SIMILAR ONLINE TRAVELING COMMUNITIES
Hospitalityclub.org
Globalfreeloaders.com
Hospex.net
UNDER WHAT CONDITIONS WOULD YOU LET A STRANGER STAY AT YOUR HOUSE?
"Excluding parties and social circumstances. I would rather not let a stranger stay at my house."
— R.W. Smith,
Pleasanton, Calif., junior
"If they didn't have anywhere else to go, we'll let band members stay at my house who didn't know."
— Maggie Jones, Seneca junior
"I would not let a stranger stay inside my house. The garage is a different story."
Adam Taylor, Lenexa senior
"I if they were drunk and didn't have a ride home or a place to go" — Jessica Mack, St. Louis junior
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5
Katina
Mohr.
Boulder
senior,
poses
with her
host,
Aline
Jenon, in
Namur,
Belgium.
Crystal Bock, with her hosts Marion, a juggling teacher, and Frank, whom she stayed with before she found a place to live in Cork, Ireland.
Matteo, dressed in a flawless dark blue Italian suit, stepped out of the car with an umbrella for me. We both smiled shyly and kissed each other on the cheek. It was the first time for both of us and we weren't sure what to say or how to act. After a week of e-mails and text messages we had just now met in person. A friend and I were going to sleep at his apartment for the weekend. Our first CouchSurfing experience had begun.
The next two days were unforgettable. Matteo, a 30-year-old civil engineer, was our "touristic bus" as he drove my friend and I all over Rome. Our faces were pressed against the windows as he told us about Rome's modern and ancient marvels in his accented English. We ended up staying with his childhood friend Luca, a 30-year-old liver transplant surgeon, because Matteo had an unexpected work conflict.
Immediately after we picked up Luca, who had been working and living in London, at the airport, he trusted us with the keys to his one-bedroom apartment. Luca offered us his bed because he would be working at a hospital for 24 hours straight, but my friend and I felt more comfortable sharing the small but comfortable pullout couch.
Both mornings, Matteo and Luca called to check in and give us advice on how to see the very best of Rome. When we parted, I knew that
I would probably never see either of them again. However, this short visit strengthened my belief that kindness among strangers still exists, despite my parents reaction when I told them I was going to stay with people I met on the internet.
The CouchSurfing Project is an online global network that connects travelers who are looking for a place to stay with locals who are willing to provide accommodations for free. As
of March 1,2007 the network has more than 174.336registered members in 213 countries.
such as location, age, language and gender, and then e-mail the ones they feel compatible with. If the potential host also feels comfortable with the arrangement, then they can make plans to meet face to face. Visits can be as short as a cup of coffee or as long as a few months, but most visits are one or two nights.
Unlike social networking sites
Members can leave references about people they hosted or stayed with on their profiles. This vouching system
AS OF MARCH 1,2007, THE NETWORK HAS MORE THAN 174,336 REGISTERED MEMBERS IN 213 COUNTRIES.
This is how it works. Anyone can set up a free online profile that describes who they are, what they do, where they live and whether they are able to host travelers. Surfers, or travelers, can search for available hosts using criteria
such as Facebook.com and MySpace.com, which keep members connected online with people they already talk to. CouchSurfing.com is intended to bring complete strangers together offline to create unique bonds that cross cultures and continents. The CouchSurfing motto is "Participate in Creating a Better World, One Couch at a Time." Judging by the more than 38,000 successful surfings and the more than 44,000 friendships created on the site, CouchSurfing is truly changing lives.
puts safety and trust into the hands of the CouchSurfing community.
A computer programmer in Conway, N.
H. named Casey Fenton created the project. Fenton, then an overworked 22-year-old, needed a break and found a cheap, last-minute plane ticket to iceland. Not knowing a soul in the country and with only four days to plan and no place to stay, Fenton hacked into the University of iceland's student directory. He spammed 1,500 students with a message saying he was coming in a few days and wanted to see the real iceland. He received more than 50 replies and ended up spending the weekend sleeping in a garage and partying with newfound friends he has kept to this day.
When he returned to the United States he decided that he wanted to travel like that all the time. Creating
the network took him four years, but in January 2004, with help from three friends, CouchSurfing.com debuted and the four founders gave members the opportunity to make friends out of strangers while traveling.
So members will see that you are serious about the project, put up a picture, fill out the entire profile and make friends, says Justin Montgomery, 2006 graduate. Montgomery had plans with six hosts for his travels in Europe last summer when the CouchSurfing site crashed three days before he was supposed to go.
The site was down for a month, from June to July 2006, but it was rebuilt and "CouchSurfing. 2.0" has been stable and fully operational ever since. Montgomery lost all of his contacts and the e-mails he had sent to the hosts and had to start over with the interim CouchSurfing emergency board. Montgomery was lucky enough to connect with two members to host he and his mom in Italy.
In Genova, a 27-year-old student hosted Montgomery and his mom for two nights. Both of them had their own rooms and their host cooked them meals that used regional ingredients, he says. In return they cooked a breakfast of eggs, sausage and toast that their host could experience an American meal Montgomery was upset that he wasn't able to CouchSurf during the whole trip as he had planned, but it worked out, he says. After his mom left he continued to travel, met a couple
COUCHSURFING STATISTICS
Couchsurfers: 174,336
Couchsurfers: 174,336
Successful surfings: 38,000+
Friendships created: 44,000+
Countries represented: 213
Top country; United States
Cities represented: 21,215
Top city: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Languages represented: 993
Signups last week: 3,106
Average age:25
Available couches: 136,414
Source: CouchSurfing.com
06→ JAYPLAY 03.08.2007