Didn't use CS for a year or so, tried logging back in and was shocked. Went to reddit to see what was up and immediately deleted my account. I had surfed in many different countries, hosted people. made friends - all gone. Shameful!

I logged into couchsurfing.com and got to their paywall. I clicked on the upper-right to get a copy of my data. the zip contained a bunch of files ending in ".jsonl". How can I browse these files as though the were full graphical webpages, instead of seeing them as code?

I left Couchsurfing after this new app design, like I’m sure many others have done. This email has me quite confused though. They changed the app quite a while ago now, so of course people are already talking about it. Then the quotes are just weird. Has anyone else got an email like this? What’s going on with them?

I’m moving to a new place and looking to host but I’ve been seeing a lot of redditors here saying it wasn’t like it was before. What changed? What was the golden era like compared to now?

I'm trying to find a way to meet new people when traveling to a new place and/or when people come to visit my country.

1. Is this platform good for that?

2. Does it depend on the population of the place you visit?

3. Can you contact people before you arrive so you can plan ahead?

4. Are there filters when you search for people based on interests or activities for example?

I wanted to try the platform but I didn't want to pay and not use it.

I would really appreciate the insight of people who have been using the platform for a while now and their experiences.

Thanks in advance!

Hi

Even though I've accepted guests who clearly have read my profile and can mention something from my profile, I felt that I got unlucky with too many guests lately.

They wake up, go out early and it gives you time to say "good morning, have a nice day, enjoy exploring the city" and then return home 20-30 minutes before I go to bed. They leave after what we agreed on and I feel disappointed but also tricked.

They got a free place to stay but were not interested in the social part of staying at my place. And then they have written a positive review saying "my host turned out to be amazing, friendly and made my stay so much more comfortable than expected".

I want to give a negative review because I basically never got the chance to be with them, even if they beforehand talked about "we can cook together" or partake in my other activities that I like to do. But what do you think? What can I do to prevent this from happening less frequently?

I agreed to host a girl for one night (september 1st to 2nd).Then same day she asks me if she can stay until 3rd, which i agreed to.Then she asked again, if she could arrive on 31st august, i agreed to that as well, even though i barely allow couchsrufing for more than 3 days.

Now, on august 29th she is asking if she can arrive on august 30th, which means the one night stay has potentially turned into five night stay.

She reason is she couldnt find cheap transport (which i understand) , but honestly, it has really rubbed me the wrong way.

I got the feeling that she doesnt care that this is my actual home, and i live here.

I usually go by my gut when i choose guests, but at this point my instict is not confortable with her staying at my home, so i cancelled the stay.

Am i overreacting or would u also find this inconsiderate?

Do you pay to host? Why? I was on CS before private equity bought them and hosted a shitton. Not very likely to do it again if I have to pay.

Je suis nouveau inscrit sur couchsurfing, encore en période d'essai. Uci beaucoup de gens semblent dire que les équipes de CS ont merdé récemment. Avec le paiement, l'appli et/ou l'user interface pzr exemple. Mais il se passe quoi au juste ? Qu'est-ce qui change vraiment ?

I am not able to see the “Recently Active” filter on the app again.

Do they still want to gamble with users? (active /inactive)

No matter you show inactive users from 2012 on top, they will not come back. They have left the site.

Instead you are making the current active users more frustrated with such updates.

I was a very active couchsurfer for many years but since covid and everything that followed I have not logged in since somewhere around 2020/2021.

Today I got an email from them and they are offering me a year's membership, all I have to do is just login to my account. After logging in I can see that I have 97 unanswered messages which actually made me sad. So many missed meetings, opportunities and connections just because them greedy fucks want more money.

In any case if you're coming to Denmark there is at least one more active host lol

I feel that most of the experiences you guys share here make me to not want to try to be honest. Should i give it a try? Are the alternatives any reliable size-wise?

Currently, the app and website is sending a notification on phone and an email when a friend is adding a TRIP.

This is so annoying and unnecessary. We don’t want to let our 1000 friends on CS get an email and app notification for this.

Is there a way to TURN OFF this setting?
( if I add a TRIP, I don’t want it to send notification to everyone)

I also have received so many emails of TRIPS from friends on CS

It has become difficult since the removal of “last seen” feature.

Now it feels like gambling with 100 users in a new city - don’t know who is active and who is not using the app.

That is really frustrating. All other competitors have the LAST SEEN feature and it is working well.

No one is wasting time sending messages to 100 users and testing the luck. Hope the developers understand this part.

People are busy.

Last seen needs to come back otherwise everyone else using the app are simply wasting their time.

Are you all also facing this problem?

Hey,

Few months in after the update, these are the bullet points :

-Group hangout are back, but super late, still few users

-Couchsurfing now offers free one month trial for new and existing users, same way to late

-Difficult to navigate through events and hosts (curated suck bad)

-Couchers and nomadtable are picking up really fast, couchers for hosting surfing and nomadtable for hangouts.

I think this might be it, couchsurfing last months, still I see new users requesting to host but way less than before

Cut a long story short, I noticed a traveller from Korea in my area, she wanted to have lunch, so we found a day that was covnenient for her. When it came to it, she just wanted me to take photos and was constantly talking about herself, I tthought she wanted to share lunch but when the bill came she only wanted to pay for what she ordered. She never messaged me back and has now blocked me.

So I checked CS out again after getting the "free 30 days" email and reactivated for 30 days where it got me to confirm my bank deets for payment in 30 days should I forget to cancel. had a look around, realised it was pretty shit and then when I tried logging in again, it would make me go through the whole profile editing process again.

So I decided I would do that then cancel my account and be done with it. However, after editing the profile it lands me back at the "Reactive free for 30 days" page as if I hadn't already done this yesterday. Does anyone know if this makes me safe from payment withdrawal in a month's time? I selected "Previously purchased? Tap to restore" and it says No Subscription found. But why would it do that when I was using the site just one day ago?

Please is there a way to flag in my profile that at the moment I can't host?? I wrote it in my profile but apparently people don't read that and I keep getting stay requests. People also got rude and told me I should cancel my profile if I can't host (reported them).

I have been on CS for years and had many great experiences but I am thinking of just cancelling my profile because it's gotten just unpleasant and stressful now. I keep getting stay requests and at the moment I don't even have a house!

Thanks 🙏

I got logged out of my Couchsurfing account and now can't log back in. When I try with email, it goes to the "A temporary login code was sent to [email]" screen, but the code never actually shows up in my inbox. I've checked spam/junk, waited well over 30 minutes, and tried resending the code multiple times. Still nothing.

Has anyone else dealt with this? Did it eventually arrive for you, or did you have to contact Couchsurfing support directly to get it sorted? Also curious if this is a known ongoing issue with their email delivery, or something specific to certain email providers (using Webmail here).

Any tips appreciated, trying to avoid making a brand new account and losing my references/history.

Couchsurfing is not a dating app... but let me justify it with some examples!

https://www.instagram.com/p/DcTzxhcjS6L/

Hey guys, I’m one of those people who we were very active on the website in the mid 2010’s-2020’s but later abandoned it and just recently started receiving hosting requests just to find out about the new paywall.
Today morning, I was surprised to receive this email that they’re offering me a free year.

What do you guys think about this?

The short answer is no, Venture Capital investors almost certainly did not get their money back in any meaningful way and yes, they care, but mostly in the context of how VC economics work.

Did investors get their money back?

* Total Raised: Couchsurfing raised $22.6 million from Series A and B funding rounds (by Benchmark Capital & General Catalyst) after transitioning from a non-profit to a for-profit B-Corp in 2011.

* The Secondary Sale: In 2015, amid stagnating growth and user backlash over monetization, the original VC backers sold Couchsurfing to a private holding group.

* Financial Outcome: While exact terms were kept private, industry consensus indicates it was a fire-sale. The company never achieved the monetization required to justify its venture valuation, leaving early VCs with only a fraction of their principal, if anything.

Do the investors care?

* Venture Capitalists: VCs operate on a power-law distribution, expecting 80% of early-stage startups to fail or return negligible cash. They rely on the top 10% to deliver massive returns and carry the portfolio. Losing millions on Couchsurfing was a disappointment, but treated as a calculated risk. They cut their losses, sold off the platform, and moved on.

* Current Owners: The buyers who acquired the distressed asset in 2015 care deeply about squeezing cash from it. Their goal is direct extraction, which explains placing the site behind a mandatory subscription paywall in 2020 to keep the business cash-flow positive.

The Fundamental Mismatch

Couchsurfing highlights a classic Silicon Valley incentive conflict:

* Community Model: Built on non-monetary, trust-based hospitality where charging money ruins the social dynamic.

* VC Expectations: Requires huge user growth, high revenue per user, and massive exits.

Because the community aggressively resisted monetization, primary VCs were forced to accept a write off, while secondary investors were left squeezing a shrinking active user base through paywalls to salvage a modest return.

Please note this discussion has nothing to do with the current state of the website or how you feel about how things are being run.

I’m currently living in Okinawa and just had a surfer stay with me. Nice lady from Europe and well traveled in the cs community almost as long as I was. I had some really good conversation over the course of two days with her, but was working often so was unable to do too much outside of hanging out at the apartment. I noticed that she felt that finding a host in Japan was hard and I was probably the first and only to respond to her. One impression she had was that maybe the cultural, smaller apartments, and or work life here influenced that. Europe always felt very open for surfing when I was there, but the culture is much different there. She also noted that in other countries like Thailand and China, it was much different in her ability to secure a place than here.

Outside of the current thoughts on what the website is, I am curious what others have experienced when traveling through Japan? Is it a sign of the state of the current website or does Japanese culture mesh with much of what Couchsurfing is?