that would link up travelers in need of a place to sleep with locals who wanted to host?” Lo and behold, several sites were launched such as Hospitality Club, Warm Showers (for bicyclists) and the largest one, Couchsurfing. TD and I joined Couchsurfing last year because we wanted to open up our home to cool people, show them the real San Francisco and maybe even meet up with them somewhere down the line. It works pretty much the same way as a social networking site – you set up a profile, describe yourself and offer to host or request a couch to surf. There are also several levels of verification (making sure you live at your address, etc) and you can check people’s references to see if they’re legit.
Once TD and I set forth, we plan to do a bit of couchsurfing ourselves after lots of hosting. As such, here are our DO’s and DON’Ts of Couchsurfing:
- Put effort into your profile and personalize your couch requests. I can’t tell you how many times we get super generic messages that are obvious cut-and-paste jobs. Give more than details and try to mention stuff you have in common.
- Don’t use the word “crash”, mention that hotels are too expensive or say you’re on a limited budget. Huge red flag! It gives the appearance that you’re only using CS as a free accommodation service.
- Try to adapt to your host’s schedule. If they wake up early, don’t make noise late at night. If they work from home, you should be out exploring and out of the house all day. Perhaps they have free time to show you around but they could be busy that week with other priorities.
- Be neat and tidy. Try to keep all your stuff in a small area and clean up after yourself.
- Make sure you know and respect each host’s rules. Is using the kitchen ok? Can you store a a few toiletries in the bathroom? Is it cool to check your email on the computer? There were a few times where people used things without asking, which is never kosher.
- Express your appreciation! Someone has generously offered up their place for you to stay and you should offer something in exchange. Cook them dinner, wash the dishes, pay for their drinks at the bar or bring a small gift.
Friends have asked, “Isn’t it weird having complete strangers in your house? What if they steal from you or are scary people?” Well, you do need to have a bit of faith in people and try to get a sense of their character from their profile and references. We get loads of requests and don’t necessarily host everyone who asks. So far, we’ve had pretty good luck. Our CSers have been friendly, cool and interesting people from all over the world. Follow these tips and you are sure to have a fantastic and rewarding experience with your hosts. Happy surfing!
Now we need a “best-of, worst-of” list from your hosting experience!