Carolin Wolf, 5 May 2017

CouchSurfing: The cheaper way of being hosted

Couchsurfing: Traveling around the world. Making new experiences. Leaning about new cultures. The feeling of freedom and adventure. For free.

CouchSurfing explained: A lot of people like traveling around the world. They like to see as many tourist attractions as possible and learn about the culture of the country.

What they do not like about traveling is paying high accommodation fees.

But how can a traveler save money through overnighting somewhere else instead of a hostel or hotel by traveling the world?

Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 by Casey Fenton, Daniel Hoffer, Sebastian Le Tuan and Leonardo Bassani da Silveira
It is a market on the internet to which a worldwide community belongs to
More than 14 million members in more than 200.000 cities
The main idea of Couchsurfing is that people share their living space to travelers in their hometown

How it works:

Travelers have to request a certain date and ask if the person, the host, who shares its room is available at that period of time.

Couchsurfing is made to give travelers and hosts the chance to share their experiences, travel-stories and culture.

Due to the fact that travelers get to know their host better, who is usually a citizen of the town of travel, it is easier to learn interesting things from him about the culture, the country and the city in a much different way by experiencing it not just with tourist attractions but by secret and internal recommendations.

Usually the traveler does not have to pay money for staying at the host’s apartment. The question is: why would people offer their homes to strangers without getting money for it? It is easy. They do it because they know how it feels traveling without having much money. They meet new people who might become friends. They want to change and share experiences. They love making pleasure to someone. They are a part of a big community.

Alternative to CouchSurfing: Airbnb.

If you prefer being for yourself, having your privacy and a little bit more comfort, or even breakfast or even a hotel-like accommodation, Airbnb might be the better choice for you.

It is a market on the internet where people can rent for a certain period of time either a shared room, private room, even a whole apartment or house.

The landlords present their objects with certain prices on the website and travelers can choose the perfect one for themselves.

Airbnb covers more than 190 countries and 65.000 cities
More than three million insertions spread all over the world
Airbnb has more than 150 million members

The accommodation fee, including the service fee, is collected by Airbnb as the intermediary right away and will be transferred to the landlord afterwards.

The service fee, which varies between six to twelve percent, is kept by Airbnb, no matter if the accommodation will be used in the end by the customer or not.

Pros and Cons of CouchSurfing

If you are someone who loves being around with people, meeting new people, learn about other cultures, the daily-life of the citizen and the interns and secrets of a city, it might be a good reason for you choosing Couchsurfing for your next trip.

And the best, it is even for free. You might bring your host a small present to express your thankfulness.

But being a Couchsurfer means always being kind and friendly and adapting yourself to your current host. You might also be forced doing something with your host, like exploring the city or cooking together, which might be exhausting to you but also can be interesting to learn about other’s daily life or their culture.

Couchsurfing might be insecure by especially traveling alone because you cannot be sure about your host until you meet him in person.

If you’re lucky and your host is nice and friendly you don’t have to worry and enjoy your stay and meet a lot of people all around the world.

Airbnb more than just “rent a room”

Carolin Wolf

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