Travelling Cheap

The concept of starting up a site focusing on cheap traveling has been tangling my thoughts for quite some time now. On a recent chat I had with an old friend from Sweden he mentioned the CouchSurfing Project which I had absolutely no idea what it was. Apparently the last few years Casey Fenton operates a free international Internet-based hospitality service which became the largest hospitality exchange network globaly.

The non-profit corporation incorporated in the U.S. state of New Hampshire promotes its mission statement “Participate in Creating a Better World, One Couch at a Time” as a direct reflection of its name. CouchSurfing seeks to internationally network people and places, create educational exchanges, raise collective consciousness, spread tolerance and facilitate cultural understanding. It may sound a bit far fetched to many, maybe over-romantic to others, nevertheless for such a mad idea to work those elements are essential. Elaborating a bit further on my last point I should assume most should agree upon the mere fact that providing accommodation to complete strangers can turn out very ugly.

That’s simply the reason why CouchSurfing isn’t only about finding free accommodations around the world; it’s about making connections worldwide. I personally can’t be sure if they actually make the world a better place by opening their homes to Internet acquaintances but the fact is that as of April 2008 CouchSurfing had more than 500,000 members in 226 countries and territories. Members use the website to coordinate at whose couch is more appropriate to crush. It features extensive profiles, and uses an optional credit card verification system, a personal vouching system, and personal references to increase security and trust established even further by discussion groups, meeting functionality, live chat and more.

So basically, you enter a society sharing a preference for the awkwardness of staying over at someone’s who you haven’t met before instead of spending well-earned money and crushing at a cheap hotel or hostel. In the end of the day, although I came across few funny experiences from people offering of receiving accommodation nothing serious has been reported since 2003, and that’s a good track record.

For me it would be something totally out of the box but if you really think of it, spending just a couple of nights at a stranger’s couch – given you are determined to take an unconventional holiday in total – couldn’t go very wrong.