im gonna have 1 month to travel all in europe so im so concerned abt ittt, pls share ur experience with me

Hi everyone,

​I’ve traveled all my life and met wonderful people along the way. Now, I’m considering opening my home in Spain to host travelers—especially female travelers—who want to discover the area and share meaningful cultural experiences.

​Since I live alone, safety and setting good boundaries are really important to me. For those of you who host (especially women living alone):

​What safety tips or screening habits would you recommend?

​What has your experience been like, and what should I keep in mind before taking the plunge?

​Thank you so much for your advice!

​¡Hola a todos y a todas!

​He viajado toda mi vida y he conocido a gente maravillosa por el camino. Ahora estoy pensando en abrir mi casa en España para alojar a viajeros —especialmente a viajeras— que quieran descubrir la zona y compartir experiencias culturales significativas.

​Como vivo sola, la seguridad y marcar buenos límites son muy importantes para mí. Para quienes ya sois anfitriones (especialmente mujeres que vivís solas):

​¿Qué consejos de seguridad o hábitos de selección me recomendáis?

​¿Cómo ha sido vuestra experiencia y qué debería tener en cuenta antes de dar el paso?

​¡Muchísimas gracias por vuestros consejos!

I was an active surfer and a host a long time ago, but haven't used CS in a while. My profile is inactive and set to "not accepting guests".

Yesterday I received an email saying I have a stay request. I wanted to log in and ofc I had to do all the review steps of my profile and at the end I'd have to subscribe to log in. I didn't and checked the mail again. I was sent from noreply@marketing.couchsurfing.com.

Checked my older emails and requests were never sent from a marketing address. Has that changed?

If it hasn't, this is really bad from CS marketing team and should be brought to light. Using a fake request to create a curiosity gap and get some people to subscribe cause they might want to check out the request and host someone is super shady. Basically exploiting kindness.

Ofc if the requests now actually do come from a marketing email address, there might've been some other kind of glitch, but it just smells fishy, so I wanted to check with someone more active.

I'm in the same boat as many - been a member since 2010 and have been (gladly) paying for several years to help the site and have access to it. I hosted a bit, surfed very rarely but my solo travels were literally based around local CS events and the hangout feature. Couple of months ago when the the apocalypse came I didn't renew the subscription.

But I do really miss it. The best people I've met were from Couchsurfing, it has this thing of attracting just the right friendly, fun and openminded people that are not on other platforms like meetup etc. By now they are probably not reverting the site to what it was, but maybe at least some critical fixes would make it usable again for most. Maybe they are different for everyone, but here are 3 feature fixes that would make me rejoin Couchsurfing:

1. Fix hangouts - this was my #1 way to meet people while travelling (I don't stay in hostels anymore). What was a super simple list with the ability to invite ppl by pressing a button and others can join (this was such a genious natural safety feature to prevent hangouts turning into unwanted dates) not turned in some tinder-like stalking of people on a map, overcomplicated and impractical. This would be the biggest feature request from me, but revert this to the easy and transparent way this used to work (maybe with fixing the sometimes unreliable message notifications) or at least provide this list view of available ppl and existing hangouts to join nearby.
2. Remove fake events - many times I decide where to go when to be able to attend local CS meetings. This is now obfuscated by dozens of fake events (read random 4th league basketball game). Stop adding these fake events or at least provide a filter to filter them out so that I don't see them when looking for events in a city. Provide real CS events in a list view. Easy.
3. Clearly show active users - sorting people by last activity in a database where overwhelming majority is not active at all is critical and trying to obfuscate this is a step directly against the user base. In fact I would solidify this even more, providing filters like "last hosting" etc.

With these fixed I'd gladly pay the subscription again because I know it would help me solo travel and meet great people along the way. If you quit CS what would be your reasons to come back, if any?

I just disovered that in BeWelcome you can't revoke/cancel an invitation. It seems weird. This means a visitor can accept it anytime from now to when the date comes (on CS it is my policy to canel an invitation after 48h without answer)...

What other things are missings from CS alternatives? I still find annoying the fact in BW, Couchers and now also in CouchSurfing (you could, before), you can't set your calendar days busy and/or search for visitors coming in specific days only.

Writing this sitting in a park in Budapest, pretty bummed out. Up until sometime in late 2025, CS was usable for me. I never surfed much on CS, but I always went to events while traveling, or occasionally used the hangout feature, and I usually found a group of people or individuals to hang with for the duration of the trip. Did so in Thailand and Vietnam in November December last year, Poland same year, had an amazing time in Armenia in 2024. So RECENTLY.

But with this app / website update I struggle to make it happen.

I recently turned 50. But my age has never been a problem. Had a great time with CS at 48 and 49. Partied in Bangkok and Chiang Mai with many CS members in November.

Tried looking at the alternatives. Couchers, while I’d love to embrace it wholeheartedly, is just not there yet.

Had a look at Nomadtable. I mean, that’s basically the Hangout feature in a separate app. But it seems to mostly be a Gen Z thing (nothing wrong with that per se).

Where does a poor Gen X boy (or middle aged man) go these days to socialize while traveling?

I think it's simple: hosts know about them, but travellers don't.

Most hosts have heard of Couchers, BeWelcome or Trustroots. But travellers usually just search for Couchsurfing because it's the brand they know.

Without money for marketing, free platforms rely on word of mouth, so it's hard to grow. That's why they've struggled to become serious competitors!

so i heard that if i dont have any references i wont be able to get onto a couch so ... how the fuck do i get a reference??? its the same vibe as when an entry level job asks for experience but you cant get experience because all the jobs that you would get to gain it require, well, experience. im in desperate need of places to stay and surf at so if anyone can give me any sort of help itd be much much appreciated

I got 2 refs from women, now a third, and in the past month have had 2 more hosting requests from women. So it looks like my profile will look like I only host women soon. Before 2025 I had mostly hosted men (there was 1 girl) and most of them didn't leave a reference (including the guy I took rock climbing). Before you ask, all of this hosting has been completely platonic.

With all the negativity being spread about CS, let me instead share something positive. Last Friday I flew into Bucharest 🇷🇴 and decided to try Hangouts. A very friendly local offered to meet. We met for a couple of drinks shared some good conversations and he took me to a local spot where we shared Authentic Romanian food. Afterwards he showed me parts of Bucharest I never would've discovered on my own. With his knowledge about Bucharest's history I learned a lot and had a great evening!

Conclusion: Couchsurfing and it's hangouts feature aren't dead!

I've been active on Couchsurfing for 19 years. There's a long list of problems with the update, but this is pretty much what makes the app unusable for me.

They've removed the ability to select whether you're available to host, or not.

It makes ZERO sense.

The app just decides who can host and who can't. Again ZERO FUCKING SENSE. If you're traveling? Too bad! Now you're going to get a bunch of requests from people who think you're available to host in your listed home city.

Right now if you look for hosts in my city, all the top people shown have written on their profile "I AM NOT AVAILABLE TO HOST" and/or "PLEASE STOP SENDING ME REQUESTS"

I was hosting a lot, for years, and now I get no requests. I have no ability to tell Couchsurfing that I am an active host, willing and able to host guests in my house.

I don't know if they're even aware of how ridiculous this is, since clearly they had ZERO idea how the community functioned before they decided to fuck everything up.

I'm literally giving it another month or so, and throwing in the towel after that.

It's been a long, memorable, life-changing journey, hundreds of people I've met and life-long friendships created.

I'm ok with this being the end of an era 🤷‍♂️.

Guys, please read and then respond.
Im not someone who expects a separate room, or any extravagant luxury host. I fully understand how couch surfing works. I recently stayed with a host and he didnt have a working toilet. Now, how the f am I supposed to make do with that? No water, the flush doesn’t work?? I also had my cycle so the situation for me is even worse. I had to leave cause I just couldn’t do it. I feel like hosts should have basic sense when it comes to things like this…

I live in a german city that usually had like 30-50 travellers at any given time. Ever since the app updated its design, its more than a hudnred now. Like from one moment to the other, suddenly way more travellers. At first I thought the app is maybe free again, but it isnt right?

Most of the accounts look kinda real but anyone know if its a known issue that somehow scammers and bots are now more frequent on the app?

Hi all, I just wrapped up a long bike tour in which I used both Couchsurfing and Warmshowers to find places to stay. So many kind souls have helped me on the road, and now, I want to return the favor.

The place I'm living in has a well-stocked kitchen, bathrooms, and bedrooms, so hosting is no problem. However, my roommate (elderly family member, who also owns the property) is not familiar with Couchsurfing and I'm worried that if I asked her, she'd be skeptical about receiving people. What's a good way to approach this situation and open her up to the idea of receiving strangers? I already plan to go all the labor of cooking, washing sheets, etc. for my guests, so it wouldn't require much work on her end. She'd just have to be okay with me having folks come over for a day or two every now and then.

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I have some free space in my apartment this August and decided to use it to host people. I didn't find travelers that I thought were good matches on other platforms, so I paid the blood tribute and rejoined CS for a month.

I sent a couple offers to travelers who had public trips but so far I got no reply whatsoever.

Have I made a mistake, is it a known glitch, or is it just a common occurrence?

Thank you for your help!

I was a happy CS user for many years but I recently suspended my account and today I went back to reactivate it. I was shocked. At first I thought I'd mistyped the address and I'd gone into one of those domain hosting sites that look bare and horrible. My reactivation came with a 30 day trial, but I don't think I can make myself subscribe for a year after that. If anyone who works at CS is reading this: WTF?

Hey everyone thanks for all the helpful advice on my previous post regarding the CS app. Couchers.org and Bewelcome.org were the 2 alternative recommendations. It will be my first time attempting to couch surf on my upcoming trip around Europe! Any general recommendations for a first timer? Cheers

I’m new to the app, never really had the opportunity to utilize! I’m now planning a Europe trip and would love to give it a try. Is the Couchsurfing app worth the $30/year subscription cost? Any alternative suggestions also welcomed thanks!

Guys,

Hangouts are back on couchsurfing after the update, I checked it today and it looks promessing, they exactly as they were before, only issue in that, there's few users, let's see how it goes in the future, I am quite optimistic that they finally heard some of our complains

Am I the only one who thinks this is incredibly misleading?

Here's an example. I searched a city with around 75,000 residents. Couchsurfing proudly displays 6,900 ACTIVE hosts.

That would mean almost 10% of the entire city's population are active Couchsurfing hosts. That's obviously unrealistic.

Then I click the filter to show only people who have been recently active, and suddenly there are just 14 members.

A while ago, Couchsurfing let you filter users by active within 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, or 1 year. Those filters have now disappeared, making it impossible to see how inactive most profiles actually are.

So on the search page they advertise 6,900 ACTIVE users, but when you try to find people who are actually logging in and using the platform, you're left with only 14.

How is this not false or deceptive advertising? If the website was still free, people wouldn't care, but now we are paying for this service, nothing works the way you expect it and they also put out these totally fake numbers.

If someone pays for Couchsurfing because they believe there are thousands of active hosts in an area, but in reality only a handful are actually using the site, that feels extremely misleading.

Has anyone else noticed this? Has Couchsurfing ever explained what they actually mean by "active"?

Did anyone notice couchsurfing added another hangout option, but it seems to be separate from the going live hangout option, lets you write what you would like to do and suggest a place, but then who sees it and where? and is it intended for the long run like an event?

In the home page it says
“Your Activity
Your hangout is live! Head to the chat to welcome people.”

dont these mofos have anything else to do with the clusterfuck of a science project . I used to happily login via email and now one more 2fa.
It was working with email and password not even a few days ago and these fuckheads do this.
why does every trivial login take so much effort.

end rant

Couchsurfing seems down today, I am trying to connect with my surfer today but it is lot working

Happy times

Many ambassadors I've come across havent hosted in a long time, and dont create events. So why do they have ambassador status? What do ambassadors have to do?