With 6 million members in 100,000 cities across the world, Couchsurfing.com is more than just strangers asking strangers to crash on a couch for the night. It’s become a community, a social networking site that puts travelers of all ages and backgrounds in touch with not only a place to stay night by night, but also a place to connect with locals, other travelers, and opportunities they wouldn’t have if they just picked the discount hotel. As senior Courtney Stephenson puts it, the couchsurfing community is one made up of people open to new experiences, of friendly, adventurous learners who have a lot of faith that people are good and have good intentions.
You have to have faith in the good of humanity to trust a stranger in your home, or to show up to the door of someone you only met on the Internet, looking for a place to rest that night. Meet three IU students who chose couchsurfing instead of Comfort Inn.
The road tripper
Aliens in New Mexico, camper vans in Australia, and art in Austin: Courtney has seen it all through her couchsurfing adventures.
Her first time using the website was with a friend who had just finished her summer internship in Los Angeles. Courtney flew out to California and then the two hopped in the car to drive back to Indiana. Their goal? Try not to stay in a hotel the whole way back.
Their first stop, Sedona, proved hard to find housing, so they caved for a hotel room, but the next day they pulled into Roswell, N.M., with a couch booked for the night. They stayed with a couple who shared stories of how they ended up in a city known for the 1947 alleged UFO crash. From Roswell they traveled to Austin, Texas, where a host was leaving for the weekend, but trusted the girls enough to give them her key for the night.
With two positive couchsurfing experiences behind her, Courtney stayed active on the site, especially when she was studying abroad in Sydney, Australia, from January to May 2013. In March, she read a post from a French girl looking for people to ride with her up to the Gold Coast to sell her van. Courtney was in.
A few days later, Estelle, the owner of the van, met Courtney and Pauline, another traveler, on a beach to load up the van. The three were off. With just a borrowed backpack and no French language experience, Courtney sat in the backseat of the van, her feet propped up on the plywood that helped convert part of the blue Kia van into a makeshift bed and table.
For 500 miles, they stopped in sleepy beach towns and camped outside, drove through crowded backpacker towns, and talked American movies while enjoying the ride. By the time they finally pulled into Surfer’s Paradise, a city Courtney describes as a “more trashy and less swanky” version of Las Vegas, Couchsurfing.com had turned three strangers into friends.
The host
Senior Jane Hall stumbled upon it. More accurately, StumbleUpon.com led her to Couchsurfing.com, and the rest was Internet magic.
Jane opened a profile on the site in November 2011 while she was studying abroad in China for a year. A month before her winter break trip to Seoul, South Korea, she decided to look into couchsurfing because she would be traveling alone. Fast forward to Dec. 31, 2011, and Jane was celebrating the 2012 New Year on the edge of Seoul’s party district with a girl from Georgia and her friends, all thanks to Couchsurfing.com.
When she needed a place to stay for the rest of her South Korea trip, she turned to the site again and was invited into the home of Dana, a young Korean woman studying to be a dancer. She stayed two weeks on a couch in the apartment with Dana, Dana’s father and sister, and was welcomed in like one of the family. Dana’s dad cooked her breakfast every morning — a combination of rice, beans, kimchi, and other Korean specialities — and Dana showed her around the city when she had a chance. Two weeks seemed like a long time for someone to let a stranger stay, but Dana had received the same hospitality from a host in Berlin and thought nothing of doing
the same.
It’s that pay-it-forward concept that spurred Jane to offer her couch to travelers once she returned home to Bloomington. The first couple that crashed on her couch came from Columbus, Ohio, choosing Jane because she looked like the nicest person in her webcam profile picture featured on the site. They stayed up talking until 2 a.m. about their lives and how they all ended up in Bloomington.
An Indianapolis-based couple, Wendy and Konny, have also slept on Jane’s red and brown couches. The two met through couchsurfing months before, another testament to the relationships created through simple hospitality. During their stay, they gave Jane a thank you gift of cookies homemade by Konny, a baker in Germany. And they all swapped stories, too.
“That’s the best part of couchsurfing,” Jane says.
The adventurer
In April 2013, senior Qiuyu “Q” Wang passed her Indiana driver’s license test. A week later, she packed up her red Mini Cooper and hit the road to drive to her summer film production internship in Los Angeles. Traveling down Route 66, she says she mostly slept in her car along the way, but upon arriving to L.A., she needed a place to stay before moving into her summer internship housing. She had previously used couchsurfing the summer before and had positive experiences with it, so she decided to try out the site again. A host named David responded, and he put her up in his family’s home. The best part of his hospitality was when he connected Q with Catherine, a friend of his. Q and Catherine became good friends and spent much of their time together, traveling around L.A. and the state.
Q always leaves behind a token of her appreciation, whether it’s microbrews for her craft beer-loving host in West Yellowstone or postcards sent through the mail to Frank and Linda in Manhattan Beach. While Q says she’s never mentioned her exact source of travel housing to her parents, she also says she’s never felt unsafe while sleeping in the homes of people she now calls friends from coast to coast. She’s seen 24 states and the sites — California beaches, Yellowstone natural wonders, and NYC skyscrapers — all while staying for free.
Coming to the U.S. from China in January 2012, Q enrolled at IU but didn’t really start learning until the summers when she interned with film production companies. She quickly grew up in a country where she knew no one before she arrived. Her life changed thanks to traveling and couchsurfing.
“I’ve learned life is so wonderful, and that you’re not the center of this world,” she says. “You can learn from everyone.”
Tips for couchsurfing
Mom might have warned you to never talk to strangers, but the couchsurfing community prefers the term “friends you haven’t met yet” to “strangers.” That being said, there are a few things to remember before grabbing shuteye on a future friend’s couch.
Read the references
Every profile on the site features references and reviews from people who you’ve traveled with, stayed with, or hosted. Look for positive reviews from past surfers on your host’s profile to make sure you’re not staying with the next Jack the Ripper.
Be open
When looking for a place to stay, you can contact hosts personally or post a request on a city’s page. Be descriptive and open with why you’re looking to stay.
Trust your instincts
While it’s your choice on who you want to stay with, some surfers choose to stay with women or couples when traveling, just as another safety precaution. Consider staying with whatever gender you feel more comfortable, or find a traveling buddy.
Mind your P’s and Q’s
Bring a small gift from your hometown, leave behind a thank you note, or send a postcard from your travels. Be sure to leave the couch as neat as it was when you arrived.
