Couchsurfing

You might want to post your question on Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree forum? My guess is that your chances of hearing from recent couchsurfers are much greater there than on RS. Be sure to include your age, the countries you intend to travel to and any other information that might produce useful insights.

I'm only aware of one poster on here who regularly uses couch surfing (and also hosts). In a recent post she did mention that a lot of former cs hosts have switched to Airbnb to make some extra money. So, it does seem that there are fewer and fewer hosts out there. Other than that she has always been extremely positive about the experience.

That would be me. I still host couchsurfers but haven't surfed with strangers since 2012 (we have some 'friends' we've surfed with multiple times in London and Maine). We generally host 10-12 people a year (but we live in a small-ish town). Already had a few requests for this year, but we got a new puppy a few months ago, so I'm trying to give him a little more time before I subject people to his puppy needle teeth. But we've hosted some great people, and still enjoy doing it.

So I can't speak for someone who is surfing regularly - I did find it harder to find people, with many old profiles of people who haven't even logged into the site for years (they really should be deleted). I think lots of former surfers have switched over to airbnb. I mostly airbnb myself now - partly because we aren't travelling so much on a budget, and partly because I like to lock in my stays a few months out - hard to do with couchsurfing as most hosts understandably can't commit that far out.

We have a few 2 night stays coming up on our trip in Sept, so I just might give it a try again. But I think with the advent of airbnb (and we've met some great people that way, and have had some cheap-ish stays) many couchsurfing hosts have given up.

But if you do decide to take the plunge, make sure to fill out your profile and send personalized requests to stay - cut and paste req just don't swing it. Mention something about the hosts profile that you like - whether it's similar tastes in movies or tv or books, or you've travelled somewhere they've travelled. And I always check out profiles as well - I don't care if you're new (we've hosted a few new surfers) or inexperienced, but complete your profile. Plan to spend a little time with your hosts, if they are willing and able to spend time with you...but just don't hang around the home - have some plans. And you'd probably have more luck in towns and smaller cities as opposed to places like Rome and Paris and London, where they get dozens of req a day.

One of my friends here in Frankfurt does it all the time when he visits new countries and he hosts people on a fairly regular basis. He enjoys it and I have quite often met him showing his guests around the city. He has a separate bedroom though, so not technically "couch" surfing.

Nicole has given excellent advice. My husband and I have also hosted many couchsurfers over the last ten years, but not as many recently. We used to really enjoy meeting interesting people and showing them around our city. Most couchsurfers were genuinely interested in making connections and we shared food and great conversations about travel, culture, etc.

In the last couple of years though, we've been getting a lot of generic requests that have obviously just been cut and paste. "Yo, can I crash at your place?" will get an automatic "no" from me. Lots of incomplete profiles too. If you can't be bothered to tell me about yourself, I'm not willing to go to the effort of opening my home to you. We've also seen an increase in people who cancel at the last minute or simply never show up.

I do somewhat understand why people send out a large number of blanket requests. The Couchsurfing site is cluttered with inactive accounts, making it cumbersome and time-consuming to try to find potential hosts. People join to check out what it is all about but end up neither surfing nor deleting their profiles. I think it's about two years since I've searched for hosts in my travels, also turning to airBnB instead.

The speculation that former Couchsurfing hosts have turned to airBnB to make some money would not be surprising. It's tempting to do that simply to narrow down the requests to those who are serious about showing up and visiting our city, not just looking for a free place to stay the night.

Maggie - I even toyed with turning our spare room into an airbnb listing. But I figure I have a bit more control with couchsurfing - if I want to say no to someone, it's easier. You can have more rigid 'rules' with couchsurfing - for example - we don't leave surfers alone in our house - can't really do that with airbnb - as well as arrival times - don't really want people showing up at 11pm. And where we have a dog, I'd be so worried about him slipping out the door if a bnb'er was coming or going when we weren't home. I don't need the money that bad. Also, I'm not the best cleaner in the world, so I can imagine the reviews...lol. Can't complain if the place is free... :) (It's not a pigsty, but, you know - dishes in the sink, puppy fur tumbleweeds, toothpaste on the sink)

But if you ever get to NS for a visit, drop us a line!