How did you mainly use CS?

You can pick multiple options! :slight_smile: Let me know if there’s anything else I missed out/should add as an option.

  • Met local people individually
  • Joined local couchsurfing events
  • Met people while traveling (but didn’t surf)
  • Surfed while traveling
  • Hosted locally

0 voters

I mostly used CS for joining groups like language exchange. And for finding a couch prior to travelling. (never surfed while travelling, I can’t deal with that)

1 Like

Oh! I was thinking “surfed while traveling” meant staying with a host while overseas, be it arranged before you’re in the country, or an impromptu one. Should’ve been clearer about that, sorry!

1 Like

I used to live in the province, so not a lot of guests came by. I gladly hosted them when I was available, once or twice a year (and then many more previous hosts of mine who specifically came to visit me); but I surfed vastly more than I hosted, probably not quite a hundred different couches but close to. I had about 70 references on CS, but in some instances didn’t get one, and then there’s WS and Trustroots, too. In recent years I went on bike trips, sometimes staying for a few days in a place but often just rushing from one town to the next which of course massively inflated the number of places I went to. The message limit hit me hard because in weeks with lots of movements it meant I could only send one or two requests per town – without WS I would have been lost at that point.

How I started to host was funny … at the time I was living at my uncle’s place and had that stated in my profile as the reason why I couldn’t host. When I returned from my first major surfing trip, he though asked right away: “How does it work, this Couchsurfing? – could you host as well?”, with the greatest curiosity.

3 Likes

To be perfectly honet I used the site to meet like-minded people and to party with them. I hosted well before I surfed, and even hosted while I was sleeping on a couch myself - the thing is, partying all night one never truly knows where they will sleep, if they will!

I had nothing but great experiences and 60+ positive reviews, it wasnt until a good few years later that I discovered there was a larger community in action - different cities EU Gatherings driven by a core of die-hard CSers

I love to host

3 Likes

I mostly used couchsurfing by either meeting people on hangouts, or a couple of times I messaged people in a certain town I was going to be visiting to ask if they wanted to meet up/show me around. I made several really amazing friends this way!!!

I never had the guts to do the actual couchsurfing and stay at a strangers house as I just didn’t feel safe enough to stay the night with someone I’d never met and had no mutual connections with. I might have stayed with a female but never managed to find one who was available to host. Even with references I’d heard bad stories from friends staying with hosts even with good references. Although I did stay with one host with two of my friends through my friends account, and this went ok :slight_smile:

I did end up hosting and ended up being hosted by friends I’d made through hangouts/messaging though! And went to some fun events too :slight_smile:

3 Likes

Thank you for the votes so far! Bumping this thread to see if there’s any more activities I missed out on CS. These are the usage roles I’ve identified so far:

a) Hoster (male)
b) Hoster (female)

c) Surfer - organised trip planner
d) Surfer - impromptu trip i.e. don’t plan where to stay before going

e) Hangouts user - at home city
f) Hangouts user - as a traveller

g) Events & community organiser
h) Events attendee - at home city
i) Events attendee - as a traveller

j) Met people while traveling but didn’t surf i.e. used public trips, messaged hosts to meet etc.

k) Joined groups - like language exchange etc.

Please let me know if there’s other ways you used CS :slight_smile:

I would use it as a traveling event organiser, which looks very different to the one at home. Mostly organising one-day and multi-day things in or out of town, e.g. road trips or hiking trips.

This doesn’t surprise me at all :joy:

1 Like