As most of us know there’s a pandemic going on and that has put a stop to many people travelling about by couchsurfing.
But as the vaccine rolls out there is a glimmer of hope that it will end.
Places like where I live in Western Australia, thanks partly to our isolation, is somewhere we can live a fairly normal lifestyle - albeit with social distancing still practised.
I’m just wondering if there are any hosts, anywhere in the world, providing accommodation to people who want to couchsurf.
I’ve had my hospex profiles set as accepting guests since summer of last year. We also live rather isolated and in fact I had almost no requests and only hosted a couple of times, both times over trustroots. I’ve seen more requests since the winter holidays, but can’t offer our home now as we already have family staying.
Generally I felt comfortable offering to host as we live on an island and to board the plane you need to provide a recent negative test result. On the other hand couch-surfers would typically stay a couple of days only with one host and then move on. In that regard it’s really a bad option and potential spread vector.
Now we also have strict regulations in place again in most parts of Spain. I believe it would even be considered a breach of law to stay anywhere else than the homes of family and close friends, or places listed in the official tourist registry.
I’m hosting! But I’m in New Zealand so there’s no tourism whatsoever. I have hosted two sets of guests since March 2020. I’m moving to Australia in a couple weeks time so I think I’ll try to host there, too. Just because life is somewhat normal in these parts
The last requests that I had were in March and April of last year. Since then it’s been basically dead.
Belgium: we are not allowed to invite even our own friends in our house …
After 1 month we managed to vaccinate 2% of the population, at this rate we have a very long way to go :+)
No hosting here in the U.K., my last request or rather offer and acceptance was a French guy in July for two nights. I’ve hosted 3 times since but each was a returning guest so friends. I don’t think there will any hosting here before summer, maybe July.
I haven’t had any request on TR or on BW. I do not have a profile on CS anymore. I would love to host but it is easier said than done. I do not think anyone would be in right mind to travel to India (it has 11 million official cases). I am again living with my mom currently so I will be careful who I host but I do not see any travelers on TR or BW. I guess people still use CS more for traveling in India.
Im pretty active on cs… Started hosting again in August 2020 and since than hosted 10 people. So like 2 a month. Just one through couchers.org, one through host a sister fb group, the rest cs. I have BW profile but never recieved request there.
I recieve like 3 request a week. I am located in small touristic city in heart of europe. Its not legal to host now and before… , i dont care (doing corona test weekly though). I offer emergency hosting and than i check with the requests, like are they long time travellers… I dont encourage or accept short time travelling for tourisms only.
Its best time for cs for me now i love it. I dont get spammed with request, eventhough im pretty shure Super host of my town now. I recieve really high quality request - and low quality in about 50%/50%. Low quality are from new members… Some paid cs (like i did ) bc it still has biggest userbase. Some (never had so many request from members with more than 50+ references than lately) having the paywall in front of them and want to stop than.
I also surfed lately - 3 requests and recieved 3 yes. Surfed through couchers as well before. So im still active, willing to share my experience but will be out if you judge ALL ppl travelling.
Hello,
I have been hosting steadily since August of last year.
Most of my experiences have been good. As of late, I have hosted travelers who needed a place to stay but were not grateful once they left. I take offense to that as they contacted others within my city but no one responded.
My concern hosting during Covid is that people are looking for a free place to stay instead of a bonding experience with the host.
How can you host, or request, through couchers.org?
Hi Fleur, couchers.org is still in the formation stage and people are busy behind the scenes putting everything in place for hopefully a release date later this year.
I got to know someone through the forum and we wrote messages.
But you can also find my profile in the alpha version
Yeah check out the alpha here and make an account: Couchers.org platform alpha
Keep in mind it’s quite old now, so the actual thing the developers are working on is more advanced in terms of features and design, and that’ll be released soon!