There are no strangers out there in this world, only friends you haven't yet met. After nearly one year of exploring Mexico and the USA almost entirely via staying and meeting up with people of Couchsurfing I want to give a short summary about this platform.
What is Couchsurfing (CS)? It is a platform that offers a variety of different opportunities to get to know new people all over the world. It encourages cultural exchange whilst making traveling more affordable as well as more authentic. It is possible to offer your home to other people and let them stay with you. In exchange you get the chance to stay at other people’s places on your travels. Furthermore it is also possible to simply meet up with other CS’ers on public events or personal Hangout sessions. Anybody can decide depending on his or her personal living situation and preferences which options to use. For me CS has become way more than a platform now, it’s a lifestyle!
Some CS’ers offer you a sleeping mattress or a couch in a shared room, others a private individual room with king-sized bed. Some CS’ers make you a hilarious breakfast, lunch and dinner, others let you care for your own. Some CS’ers are nudists and require you to be okay with them being nude or even want you to be nude as well, others adapt and wear clothes during your stay. Some CS’ers have a doctors degree, others are construction workers. Some CS’ers are millionaires, others earn their daily living and do not have a single cent left. Some CS’ers want to hang out with you all the time and share a lot of stories, others just provide you with a sleeping place and do not interact socially. Some CS’ers have an open heart and listen to your stories and experiences and try to learn from it, others are trapped in their daily live, seem narrow-minded and don’t see a learning perspective. Some CS’ers fall in love with other CS’ers, others do not consider relationships on this platform. Some CS’ers travel many thousands of miles to go to Couchcrashes, others prefer to meet up with people in their local community. Some CS’ers convinced their whole family to welcome CS’ers at their home, others have to turn against the family because they see a danger in it. Some CS’ers use Trump toilet paper, others give a shit... I could probably go on like that forever and come up with really ridiculous comparisons but all I wanted to say is that absolutely everyone is welcome to join. No matter where you live, how much money you have, what kind of religion, ethnic group or gender you belong to. Of course, everyone has the freedom to meet with anyone, but also to refuse requests if areas of interest simply do not fit together or someone seems unappealing.
What advantages did I have due to CS on this trip? I got to know hundreds of people, many of them will be lifelong friends. I was given personal city tours getting to know not just the touristic sights. This allowed me to move freely even in cities with high crime rates. In addition to all the knowledge I acquired from my hosts, I was of course also able to pass on a lot. Furthermore I saved a ton of money. For one year of traveling I just spent approximately 30 Euros on accommodation (two hotels, once renting a tent + campground).
I have thus decided for myself to continue this way of life and host people at my place in the near future. Especially because I will probably not be traveling so much in the near future, I want to give people from all over the world a good stay in my city. I want to meet travelers and give them local tips as well as take adventurers into my home. The reason for someone wanting to stay with me may vary. Someone might just see it as a way of saving money. The next one may want to preserve the environment and therefore not stay in hotels but rather at a simple place. Someone else may want an individual tourist guide, a person to exchange stories and do activities together. There may be various other reasons and all of them are welcome.
Any negative experiences? I personally haven't had any bad luck during my first year on Couchsurfing, just funny things or trivialities that didn't bother me. Nevertheless I met many people who had made unpleasant experiences, like people bringing strangers into their house without permit and having sex right next to you or people downloading illegal stuff from the internet. Well, it is an internet platform where basically everyone can create a profile and also fake profiles exist and people try to abuse the system. You can't stop bad people from trying to do that but you can do your best to detect those and do not give them any chance to bother you. The verification system as well as the reference writing are the two major security systems of Couchsurfing. On the one hand you can pay a small amount of money to get your ID, address, phone number and payment method verified. You can see that money also as a small donation for keeping the platform alive. On the other hand everyone gets references for either hosting or staying with someone else and additionally you can write personal references for people you meet. All these references are essential and tell others, from an outside perspective, something about a specific person. And sometimes you may even learn something about yourself when you get the one or the other reference. They are, so to speak, the currency of Couchsurfing. If someone experiences something really bad, the reference should also be negative, not in order to blame the other person, but to warn the whole CS community.
I created a short video summary with short parts of interviews I did with almost all the people I stayed with on my trip throughout Mexico and the U.S.. Not all of them are on Couchsurfing, some people were friends of Couchsurfers or friends of friends. Some of these people have hosted hundreds of people in their home, for others I was the first guest. I felt warmly welcome at each place and wouldn't like to miss any of the friends I made on my journey.
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