Miscellaneous Forum

Has anyone ever tried this site: http://www.couchsurfing.com

I met some people from England this evening who've said they've had all sorts of people stay with them.

But I'm curious about the experiences of others.

Robert

I'm a member and I hosted positive people, I see CS as an exchange opportunity to share a good time.

I hosted several people on warmshowers last year and had a great time. (www.warmshowers.com similar to CS).

aparently theres a site called freeloaders as well...same sort of thing I think..

It's great! I used it several times the last months and I have met some great people (now most of them are my friends) and it changed my way of travelling. Everytime I get real local knowledge, I go/eat/drink where the locals go.

Some people think that it's just free acomodation but hopefully most of the members dont see it that way. It's more like cultural exchange...

konstantinos

When I was working in Jakarta last year a local friend was one of the host for the Jakarta chapter. They have many regular get togethers (usually an afternoon at one of the host's house) and lots of local and expats/travellers dropped in, great place to meet people. I would recommend giving it a try.

Is it primarily European?? I've never hear of it here? (US)

It's entirely world-wide. In fact, I think there are more hosts in the U.S. than anywhere else.

But..... what if you find yourself face to face with a Kathy Bates type host like the character she played in Misery or your greeted with the line "Didn't I mention I only had one bed?"

I've dated women before that were more psycho than that, so I think I'm fairly prepared!

Lol:) your a brave man. Your not talking about Dabs are you;)

Dabs is my sister and we've never down the Kentucky thing! But she's the WORST person to have stay with me. Actually, everyone else adores her, including my own mother, but Dabs always verbally abuses me to no end.

Yet, I still agreed to let her stay with me during the February 2010 Olympics here in Vancouver. Though she'll get her own room, I wonder how she'd feel about 17 Couch Surfers in the living room? Too bad I only have one bathroom! LOL

Robert, now you're getting other people to abuse me??????

If the couch surfers for the 2010 Olympics look like Daniel Craig, you can have as many of them as you want, I'll be happy to share the floor with them ;-)

Personally, I'd be a little leery of couch surfing either way, hosting or staying, I'm sure most people have a positive experience but it'd just be my luck to get a Hannibal Lechter.....

Robert / Kristi sorry, I didn't realise you were really siblings! Sounds like your really in trouble now Robert!

If they look like Daniel Craig all stuffed on your living room floor, Robert, I think I'm coming to the Vancouver Olympics as well. Kristi - move over! Don't think you'll be getting to hog them all to yourself.

I've done couchsurfing. See my Kuwait page. Worked out FAB!

Needed to crash for one night and within 24 hours of requesting, I had about 8 offers. The experience went quite well and I would do it again! I'd host, too. But who the hell wants to stay in Hickory?!

No chance of a Hickory olympics then? I could be attracted by Chicos though!

(You got me thinking. Maybe I'll create / produce a Redneck Olympics. Hickory can be the host city! If you build it, they will come, eh?)

LoL:)) Sounds like an inspirational idea. I'm a bit worried about the nature of the games though!

Kristi, Patty:

Send me photos of all the men you'd like to sleep in the same apartment with ... wait, that didn't come out right ... that you'd like to meet in person during the 2010 Olympics and I'll do my best!

I starting registering on there and then chickened out when it got to the last stages. Or it might have been Hospitality Club. Not sure why it bothered me as I am generally happy for anyone to stay here, but I like to have met or spoken to them first, or maybe I prefer to have some choice over who I invite to stay.

I noticed that many women are only willing to meet for coffee. They too probably want to meet a person before making any commitment.

I might give it a try one day, but not quite yet.

Robert

Patty, if there are 17 Daniel Craig lookalikes on Robert's floor, I'd be happy to share! But if there's only one, you'll have to arm wrestle me for him ;-) Maybe they can add that to the list of Olympic sports....

It's the Winter Olympics ladies so think up another sport to fight over Daniel Craig for!

There's an active couchsurfing community here in Manila. They meet regularly and have interesting games and give out prizes. I know some VT members are also couchsurfing members.

Okay folks, I've signed up: http://www.couchsurfing.com/people/pelalusa

You'll notice that I'm only open to drinks/coffee right now. But we'll see how things go.

Robert

I tried to register but it kept rejecting me because apparently I wasn't entering the code correctly at the end, even though I typed in what I saw. What does that mean (if I'm not seeing it correctly)?

Ummm, new glasses?

What I meant was why do they put these things on these sites, as in what is the function of asking you to type in the letters and numbers as you see them?

It's because without them, computers can be programmed to enter phoney applications. This wastes the time of the people who run the site and often costs a lot of money to keep such jerks out of the database.

To show you how pervasive these spammers are, take a look at this page of mine: https://id406.van.ca.siteprotect.com/bcdigitaldivide/?q=node/2

All of the data is only shown to registered administrators yet every week we get all kinds of junk ads showing up in our database. What a nuisance!