www.couchsurfing.com

Dave!

Hey folks,

I got the Lonely Planet book 'Europe on a Shoestring', and it mentioned this website. I went on and checked it out, and registered. It's basically a load of people who are interested in travelling and meeting new people, so they allow travellers (in the good sense) to sleep on their couches for a night or two, if they're in the area -- sometimes the travellers reciprocate, other times not, I don't think it's necessary.

Anyways, it looks like quite a good site! Great idea!

Are any of ye registered on it, and what do you think? Had any good or bad experiences with the service?

Thanks!

Dave!

Not one of ye has used it? Disgraceful

Ragazza

I signed up!
(I am planning my trip round the world on a shoestring at the moment)

Ag marbh

Excellent site

Four of a kind

anyone ever used this?

www.couchsurfing.com

Brill idea imo and I'll def try it out.

Four of a kind

a brill site and igenious idea. will use it while travelling around tanzania in jan to get a real sense of the african culture.

breadmonkey

Used it for the first time in Sydney about a month ago. It went really well. The guy met up with us, showed us around his apartment and then went back off to work! Saved us an absolute fortune.

But...

We arrived back in Sydney yesterday having arranged to stay again. When I rang him he was hammered at his Christmas party and had obviously forgotten about us. He also had another person staying which wouldn't really have worked. Tried to sort something out but it his phone kept ringing out and whenever he picked up he was unintelligible. Result: I rang every single "budget" place in the Lonely Planet and all were full. Eventually got a place but had to fork out for a double room.

So my experience has been mixed but I definitely plan on using it a lot on my travels. Tried to get a place in Auckland for tomorrow night but it didn't work out.

Give it a bash!

dory

I've been on it for a while now. I tried to use it in Italy but I contacted people at the last minute and they either didn't get back to me in time or were out of town.
I feel bad being on it cause I stay in students accom so can't have people stay over.

AFC_1903

I signed up a few hours ago after having it reccomended to my by both an Aussie friend and an Irish one. The Irish one hosts and he has had that go well so far, and has enjoyed the experiences he's had crashing at other peoples places. The Aussie has been travelling for a while and she say's she couldn't have done half of what she has without it.


Go onto the site and look at peoples user reviews and what it says about people. The comments give a good idea of the situation, and can also be used to suss out what potential hosts/guests are like as people.

spurious

I've been a couchsurfing host for over four years. I've had hundreds of people to stay. Never a problem with the surfers, only with one ignorant type who said they were coming and didn't show up. Haven't ever used it myself to stay anywhere.

To make it more likely that a host will say yes, give a reasonable amount of notice, fill your profile out properly, don't treat it as just a free bed service, don't overstay your welcome and try host someone yourself.

cailinoBAC

I haven't yet used couchsurfing, planning to a little in South America, but have only had good experiences with hospitalityclub.org, which is the same idea. You really do have to be flexible though and have a back up plan. Well, I never had to use the back up plan, once I had made an arrangement with somebody, but still always a good idea.

Dave!

Just wanted to get some more experiences on this

Fighting Irish

thanks for the clickable link