Couch Surfing is like sleeping on couches around the world

Couchsurfing it is a completely free way that allows you to travel without spending money on the hotel or hostel and at the same time have a unique travel experience given that whoever will host you and who will offer you a sofa (but in reality it can also be a bed or an entire room) are all local people who will therefore be able to show you or give you advice on how to see and get to know the city. In short, a sort of potential friend in a city you don’t know.

Www.couchsurfing.org is the work of Australians who, while travelling, have understood how expensive it is to travel for many months, even when you try to keep within limits, and how interesting it could be not only to be hosted but also to have someone who lives there as a city guide and who knows her.

Registering on the site is free, perhaps filling in the data takes a little time but if you use it you will understand why.

The more information you provide about yourself, the more likely you are to be hosted. For this purpose, the following are also very important comments written about you to those who hosted or were hosted by.

Before deciding whether to host someone, and equally before writing to someone to obtain availability, it is always a good idea read what other people think about him and if the reviews are positive and convincing enough then write to make your request.

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Read also: Rules and advice for low cost travel

How the Couchsurfing site works

First of all you need to register, enter basic information and then with a little time try to fill in all the descriptive fields.
It is important to provide many information on yourself because it is also a symptom of the fact that you are actively participating in the community and the more the person who wants to contact you or who should be waiting for you knows about you, the less disappointments or problems you could have when meeting and living together.
For example, if I am a person who likes to party all night, have fun and come home late at night and this is what I want to do while traveling, it is unlikely that a person who wakes up early and goes to sleep at 10 will want to host me.
Better to look for someone with the same interests as us and who perhaps wants to share these experiences with us, perhaps they will even be able to tell us where to go.
So once you have entered a detailed description, you can also fill in other additional areas such as: the list of countries you have been to, life philosophy, preferences and hobbies, things we like, couchsurfing experiences and of course photos.
Once we have our profile ready we can move on to the search phase for the sofa to sleep on.
Per seek hospitality just enter the city where you are looking for the sofa in the appropriate field and from the availability choose “yes, definitely sofa” because some cannot host but are available to meet you, show you the city or have a drink together.
Other options to take into consideration, however, it is always nice to go around the city with someone who knows it and can show us its most unusual and particular sides.

But we are looking for a sofa so let’s select at least for this first phase of research who can actually give us hospitality.
You have chosen the one you like best, then click on the “button”request for hospitality” and write your request.

Requests can be accepted, rejected or left on hold but you can always have them under control in the appropriate box.
These are my two tips when looking for a sofa on couchsurfing:

Read the profiles carefully and read them all, some write right at the bottom of the description something that you must mention in the request or a question to answer in the text of the email you send. If you don’t write this request they won’t answer you or they will tell you no because it means that you haven’t read the profile and instead of living this experience as a sharing you only take it as a way to sleep, use free hot water and radiators.
Send as many requests as you can. You have no idea how many hospitality requests you receive every day and you can’t always accept them all, so send so many that sooner or later someone will respond and give you availability.

I believe that this is a very interesting and useful idea as well as a very particular and certainly authentic way to get to know a different city and culture. I did it in New York and I will definitely do it again soon in Australia and New Zealand.
I was hosted by Juan who lived in Manhattan a stone’s throw from Central Park, I say he lived because I know he moved, and the experience was great, he was very kind, he gave me the keys and we also went camping together with other friends in Long Island where I lived the true “American life”.

Couchsurfing offers couches all over the world, including Africa, South America, Central America and Asia.