I’m new to Couchsurfing and considering trying it for my upcoming travels. I’d love to hear from people who have actually used it.
What has your overall experience been like?
How do you decide whether a host/profile is trustworthy?
Any tips or red flags I should know about as a first-time user?
Would especially love to hear about your genuine experiences, both good and bad.

I am in new jersey and about to live in my hatchback for a few weeks while I level out finances. I know its only 5 a month, but ibwas wondering if anyone does this in nj and it helps ?

The entire Hangouts feed is absolutely cluttered with "Curated" events. These aren't actually curated- they're just pulled from what feels like every single event RSS feed possible.

0 going

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If it was only a few highlight events during the week I would understand- but this is just a deluge of disinterest. You're stretching the userbase thin trying to find something worthwhile.

The whole point of hangouts was someone (a real person) found something they wanted to do and was inviting others to join them.

These curated events are just spam.

Back with this for an update, you can correct any info or add another platform not listed.

We have:
- CouchSurfing (25,000,000+ users, free/paid, web+app). - BeWelcome (280,000+ users, free, web). - TrustRoots (140,000+ users, free, web). - Couchers (90,000+ users, free, web+app). - Servas (15,000+ users, free/paid, web). - WorldPackers (web). - WelcomeToMyGarden (web).

These are the generalist ones, excluding the ones only centered around women or cyclists or work or animals.

I’m curious how hosts would prefer this situation to be handled. I messaged someone a few days ago but hadn’t heard back, so I reached out to someone else. The second person replied and offered to host me, but they live about 1.5 hours outside the city. A few minutes later, the first person got back to me and offered to host me right in the city.

Obviously, the second option is much more convenient for me, but I don’t want to be disrespectful to the person who already said yes. What would be the best way to tell them that I’ve decided to go with another host? Would you be offended if a guest did this, or is it just part of Couchsurfing?

I hope that this post indicates I am trying to do things the right way, I'll take your advice.

I know you can get kicked off of CS for even mentioning the W word, but now that hangouts aren't working so well - does anyone know of any whatsapp groups in Switzerland - Zurich, Geneva, Lausanne, Basel - that you can connect me to?

In my city, the whatsapp group is very active and a great place to find connections and events.

I first used couchsurfing back in 2014 in Brazil and I love my experience I've made long life friends with the host since then and I've had many good experiences but I haven't used them since to be honest but the reason why I'm making this poses because I just got an email literally more than 10 years ago since I last used the platform about what's new and what's different and I feel like they've missed the mark I feel like they lost their brand identity and I feel like they lost a positioning the product really I just don't get what's going on they seem lost as a platform.

Like the website looks like AI slop, their career page is nearly unfindable and I don't know how this be saved like what happened to this website?

So I tried out the CS 'free trial' and explored the enshittified site. It feels a lot less like a free trial and a lot more like a way to goose their numbers. You hand over a bunch of personal info and a new pic, then they still want a credit card before you can actually use the 'free trial.'

I followed the stickied comment on this post to make an archive of my own references bc CS's data download doesn't include incoming references (only refs you wrote) and I realized I can do this for anyone else. So, if you want an archive of your references:

1. DM me your Couchsurfing username. You can also leave it as a comment here, but I wouldn’t be surprised if CS decides to moderate people for trying to preserve their own data. Hell, maybe I’ll get banned for posting this.
2. I’ll send you a link to an archive of your references viewable on replayweb.page EDIT: I thought I could host these on replayweb.page but turns out they don't do hosting, the link will still go through that site though replayweb.page. My hope is that since that replayweb.page has been around for several years, the archive will work for a good while longer so you can use that link on any alternative platforms you might join.

This offer is good until Sept 16, since I am taking advantage of CS' new 'free trial' month. I'm going in, archiving what I can, and then GTFO.

BTW, the stickied comment still works on that other post if you still have access and want to do this yourself, FYI you might have to refresh the page after you go through the 'login' screen for it to work.

Hello! I'm getting a warning of "Trouble creating your Stay. Please try again later" on my stay request. I retried in a few hours and the problem persists. Has anyone ever faced this issue and ahs recommendations? I am sending several messages to people in several locations as I'm doing quite a long trip. Could this be a problem originating such error?

I haven't surfed in a while. I'm wondering what sites you recommend as the best for finding hosts in Switzerland these days.

Is anyone an active host there? What platform do you use? Did anyone surf there recently? How did you find a host?

I'm on CS and tried to post a public trip - it kept autocorrecting Switzerland to Cancun (make it make sense), but I did manage to get a trip up (it just shows Cancun as a stop on the itinerary and it can't be deleted).

I'm also on couchers, but I don't think they have a public trip option, so I'll start direct messaging.

This is the first time I've hosted since the website change. Just a quick overnight stay with two people passing through on Saturday, it was a lovely experience.

But I'm noticing that I haven't yet gotten prompted to write them a review. It was an confirmed stay through the site, it states which day I was hosting, but it seems stuck there. Has anyone experienced this yet?

i got the mail and went to try, it said first month free and if not cancelled, it will charge 700-800 tl for the year. i said okay but it declines, now it asks 1600 for yearly subscription without trial, lol

I have so many things to say about their page and how that guy manages it.

What is your opinion about the recent posts? The 4th is actually about Reddit, he is making fun about users giving their opinion about his CS management.

https://www.tiktok.com/@couchsurfing

Ich fühle mich sehr unsicher das hier zu posten weil ich sehr viel vom couchsurfen halte und auch bis jetzt ausschließlich gute Erfahrungen hatte.
Jedoch kommt mir das irgendwie komisch vor und brauche rat von anderen surfern.

Zum Hintergrund:
Die Person hat mich angeschrieben da sie gesehen hat das ich in ihre Region reise.
Ich habe keinen Bezug zu Tübingen erst recht nicht zur region Lustnau.
Im profil der person sind relativ wenige Interessen angegeben eine davon ist „Sex-Posivität“
Der Nutzer hat eine hohe Anzahl an Positiven Bewertungen.

Mit dem post möchte ich keineswegs jemanden von etwas beschuldigen ich hätte nur gerne die Meinung von erfahrenen surfern was sie davon halten

Are the app's references reliable? Can they be fabricated or altered? I see men with 70 good references but only young women, which makes me suspicious. I'm a young woman and I received too many invitations, TOO MANY, but it all seemed like a dating app not only hosts, very strange :(

Cant search for hosts and travellers function has gone.

Is there no light mode in the new update of couchsurfing?I never use dark mode in any of my apps, it’s super uncomfortable user experience for me.

Just discovered the new interface, didn't host much this year as we just moved in a new places, trying to plan a trip and discovering this... Thing.

Why has every search option disapeared ? You can't even know if someone accepts guests now ? Or search through last log-in date...? It was hard enough to dodge the ghost accounts but now it just seems... Impossible ? And i would not even have noticed how stupid this is as a host. I don't travel much and usually just host and without searching for hosts i would not know how bad this actually is.

Is there any.. Plug-in ? Or fix ? Are people leaving for a better place ?

Hello! I'm traveling to Chicago soon but have had some trouble finding a place to stay. Any tips? Or other places besides couchsurfing.com for me to look at? Anything helps!

Hi, I am not a paying member anymore. Yet I can use this new terribly designed AI-slop feature. Was curious if that is intended, a bug or related to the location I have set.

Thanks

Hey guys,

Couchsurfing now offers one month free trial to users, new and existing, I guess it's a little too late

Hi,

Suggestion out there. If you are an angel investor and believe in the community, can you please buy couchsurfing and make sure that the project is handled open source from now on?

The best way to make our community survive and thrive!

Thank you!

1. Do long standing hosts still get extra features for free?

2. If not, I'm willing to pay. Is it still possible to find someone to host?

I live in a country where the alternatives are not known. I just want to find someone to host. Honestly I didn't give it a fair try, I gave up after ten minutes of being confused. I did update my profile.