Voulez-vous couchsurf avec moi?

“You’ve got friends everywhere- you just haven’t met them yet”

That is the title of the couch-surfing application and it certainly gives you an idea about what couch-surfing is! Watch a funny video explaining…! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njKB0LTCQb4

Five couchsurfers from all around the world share their experience from the platform. Leti from Spain, Ornela from Italy, Renato from France, Brunel from Belgium and Tonia from Denmark navigate us through the platform, the pros and the cons and they give us some interesting tips. So…if you are interested in low-budget traveling and learn more about this collaborative consumption platform keep reading because you are in the right place!

Couch-surfing started as a NGO more than 10 years ago. Our couchsurfers are all old users. The newest one, Leti, started it 3 years ago. How can someone decide to go and live with a stranger though?

Well, what do you do if you are young and have no money but still you want to see the world? You enter the platform and you build your profile (read the article from Alex Antonof for more details on the use and find some handy tips here). The references are a crucial part of anyone’s profile. There, the previous guests and hosts can tell their experience. Truth to be said though, there are many places without options. Leti told us that, in this case, users just have to pick one and pray for the best! Luckily, these ten years of its functioning only one attempt of rape has been recorded. Furthermore, our users agreed that their experience was overall more than satisfying.

After the first contact through the platform most of the users arrange skype calls and become friends on facebook. Some of them communicate also through viber and whatsapp. This is how they try to stay on the “safe side of the road”. “I surely enter their facebook photos so I can check that the person I am going to meet is a match for me”, said Renato. Brunel explained that he prefers a daily contact via viber before he goes somewhere so he can understand the chemistry between him and the other person. The mail is a way of communication used at the beggining of couchsurfing but, as the couch-surfers told us, it is not commonly used nowadays.

PROS

According to the interviews the money saved and the friendships made are considerable advantages of couch-surfing. Plus, there are many interesting groups that are open for everyone. Tonia mentioned the mountain climbing group and Leti the english speaking one. In the groups, people can express their opinion share interested ideas and why not, meet others with the same interests even if they are far too specific.

CONS

“The application is very slow and it restarts often. They seriously need to work on the code”, said Ornela while, Leti mentioned “Some guys try to hit on you and that makes me mad. It is NOT a dating site!”. For Brunel the problem is the condition of some houses and the fact that the pictures of the places are completely different when you arrive. Renato added in this disadvantage the location of some places that are “seriously impossible to reach”.

All in all, the couch-surfers agreed that Air BnB is a good alternative for cheap accomodation but couch-surfing remains one good option for meeting people all around the world and making new friendships!

Do you want to know what we learned from the greek community? Read the next article by Venetia Kamara and watch the video!