Many of you might have heard about Couchsurfing, maybe many are even members of Couchsurfing, but how many of you know what is to be a good Couchsurfer?
Couchsurfing is an online community and its aim is to comunicate travelers. It is a network for sharing accommodation, all for free, and whose only purpose is to be the intermediary between travelers wishing to help and communicate with other travelers. Anyone who wants to be part of the community might accept certain “rules” when signing in, which many read and many others don’t.
A few years ago, when I first knew about Couchsurfing, the community was far less known and smaller than it is today, almost all of whom were enrolled those days had a clear concept of what it meant to belong to that community. The website was known through friends or other travelers who selected carefully to who they gave this closely guarded secret. Over the time, the idea of hospitality exchange has become more common, also the website have begun to do marketing, so the website is known by many people who do not necessarily have a clear idea about what the “rules of the game” are.
Couchsurfing is synonymous of sharing and free exchange. This sharing also implies respect. Someone is hosting totally for free, without knowing the person before, just words written on an online profile. Everybody should have this in mind when Couchsurfing: someone is opening the doors of his house, and that is a privilege, not a right.
My experience doing Couchsurfing and welcoming travelers at home and going to different events, have made me see many types of Couchsurfers -almost all have been amazing experiences- and here I point out what (in my opinion) is that make someone a good Couchsurfer.
– Learn about the city in which you are travelling. Learn about the cultural norms of the country can save you many problems and bad times, especially if you stay in someone’s home and they are a family.
– Be respectful and be sure that your goal is to share and get to know your host, if you are a freeloader and just looking for a free place to sleep, better looking at other special websites for that.
– Take your time and check the profile of who you want to stay with. Look for interests in common that will help you both have a good experience.
– Please be sure the message you send is personal, show you read the profile of the person you want to stay with. Show that you have certain things in common that could be interesting for both of you to meet each other. Specially in big cities this could make the difference between lots of messages.
– Do not try to get a date through Couchsurfing. If you knew all the messages I receive each week from guys saying “come to my city, if you visit me you’ll have the best experience of your life.” I have hundreds of messages reported by “dating spam”. It’s uncomfortable and totally away from the target of the site. There’s enough dating sites out there!!! (not saying you can’t date another couchsurfer…sometimes things happens between people who get to know each other. Just it’s not the purpose of the website to find a date)
– Stay connected, if someone accepts to host you in their home, be kind and check your email, drop a line if you’re not going to that destination, or changing dates, etc. Do not disappear without a trace and let the other one waiting, thinking you were abducted by aliens.
– Leave a reference! Couchsurfing community is only based on the trust generated by the comments left by each other, leaving references -about your excellent or bad experience- will help others to have a clearer idea of who is the person you want request accommodation.
– If you are a host, make it clear what you want and do not want to share or let your guest do at home. The idea is that both feel comfortable and have clear rules of the game.
For more details check here the rules of the community at their website
https://www.couchsurfing.org/n/guidelines
This is my tips on How To Be a Good Couchsurfer, do you have some good tips you want to share?
0 Comments