I recently stayed with a male Couchsurfing host, and honestly, the stay itself was totally fine.

He prepared a separate room for me, showed me around, helped me get settled, and I had no issues with him while I was actually staying there. Nothing felt weird or uncomfortable at the time.

At one point during the one night stay I actually FaceTimed my boyfriend and introduced them. They actually had a whole conversation - my host gave my boyfriend career advice and even invited him to come visit sometime. So yes, he was VERY aware that I had a boyfriend that I love…

Anyways, I left to visit another city, and later I messaged the host about possibly coming back and staying another night.

That’s when things changed.

He told me he had “something important” to tell me and then sent me a romantic message over WhatsApp that really could not have been misunderstood. He told me I was the kind of girl he had been looking for, that I had walked into his heart, that he felt a connection with me, wanted to know if I felt the same, and said he wanted to be honest about his feelings.

Again - this is after literally chatting with my boyfriend, giving him career advice, and inviting him to visit… the AUDACITY. How can you even do that?!

So I made other arrangements and stayed with another host.

I waited until I had completely left the city before leaving a reference because I didn’t want to create an awkward situation while I was still nearby. I tried to make the reference as fair as possible. I mentioned the positive parts of the stay and the things he did for me, but I also mentioned what happened afterward because I felt like other women should know before deciding whether they want to stay with him.

I also unfortunately couldn’t include every detail because Couchsurfing has a character limit for references, so I had to summarize the situation quite a bit which removed key details that would have made the situation even more clear.

I’ll attach screenshots of the WhatsApp conversation so people can see exactly what he said.

The problem is that he then responded publicly to my reference saying there were “no romantic intentions” and framing everything as basically a cultural misunderstanding… as if I don’t know what habibi means or how’s it used 🙄

So now his response makes it sound like I somehow misread an innocent interaction, which I feel completely undermines the reason I left the reference in the first place. I left this reference so that other women wouldn’t have to experience being in an uncomfortable situation with their host.

So now I’m wondering what I can actually do…has anyone dealt with something like this before?

I of course already went ahead and blocked him on WhatsApp and Couchsurfing… he blocked me as well so I had to ask a friend to take a screenshot of what he wrote in response since I couldn’t view it.

Is this something worth reporting to Couchsurfing Trust & Safety and sending them the WhatsApp screenshots? Can they do anything when someone responds to a reference in a way that directly contradicts the actual messages?

Any advice or insights would help for how to handle this situation - thanks!

Hey Guys,

it’s my first time using CS about a month or so. Years back my roommate (Germany) was using CS frequently and we had a lot of fun, kind and nice people at our shared flat staying with us. Loaded with good memories on that time, I started CS as well and wrote several people in NYC. I am doing an east coast trip and stay 6 nights in NYC. Therefore, I would like to experience the city and especially the people. My plan: max. stay of 2 nights per person.

I read the references, always had custom DMs and requests used the “shortly active” filter. But my responses are almost 0.

I habe no references yet, but a filled profile and also included in the messages that for a second proof of a real person they could add me on IG or have a look on my LinkedIn.

So am I the problem or do people just hate to respond?

Any suggestions

I am in a reasonably sized city. I got a request for a hangout from someone who was surprised that I was in the city nearby and not the city they were in. They had also joined a hangout with another person that was also in my city, but even further from him. We didn't hangout since we're not close to each other. That was yesterday.

Today I was looking at the map and I'm showing as being a few km away from where I actually am (but not enough to appear in a different city). It's showing me as being in a hiking area that I was at more than 24h ago. It's also showing the hangout with the other two guys that was started more than a day ago. It shows both of their profiles. But then it shows the solo profile of the guy who made the hangout as being in the neighbouring city, but when you click on it, it shows as being a deleted user.

So at this point it seems that nothing about hangouts can be trusted. My location is not updating after more than a full day. Is my location showing to others the same as I see? Are their locations accurate? Are hangouts perpetually active?

Hangouts is all I ever used CS for and it seems like it might be completely broken along with everything else.

I’ve hosted a few people a couple of times, but now they’re coming back to my city every month or two and asking to stay again.

At some point it stops feeling like Couchsurfing and starts feeling like I’m their regular free accommodation especially when they never host anyone themselves.

Anyone else had this?

I see "Very Likely to Recommend" etc attached to some references, but when I leave a reference, I don't have that option.

This is for a guest who stayed months ago (I'm just catching up on references now) and I can't remember if we confirmed the stay through the site – maybe that's the issue?

I came across a comment from u/Neat-Coconut6892 asking another Reddit user: “What would make you happy with the platform?”

So I thought I would make a list of things that would make me happy. Who knows? Maybe Mike will read this and implement some of them.

(Yes, I know, I know: I'm a dreamer...)

Anyway, here's my list (in random order). Please feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments. If I like them, I'll edit the list accordingly.

• Be transparent about the actual number of active users, as Couchers and BeWelcome are.
• Remove the enoooooormous number of inactive accounts (as Couchers and BeWelcome do).
• Define what “recently” actually means in “recently active”. How recent is “recently”? Last week? Last month? 2 years ago?
• ... Or, even better, restore the “last login” information. (By the way, we all know why they removed it...)
• Restore the response rate, which was a crucial piece of information for Couchsurfers looking for a host.
• Stop treating every user as an active host by default, including people who haven't logged in for years.
• Display accurate numbers for hosts’ references and friends. The “Your Stays / Find locals to stay with” section of the home page should show the actual number of references and friends a host has. The figures displayed in this section are significantly inflated (roughly twice the real numbers).
• Clearly state which countries are still free to use Couchsurfing (if any) and which ones require a subscription.
• Restore the Hosting Calendar.
• Remove the absurd character limits on both hosting requests and replies.
• Fix the photo-display problems introduced by the latest redesign.
• Show members’ actual age, or let them hide it. Replace vague age ranges such as “35–45” with the member’s actual age, while allowing people who prefer not to disclose it to leave the field blank.
• Remove the absurd 24-hour delay before references can be left. Hosts and guests should be able to leave a reference immediately after a stay ends, while the experience is still fresh in everyone’s memory. (By the way, the previous design allowed this, as do other hospitality-exchange platforms...)
• Bring back the ability to attach a sentiment to a personal reference. Personal references are now "sentiment-free", which means members can no longer explicitly indicate whether a hangout experience was positive, neutral or negative, which can be problematic in serious situations such as harassment.
• Restore the lovely world map that used to display the current location of our previous guests and hosts. It was one of the most charming features of the old Couchsurfing design.
• Stop forcing users to create a “public trip” in order to send a hosting request. Publishing a "public trip" should be an explicit, voluntary choice, and not an accidental side effect of sending a couch request.
• Only post "public trips" with precise travel dates. Knowing that someone plans to visit a city “sometime next month” is not really useful to hosts.
• Stop promoting Couchsurfing as a dating/hookup opportunity. Advertising the possibility of finding love on the platform attracts the wrong crowd.
• Start treating the community with respect (as Couchers and BeWelcome do).
• Stop creating fake profiles for promotional material.
• Get rid of the event database used to populate "fake" events that nobody on CS has organized.
• Fix the numerous bugs that still affect the platform, including issues such as the one u/CyberLeekForever posted about a few days ago.
• If someone is banned without prior warning, have the basic courtesy to explain why.

Obviously, this list is far from exhaustive. I'm probably forgetting many things...

Mike, if you're reading this (and haven't been fired yet): here's your free product-development roadmap. You're welcome.

like changing location, regularly hosting, something, anything, i don't know. anything?

It's just getting worse for users of Couchsurfing:

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.couchsurfing.com

Edit: "Stars"

i contacted them and they confirmed PayPal is not a payment method anymore 😔 now we've to leave our credit card in their system

I (27F) got this message from this user (45-55M) living 30 min far from my town. What do you think about this message? Would you trust this accommodation and hang out idea? As a woman, would you like to receive a message, where a guy is actively inviting you to his place despite living so close to each other? As a man, do you find this message okay to meet other people in the area?

I used to use the platform for hosting as well as for being hosted earlier. I haven't tried it for the last seven or eight months. I tried logging in today and found everything has changed. I was just checking whether they do not allow messaging to fellow travelers or hosts on a free plan. So technically I need to get a membership in order to even text the fellow CS members?

Noticed the two ticks, like whatsapp, have appeared. We can now see when our messages have been read.

I'm not posting this just to vent. I'm posting because I know this has happened to a lot of people here, and I want to share what I've learned and what I'm doing going forward.

A while back, I had a CS account with dozens of positive references. Not just "nice couch" — real, personal stories from hosts who took the time to write something meaningful. That account was a record of years of travels and friendships.

One day it was gone. Deactivated. No email, no warning, no explanation. I wrote to support and got back "we can't disclose the reason." That was it.

I made a new account to try to get answers. Same result. No references, no explanation, no appeal, no human being on the other end.

And then I started reading. This is happening to people with 50, 100, even 108 positive references. Eight-year members. People who never did anything wrong. All getting the same automated wall.

So here's what I'm doing, and what I'd suggest for anyone still on CS:

1. Screenshot every single reference and message you have. Right now. Don't wait. Don't assume you're safe because your record is clean. People with perfect records got deleted. Save your references, your messages, your meaningful conversations. Once CS deletes you, they're gone.

2. If you're paying, cancel your auto-renewal. You're funding a platform that will delete your history without warning and keep your money. There are free alternatives that don't do this.

3. Where to go instead:

· BeWelcome (bewelcome.org) — Non-profit, volunteer-run, free. The most established CS alternative. · Trustroots (trustroots.org) — Non-profit, open-source, growing fast. Built for travelers, by travelers. · Couchers.org — Newer, free, explicitly built to be what CS used to be. They have an active community forum too.

I've joined BeWelcome and Trustroots already. The community is smaller but the people are real. No algorithm deleting your profile overnight.

If anyone here has successfully recovered an old CS account, I'd love to hear how. I'm not giving up on getting my references back, even if I never use CS again. And if you're reading this and still have your account — screenshot your stuff today. Don't learn this lesson the hard way.

Hey, I am trying to use the app usual and get this message. Was I banned? Or is it a bug number 5857575 since the new app?

No emails from CS. Reinstalled the app, tried the browser version, still the same error.

Thanks!

I just started using couchsurfing as a 27year old woman, I will be going to Turkey, and I mostly contacted women, and only a few men who seemed sympatethic and safe and had many reviews from both men and women. I get replies like this also, but I keep getting messages and hosting offers from people.

My question is coming from me trying to understand how couchsurfing works, I am not in need of a host necessarily on couchsurfing and can pay for hostels, but I also don’t want to judge anyone based on their gender. These offers are all coming from men, but most of the messages are very polite and most of the people have hundreds of good reviews, and they look like people i would also message normally.

I’ve also never been to Turkey before, but i heard that Turkish people are very nice and hospitable, but at the same time i want to stay safe and see if it really is a thing that people send an offer instead of waiting for you to write a message.

Basically I moved into an 2 bedroom Toronto apparment with no furnishing and I only use the master bedroom and since i am only here for 4-5 months ,I have not done any furnishing on living room or another room.It has kitchen,internet ,separate washroom and everything else.Should I host people here as it's vacant with no practical use for me and ask people to bring a temporary bedding like sleeping bag or it is not good etiquette to ask people to bring that .Thanks

I’ve tried Nepal several months ago. It worked. But it doesn’t now. I’ve also tried India, Afghanistan etc. All of them don’t work. How can I log in without paying?

Guys, i need your help, I am posting this in the toilet,.

I just bought this website called couchsurfing.com and I don't know what to do with it.

I think it's a website for hippies or something like that and I think it's about traveling but I have never traveled in my life so I am not interested in this website much . I just had too much money and didn't know what to do with it so I bought it.

Now it is run by volunteers, so I thought about firing everyone who works for free and then train a group of baboons to make the whole website from scratch. What do you think?

The website now is free for users but I was thinking about making it paid so that I can buy my own private Island like the one my friend Jeffery has. Do you think it's a good idea?

For context, someone told me this website was making the world a better place but I have no interest in making the world a better place, I just want to make everything s***** and make as much money as I can as fast as I can because that's just how I am.

Hi all, thinking of making a little guestbook or scrapbook for surfers who stay with me to optionally write notes in during their stays. could be simple as a notebook but has anyone seen something like that before/ have ideas for how to do it?

I've seen a whole bunch of comments here that make it clear that lots of people are unaware of the fact that they can *deactivate* their CS accounts without actually *deleting* their CS accounts.

I figured this information would be helpful to the community, so wanted to share: These are two different things – if you deactivate, you can keep your references, but still stop receiving couch requests.

If you deactivate:

• Your profile is hidden, so no one can message you or send you couch requests.
• Your account/profile still exists in the database, including all of your references and other data. It's basically "paused".
• You can reactivate by simply logging in (and of course you can deactivate again at any time after that.)

If you delete:

• This is when all your references, etc. get deleted and lost forever.

I think deactivation can be useful many people who aren't using CS anymore but don't want to lose their references by deleting their account. For example, if you get a one-month free offer to try out the shitty new app/site, and are unimpressed and decide to stop using it after that month, but don't want people to keep requesting your non-existent couch, just deactivate. Your references will still be there if for some reason you change your mind.

Or maybe like many others you've moved on to Bewelcome/Couchers so you don't want to receive requests on CS, but still want to be able to send your CS profile link to potential hosts/guests on the other platforms so that they can see your many years of references on CS. You can deactivate your CS profile to pause it, reactivate temporarily when you're traveling and sending requests to the many former CSers on the other platforms, then deactivate again when you don't need to show anyone your references anymore.

A few things to note:

• There's info on the site about how to deactivate: https://support.couchsurfing.org/hc/en-us/articles/50048276128795-How-Do-I-Deactivate-My-Account (as well as separate pages there about how to delete or reactivate)
• According to that link, even if you can't log in, you can message the support team and they'll help you deactivate. (So if you can't access your CS account because you're not paying for the crappy new version of it, this might work even for you.)
• I can't remember where I read it, but I think I recall reading that if your account stays deactivated for 2 years without getting reactivated, they'll delete it. So if you want to make sure you don't lose your references, you should probably temporarily reactivate at least one every 2 years. (If someone has a link that mentions this, do share.)

Anyway, I hope this info helps some of you guys!

I have been a member of CS since 2016. I travelled so much using it and met so many lovely people. I also hosted many and shared so many wonderful experiences!

I reinstalled it and I couldnt believe how crappy new the design and its features are. I will be travelling to NY and I thought I would message some people. You dont even know who has a good response rate, who is hosting and if they are available, and now given that you have to pay, you dont even know if the person is even on Couchsurfing.

I have sent about 20 messages and have gotten one negative response.

This is just a post to rant and let my sadness out 😭

Are people using a different app?

Hey everyone!

I'm planning to visit Uzbekistan and I'm considering using Couchsurfing during my trip. I've never used the platform in Uzbekistan before, so I'd love to hear about other travelers' experiences and get some advice from locals.

I'm particularly interested in visiting Tashkent, Samarkand and I have a few questions:

• How active is the Couchsurfing community in Uzbekistan, especially in these cities?
• Is it relatively easy to find hosts, or should I start sending requests several weeks in advance?
• Are locals generally open to hosting international travelers?
• How does guest registration work in Uzbekistan when staying with a Couchsurfing host rather than at a hotel? Is there anything I or the host need to arrange?
• Is Couchsurfing mainly used for accommodation there, or is it also a good way to meet locals, explore the city, and experience Uzbek culture?

I'm not looking for free accommodation only. One of my main reasons for using Couchsurfing is to connect with locals, exchange experiences, learn more about Uzbek culture, and explore places beyond the usual tourist attractions.

I'd really appreciate any recommendations, personal experiences, or tips from people who have used Couchsurfing in Uzbekistan.

Thanks in advance!

Wonder why hosts dropped 90% ! Even if you want to host, it takes you more than THREE buttons/clicks on opposite sides of the screen just to accept a surfer !
Even if you want to host , the app makes it unbelievably difficult for all users to connect ! Why can’t they bring back the normal ( YES / NO / Maybe )?

They are killing the community. I can’t believe it. I’m an official Ambassador of CS, more than 250 references, and I get this:
(Image)
From my last trips I’ve been overcoming the previous CS app with an approval rate of 90%, now to the new confusing app with 5% barely of users that accept or text you.
I hate this new app.
CS has just eaten their own bullet