I tried a little gedankenexperiment (I just googled that this German word is known in English but it translates to thought experiment) for myself since I thought, that when I was starting Couch Surfing in 2009 I was primarily looking for a free place to sleep because travelling as a student could not be affordable for a student like me (at least that’s what I thought of). It used to be that for the first few years, years in which I was surfing more than I was hosting (but to be honest because in my little boring German university town I wouldn’t get much requests even I was No 1 host at that time). Still, I never felt as a freeloader, because I was interested in my hosts, sharing stories, playing music for them. On some trips I brought my guitar to do something in exchange and I loved the encounters. Still my concealed first motivation was the cheap travel and meeting nice people a bonus. For me it is similar to hitch hiking in that regard. If some people might have felt that I was a free loader that’s the reason why I am predominantly hosting for the last years, to give back to the community.
The thought experiment would be like this: what if there would be decent free sleeping places to use in every city you like to travel to, but you would be on your own (or maybe in a non-local exchangable environment like the plethora of hostels that look, work and feel the same). If you had the choice between a free place at a friendly strangers house or in a cozy hotel: I guess I would still go for the stranger in 60-80% of the time.