Last Updated: 9/25/20 | September 25th, 2020
Couchsurfing was one of the first sharing economy travel web sites in the world.
Couchsurfing was conceived by 21-year-old Casey Fenton in 1999. After he found a low-cost flight to Iceland, he realized he didn’t have a location to say.
Instead of settling for a expensive hotel, Fenton hacked into the university of Iceland’s trainee database and e-mailed 1,500 trainees asking for a location to stay. almost 100 people replied. When he returned home, Casey came and started Couchsurfing. From there, the site grew into one of the main methods travelers connect with locals for events and locations to stay.
It (and sites like it such as BeWelcome, Servas, and GlobalFreeloaders) stays one of the very best methods to connect with locals, get off the main vacationer travel path, make new friends, and save money by getting free accommodation.
I started utilizing Couchsurfing during my first round the world trip in 2006. My first hold was a lady in Athens who taught me what makes the best gyro while my second hold a guy who let me stay in his guesthouse (with a pool!) for as long as I desired and my third a couple in Melbourne who showed me around the suburbs.
Though I utilized it only a few times that original trip, in the years that have followed, it ended up being my lifeline. I’ve satisfied people I still phone call good friends today. Couchsurfing has opened up a world of outstanding people to me while assisting bring down on the greatest costs in travel.
Though the service isn’t as prominent as it utilized to be, it stays prominent enough where holds still get swamped with more requests than they can handle and you have to make yourself stand out.
If you’re sending out lots of requests and nobody composes back — even to state no — then something is wrong with your approach. holds can normally odor the travelers who just want to utilize them for a free location to stay a mile away (a lesson I discovered the hard method early on).
It’s important to keep in mind that the people you are reaching out to have genuine lives and are taking you into their home for free. The dates might not work and/or they might get so many requests (and this is extremely true for prominent destinations) they just don’t have the time to respond to them all.
So how do you prosper at Couchsurfing? how do you find people who will state agree to hold you but won’t be overall creeps? show that you want to be involved in the community. That you care. That you took the time to fill out your profile in detail and aren’t just utilizing this as a method to avoid paying $30 for a dorm bed.
Here is how to prosper and get a action on Couchsurfing:
Always have multiple (and Current) profile Pictures
This just shows me, as a prospective host, that you’re a genuine person. have photos of you with your friends, from your travels, and having fun. I can see you took the time to put the pictures up. It shows you care and you have a social life.
Moreover, make sure they match your age. If your profile states you are 30 and your pictures look like they were taken ten years ago, that’s a bit weird. keep them updated. I am constantly adding pictures from my travels. I currently have five uploaded. I don’t believe there is any magic number to this but the more the better.
Fill Out Your profile in Detail
If you’ve taken the time to fill out your profile, it most likely indicates you are severe about this site. It will give people a chance to learn what type of person you are instead of guessing based on the one email you composed them and that ten-year-old picture you swiftly put up. profiles with believed and detail get a lot more responses. I want to know about the complete stranger I am going to have in my home, and your complete profile lets me do that.
Have suggestions and Reviews
Both holds and travelers can accrue suggestions from other hosts, friends, and guests. As always, the more positive reviews, the better. If you see that other people have stayed with the hold and had a fun and risk-free experience, you most likely will too. You might not get together with the hold in the end, but at least you know they aren’t a creep or will take your stuff.
The exact same works for you, the prospective guest. holds want to see that you aren’t a creep too!
However, if you are new to the service don’t have any reviews, ask your good friends who utilize the service to compose you a evaluation and describe you as a friend. I accept a lot of people as guests because, while they are new to the service, they have positive evaluations from people they know (who also have positive reviews), from other people they’ve satisfied traveling, or from Couchsurfing meet-ups.
Attend Meet-ups in Your City
If you’re new to the platform and don’t have any reviews, attend local meet-ups and events. After all, Couchsurfing is more than just staying with people. Det handler omAt være en del af et samfund!
Hver by – inklusive din egen – vil sandsynligvis masser af rutinemæssige aktiviteter, grupper og begivenheder, som du kan deltage i. Mød mennesker – hvad enten det er som en lokal eller rejsende – og lær dem at kende. Gå steder. Hænge ud. Få evalueringer fra mennesker. Ikke alle dine evalueringskrav til at finde fra folk, der har opholdt sig hos dig!
Plus, dette er en fantastisk metode til at få nye gode venner, der kan lide at rejse! Du kan bruge “hangouts” -funktionen på appen til at finde mennesker i nærheden af dig, foreslå aktiviteter og oprette forbindelser. Dette er den hurtigste metode til at få evalueringer og vokse din konto.
Være en hold først
En anden metode til at tjene evalueringer (såvel som at give tilbage til samfundet) er at holde mennesker. At være et hold handler ikke altid om at få folk til at blive hos dig. Ofte er det bare at være en udflugtsguide. Jeg har haft enestående gælder, der netop viste mig deres by – fra pigen i Ukraine, der bragte mig til et universitetsfest, til fyren i Oxford, der tog mig roende, til de gode venner i München, der tog mig en fremragende rockkoncert.
Hvis du ikke har et område at være vært, skal du tilbyde at tage folk ud og vise dem rundt i din by. Hvis folk har tilbragt tid med dig – selvom de ikke har opholdt sig på dit sted – vil du stadig tjene anmeldelser, få nye venner og øge dine muligheder for at blive holdt nede på vejen!
Bliv verificeret
Couchsurfing bruger forskellige niveauer af verifikation. Medlemmer kan verificeres af deres adresse, regerings -ID, telefonnummer og ved at betale et medlemsgebyr. At blive verificeret er en af de vigtigste ting, du kan gøre for at forbedre dine muligheder for at være vært. At forstå, at en person er blevet verificeret, reducerer sandsynligheden for, at de bliver en skør psyko -morder.
Fra 2020 har Couchsurfing brug for et lille gebyr i køb for at udnytte platformen (på grund af deres økonomiske kampe fra Covid19). Medlemmerne krav om at betale $ 2,39 pr. Måned (eller $ 14,29 pr. År), som leverer adgang til platformen og får dig til at verificeret (hvis du allerede var verificeret, kræver du ikke at betale op før 2021).
Selvom det er en omkostning, er det ubetydelig. Samfundet har masser af værdi, fra sin app til sine fora til den gratis logi, den tilbyder. Hvis du har råd til det, vil jeg opfordre dig til at betale gebyret. Det er det værd!
Skriv fængslende og personlige anmodninger
Når du sender anmodninger om en vært, skal du gøre din anmodning personlig. Komponerer ikke bare en eller to sætninger, kommunikerer det, du kunne lide ved deres profil, hvorfor du ville være en god pasform, dine rutiner og hobbyer, hvad du vil komme ud af det, og hvad du kan tilbyde værten. Vær interessant og vær personlig.
Årsagen til, at mange mennesker mislykkes ved Couchsurfing, er, at de sender kedelige, generiske, udskårne e-mails. Her er et eksempel på det:
Hej Matt,
Jeg vedrører Austin i næste uge i 3 dage. Kan jeg blive hos dig?
Sam
Jeg ville ignorere eller svare nej på den e -mail. Det fortæller mig ikke noget om personen. Jeg er nødt til at gøre det ekstra arbejde for at gå til personens side, klikke rundt og finde ud af på egen hånd, om denne person er typisk eller ej.
En meget bedre e -mail er ville være:
Hej Matt,
Hvordan har du det? Jeg vedrører Austin i næste uge i tre dage og så din holdside. Som dig er jeg også en stor fan af Game of Thrones, Whisky og Thai Food. Det ville være bemærkelsesværdigt at have et greb, der kunne vise mig disse ting omkring Austin. Jeg har hørt masser af fantastiske ting om byen og søger at komme udendørs og udforske. Jeg kan også godt lide at lave mad og vil gerne lave et måltid fra mit land, Frankrig! Jeg er stille, ren og vil ikke være i din metode, hvis du kræver at arbejde eller noget.
– Sam
Det er den type e -mail, der ville få en handling fra mig! Desuden bruger Benny Lewis med flydende på 3 måneder, der har holdt over 2.000 couchsurfers, dette råd:
Tænk på, hvad du kan gøre for den vært. Folk har en tendens til at være ekstremt selvcentrede i deres e-mails og oplyse, hvor fremragende en person de er, hvilket ville få mig til at rulle mine øjne meget. Men den underlige e -mail ville være fra nogen, der valgte noget på min profil, såsom et sprog, jeg gerne vil lære og angive, at han i bytte for sofaen kan vise mig et par af dette sprog. Det ville stimulere min interesse og få mig til at holde dem mere!
Når der er en fornemmelse af, at nogen skal være vært for at glemme, at jeg leverer dem tagdækning og lokale ture osv., Gratis, er det et frisk pust, når nogen siger, at hvis jeg tager ham til en lokal Klub, han viser mig hip-hop-dansetræk.
Vær ikke selvcentreret. Det er tydeligt, at du prøver at finde en gratis placering at blive, men du er nødt til at gå ud over det. Lad holder ved, hvad du kan gøre for dem, og hvorfor det bliver en sjov oplevelse.
Send flere anmodninger
En del af Couchsurfing spiller tallespillet. Det er bare et faktum af systemet. Hvis du e -mailer kun en eller to personer, især i en by med få værter, er det skeptisk, at du finder meget succes. E -mail så mange gælder som muligt for at maksimere din chances. stating “sorry, I’ve found another host” is not going to cause any bad blood, and a lot of holds acknowledge you are emailing multiple people. I don’t email prospective holds who haven’t been active on the site within 30 days because it’s less likely they will respond to you.
***
Most people fail at Couchsurfing because they just utilize it as a method to get a free location to stay. They put bit effort into it yet expect outstanding results. Couchsurfing is an attitude, a method of thinking, and, a lot of importantly, a community.
Not all holds want to interact with their guests, but even those who want very little contact still want to meet and speak to interesting people. If they didn’t, they put their location on Airbnb instead.
To crush it on Couchsurfing, you requirement a positive attitude and a desire to be part of a community.
You can’t just want to utilize people for a free place.
And always keep in mind to be a good guest: be respectful, be clean, be tidy, and follow any “house” policies set by the hosts.
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