By now, most people that travel on a shoe-string budget have heard of the website CouchSurfing.com, a site that offers members the opportunity to stay with other members based on common interests listed in their profile.
It is completely free to register, and by searching through profiles for a host in the city you are traveling, you will find all types of people that you find common interests with. Many are so trusting that they will willingly give you their house key to come and go as you please, often times rarely spending any time at all with you. It may be sad to have to admit how surprising it is that people can be so trustworthy.
There are of course certain measures put in place to increase "trustworthiness" of members through the website. Though flawed in many ways, a system of leaving references is a good way to gauge whether your potential host or traveler can be trusted. By leaving references, other members can openly read about your past interactions with other surfers. The system is only flawed because you can leave negative references just as you can leave positive ones. Nobody wants to receive a negative strike on their profile, so everyone is reluctant to leave one - even if they had a less than desirable experience.
Problems have arisen from this as well. Many hosts have a long list of positive references, making them seem trustworthy, until enough people come out and claim the host being untoward and inappropriate.
Last year, a popular host in Chicago and a CouchSurfing "Ambassador" (a member who has been deemed a special member based on his commitment to the website) had his profile completely terminated with no chance of reinstatement because enough females had finally come forward claiming that he was inappropriate with them. He rushed to his CS friends and urged them to post on the forums for reinstatement, half of the CSers were in support, but the other half glad for his termination.
One member states, "The guy is a letter short of douchebag. He's arrogant, thinking he ownes the CS Chicago website. Unfortunately, he's made more that a few dummie followers along the way. People are afraid to speak out, or speak the truth of is harassments of women, and he's repugnant behaviors, for fear of backlash or trial among the cliques. Not me, I've always told him, one day I'd punch him straight in the face. [sic]"
As one might imagine, this is certainly not the first instance where inappropriate behavior has taken place. In 2012, there was a fairly widely publicized incident in which a man raped a woman who was using the website to travel. According to the woman, Abdelali Nachet, 34, threatened her and raped her in his flat in Leeds. Traumatized by the ordeal, the woman exclaimed she thought she could trust the site for safe traveling.
While something like this could happen anywhere, it is unfortunate that anything negative would happen through a website such as CouchSurfing has so much potential as a unifying medium for travelers of many different countries. On the general whole, it is a wonderful way to meet new people and learn intimately about their culture from a non-tourist point of view.
Female travelers need to be a little more cautious. Read a profile carefully and check the references. Message their past travelers if you have to. The more experienced you get with surfing, the easier it will be to weed out the shady characters from the good ones.
Not everyone will get along perfectly, but it is amazing how well people can get along when placed in the same time and space.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
