Couchsurfing as accommodation

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

I have not used couchsurfing yet, due to two main reasons:

1) If I am travelling alone I usually have a certain plan on what to do in a city and am quite happy if I can get to bed when I want to...and if I was couchsurfing I feel I would have to spend some time with my host.
2) When I am travelling with a friend we usually stay at a friends place somwhere so we havent really had the need to look for a couch.

Anyway it is certainly an interesting offer if you happen to get a good host. I have heard different stories though of flats which were in a really bad condition where it wasnt fun to stay really. On the other hand there are hosts which show you round the city, take you to the local clubs and so on which is really nice I think. :)


Flo 8)

nltrainer
Traveller
1405 comments

1,of course CS wants you to make extensive work to arrange it all beforehand, it is NOT a granted right that you can stay at that wanted adress-and maybe the one offering it is also on holiday when you are! i happen to live pretty close to AMSterdam and I know of people who have an adress there they get too annoying many requests for a weekend in summer. AND you are supposed to offer the same in reverse.
It are normal living adresses-so that may mean not very convenient for trains or stations.
2.beside CS there are 4 or 5 similar other sites, which offer the same.
(sorry-have them not at hand now-google will probbaly also spew them out)
3.by now about any of the well known touristy cities have dozens+more of hoStels etc-also ofering pretty cheap places to sleep-and cook and have fun.
4.if you have a little more money or want something special: there are also private B+B places that only advertise/list online, like wimdu, ebab, airbnb. or something like ''living with a local''

vaeinaemoeinen
Traveller
5 comments

Hi,

I'm new to this railcc forum . But I'm a quite experienced couchsurfer based in Berlin.

My thoughts about it!?? Well it's just great!

Over the last two years I had about 50 guests surfing at my place, sometimes just for a night, sometimes for a week. And I never had trouble with any of my guests. Maybe the most negative experience I had, was that a person was just too boring and not very talkative.

As well, my surfing experiences were all great as well. I was, for example, interailing in France last summer, and I never had to pay a night in a hostel, because in every city i found a host.

But you have to be aware, that sometimes It's really just a couch in a hallway of a shared flat, that you get. But on the other hand sometimes you feel like in a 5Star hotel when surfing (in Finland I had a bedroom with a sauna right next to it, when I was surfing the first time :) )

As well, some hosts always want you to leave the house, when they do, but other hosts give you more freedom. I for instance, have a key that my surfers always get, and they can explore the city on their own...

So, if you're not looking for much comfort for the nights, and you like to meet new people. I'd definitely recommend CS.
If you are a Newbie, put as much information about you on your profile before sending requests. So that possible hosts can get an imagination of who you are. When you're searching for hosts, I'd recommend to order the list by the experience, maybe use the keywords to find people with same interests. And write personal request, don't copy&paste. And after surfing a couch, don't forget to leave a reference, you will get a reference as well normally. That helps you to find another couch next time (if it's positive of course :)

You should write a request about two weeks before you want to surf the couch, but that depends on the destination you go. In rural areas it might be good to ask earlier for a couch, but in citys a week before is good too. For the capital cities, sometimes you have to write more than 30 requests before you get invited, be aware of that. But every big city has an Emergency Request forum as well.

Happy couchsurfing! :)