Do not talk to strangers. The age-old lesson seems obvious in childhood. As a young adult, the protective reasoning behind this lesson slowly fades and by early adulthood appears ludicrous. The ability to better judge a person’s character supposedly accompanies independence and maturity.
But what about the lesson, “do not sleep in a stranger’s house?” Most people believe this goes without saying (especially all the young college folk) but Couchsurfing, a program that affords travelers opportunities for free lodging around the world, might make people think twice.
On the Couchsurfing website, www.Couchsurfing.org, or mobile application, surfers make requests for places to stay and hosts respond with offers of availability. The surfer can look at prospective hosts to determine which place seems the most comfortable and the host can look to see how many people will be staying and for how long.
The host and surfer gain contact information provided on the website or communicate through the website’s messenger system to clear up questions between each other. Each participant has the ability to review the opposite’s online profile, see reviews from people who previously dealt with them or see how many vouchers the person in question received.
Casey Fenton dreamed up the idea on a plane ride back from Iceland in 1999. He traveled to Iceland on a whim and sent a spam email to university students to which he received roughly 50 responses. Fenton developed the code and format for the company in its first stages.
Hailey Hawkes, a 22-year-old senior studying communications at the University of Wyoming, used the Couchsurfing program in Lake Tahoe for her last vacation.
Before staying with their host, Hailey said she and her friends used the review system and called the host ahead of time to figure out what he might really be like.
“We were a little nervous because we were basically trusting the Internet to find us a stranger’s home while going on vacation,” Hawkes says. “We were panicking on the bus.”
In the end the host worked out. “They turned out to be some of the most incredible people I’ve ever met and I got to listen to their stories and their pasts,” Hawkes says. “It got me out of my comfort zone and my shell, totally flipping my perspective around about trusting people.”
Despite Hawkes’ success story, the risk factor still remains, as nobody really knows what the host or surfer will be like. The imaginable horror stories occur less often, but occur nonetheless.
The worst reported incident involved the rape of a woman from Hong Kong and the ten-year incarceration of a man from Leeds. Other incidents include cases of assault and robbery, but no reports so serious as murder or another rape.
For some, placing trust in somebody about whom one knows so little fails to make much sense. Anyone staying in a stranger’s house needs to look realistically at the situation and determine for him or herself whether or not to hand out that level of trust.
Considered against the lengthy list of positive encounters, these incidents stand out only for their rarity. While some people could look to take advantage of people based on a false premise of safety, most look to liven up the average day with interesting people.
Even though Couchsurfing offers some services at a fee, basic use requires no monetary transactions. Travelers willing to offer their social skills, maybe clean some dishes, make some food or perhaps even trade some stories can find hosts to provide first-hand insight about the surrounding area. Much like a free walking tour, the fee at the end is entirely up to the surfer.
Hosts offer valuable information in a strange land, but also look to surfers to remind them what makes their area so interesting.
A person who grew up next to the Grand Tetons might take them for granted, for example, so interacting with a person from somewhere like Australia might reaffirm the beauty of the area.
Foreign eyes look at new locations with a wide angle, thus wondering and interpreting everything differently than those that see it every day.
Couchsurfing is not the only website of its kind. Websites like BeWelcome, Servas, Nomadbase, Tripping, Hospitality Club, Global Freeloaders and Craigslist offer similar services. The difference lies in the numbers though. Couchsurfing boasts the most users with roughly 7 million in 100,000 cities.
Since their non-profit roots, Couchsurfing weathered some changes. Ownership changed to public in 2004, and then the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel took over in 2011.
These changes, as well as some controversy revolving around the terms of use agreement, turned some old diehards away. The goal of the company remains the same though: “to intentionally network people and places, create educational exchanges, raise collective consciousness, spread tolerance, and facilitate understanding.”
Time will tell whether Couchsurfing maintains its status at the top of free accommodation sites or not. The placement of trust in strangers, however, will likely always be an issue.
