Couchsurfing International Inc. is a Delaware C corporation based in San Francisco that offers its users hospitality exchange and social networking services.
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011. The website provides a platform for members to "surf" on couches by staying as a guest at a host's home, host travelers, or join an event.
As of January 2012, the website had 3.6 million members. In March 2013, the website had 6 million members in 100,000 cities worldwide.
Free to register. Members are encouraged to provide information and photos of themselves and of the accommodation they offer, if any. More information provided by a member, and other members, improves the chances that someone will find the member trustworthy enough to be their host or guest. Security is measured in a variety of ways, including member references, verification and the vouching system. Members looking for accommodation can search for hosts using several parameters such as age, location, gender and last login.
Homestays are consensual between the host and guest, and the duration, nature, and terms of the guest's stay are generally worked out in advance. No monetary exchange takes place except sometimes for compensation of incurred expenses (e.g. food). It is common practice for guests to seek non-monetary means to show their appreciation, such as bringing a gift, cooking a meal or teaching a skill.
Couchsurfing provides groups where members may seek travel partners or advice. Members organize activities such as camping trips, bar crawls, meetings, and sporting events.
The website features a searchable database of thousands of upcoming events organized by Couchsurfing members.
Establishing trust
There are three methods Couchsurfing that increase security and trust, which are all visible on member profiles for potential hosts and surfers:
- Personal references, which hosts and surfers have the option to leave after having used the service to comment on what their experience with person they are leaving a reference for was like. It is also possible to leave neutral or negative references if it is deemed appropriate and negative references are taken very seriously.Negative references are sometimes removed by the site when they are deemed to have been done in a retaliatory or unfair manner. Members tend to rely heavily on references when trying to determine whether another user is "safe" or not.
- An optional credit card verification system, allowing members to "lock in" their name and mailing address by making a credit card payment under any name and entering a code that Couchsurfing mails to an address of their choice. The verification program is the principal source of revenue for Couchsurfing. In an effort to increase economic fairness, the verification fee is based on a sliding scale, taking into account the Purchasing Power Parity andHuman Development Index of the country of registration. The verification system is widely viewed as heavily flawed and often ignored, since in the end, it only verifies that there is a name attached to a credit card and mailing address. No background safety check is ever performed and information does not need to be updated when someone moves.
- A personal vouching system, whereby a member that had been vouched for three times — originally starting with the founders of the site — might in turn vouch for any number of other members he knew or had met through Couchsurfing, and can trust..
Here is an example page from Sweden
