As couchsurfing becomes more and more popular, we start to hear a few horror stories from people meeting up. Unfortunately there are bad people everywhere in the world, that’s a fact we just have to face.
Couchsurfing is a system which relies a lot on trust and good nature, naturally people can be feardful of that. I would say ‘don’t be scared’, there are plenty of safeguards to prevent any nutters ruining the party for everyone:
1) Vouched for:
One of the best safety systems in place on couchsurfing is being ‘vouched for’ which essentially means other people have stayed with you and said ‘this dude/chick is not a lunatic, feel safe to stay with them’. If people haven’t being vouched for and you’re worried about safety, don’t surf with them.
2) Location verified:
Couch surfing has a method of checking people’s locations by sending a postcard to the registered address, then entering a password from that password into your couchsurfing profile. This way you can know they’re official members, with real names and real addresses.
3) Past Experiences:
You can see the reviews other surfers have left for them at the bottom of their profile, if they have endless positive reviews from other genuine surfers (Check their profiles too) then no doubt they’ll be a great host or guest.
All in all I’d say couchsurfing was very safe, however I wouldn’t want my girlfriend/sister etc to surf at a guys place alone. If you’re a solo female, try to surf with other women or with groups of people, better safe than sorry. Happy travels!
When someone asks to surf with me or I’m looking to stay, I can usually tell if they’re shady or not. My advice, having been on couchsurfing for several years, is to put as much info as possible on your profile regarding your interests and travel so you can find someone who shares your interests, too.
absolutely agree, never too much info 🙂
There are many cases of agressions using CS and this corporation don’t communicate about them; for example in Marseille