How to Travel For Free with Couchsurfing?
What is Couchsurfing?
Couchsurfing is a global network of more than 12 million people. All these people are the same travelers as you and like to get to know someone new. The community consists of 400.000 hosts all around the world that not only give you a free couch at their home but also share their life, experience, and culture with you. Here you can also find interest groups by like language exchanges, dinners together, dance classes, city tours and make new friends wherever you are.
How does it work?
First of all, create your profile. Fill the information about you: your interests, lifestyle, what is important to you and what you can share with another people. All that details what can describe what kind of person you are. Having a complete profile you have more chances to receive the positive answer from the host. Don’t forget to add the pictures.
When you are planning a travel, your second step is to search for the host.
Which points are better to put attention at:
- The location of the host. By map, you can choose an exact area you have preferences to stay at: close to the train station, airport, in the city center or out.
- The availability hosting. One right sidebar of each profile you can see the status of each host: Accepting guests, Maybe accepting guests, Not accepting guests, Wants to meet up. Some people might not be able to host at this time. Hence, better to choose the ones who can accept the guests.
- Profile of the potential host. Once you have chosen some, carefully check their profile, interests, pictures. Make sure that it will be comfortable for you to stay with that person.
- Don’t forget to check it! Here you can see reviews about the host from other guests that have already stayed with him. Opt for the host with lots of references and good ones.
- Staying conditions. Review the information “My home” on the profile you liked. On the “Sleeping arrangements” you can see either it’s an air mattress, couch or private room. Some of the hosts have special preferences as for gender, the number of the guests and etc. Check if you suit to them.
- You can always filter the results of the search by gender, age, and other advanced options. It will save your time and help to find the right host. I would highly recommend you to send about 4-5 Couchrequests. Write your potential hosts the date you are arriving and how many days you are planning to stay. Personalize the message, say why you want to meet and stay with him.
How else can you use the Couchsurfing?
While not traveling but staying at home you can as well host the couchsurfers like you and try the other side of the coin. It’s a beautiful experience that will help you to understand better which points are important while being a host and couchsurfer. To turn you into the host you need to make your status as Accepting guests or Maybe accepting guests. Further fill your profile with the information of your staying conditions, sleeping arrangements, preferences if you have. And don’t forget to put the information about the location of your home.
But it doesn’t mean that if you are couchsurfer you must be a host. It’s not an obligation here. If you can’t or don’t want just put the status “Not accepting guests”. Or if are up to get to know new people and maybe make new friends, use the status “Wants to meet up”. You can use it either you are staying at your place or traveling to some new city. It’s a good opportunity to meet with the locals as well as to ask for the best places to visit, see, eat.
As I was saying at the beginning, Couchsurfing also helps to find the interest groups. Usually, it’s weekly/monthly meetings which you can visit and meet people near you who share your interests.
Is Couchsurfing safe?
Of course, it doesn’t guarantee you 100% safety. But what you can do to protect yourself is to check carefully the profiles. The references are a good indicator. Make sure that host doesn’t have bad ones and have quite a lot. Also, I would suggest you choose a person with whom you have common interests and with whom you will feel comfortable to stay with.
Is Couchsurfing really for free?
Technically it is. You don’t pay anything neither to the website to register nor to the host for staying. But actually, you should “pay” back to the host as economically so humanly.
What do I mean by giving back economically?
- Buy all the needed staff as food, personal cleansing and etc. by yourself. Don’t expect that you’ll get or can use it at the house you stay at.
- You can make a dinner or cook some traditional dish for the host. It will be a nice gesture not only to “say” thank you but also to show it.
- Or bring some gift. Can be either something from your country or just something useful, for example, food.
- If your host picks you by his car or drives with you showing the city, you can suggest covering at least some part of gasoline expenses.
How can you thank humanly?
- Be sure that you keep the house clean. Don’t make a mess with your clothes. Even if you are a guest you should take care of the place the same as you do in your own home.
- Always clean the dishes after you used and leave the place tidy.
- You can suggest your help to the host: to clean the garden, to walk a dog, play with his children or whatever. Something that will be useful for him.
In conclusion, I want to say that it’s important to look at Couchsurfing not only as an opportunity to stay for free while you’re traveling. Couchsurfing is also about meeting new people and spending a nice time with them. You get the opportunity to see the everyday life of the locals, their culture and get first-hand information and tips.
Since I was 7 years-old little girl I went for my first trip to abroad which made me fall in love with traveling and made it my passion for all my life. I like to discover different cultures, people, the way they look and behave according to their traditions, new places and incredible views, new food, and new flavors. And I want to share my discovers with you here in my blog. In addition to it, I'll give you the tips how to make your trip a "varied experience" and how to travel in a cheaper way.
Let's discover the world together 😉
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