Couchsurfing

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Globe icon of the infobox
Couchsurfing
Website logo
Hospitality network
languages
operator Couchsurfing International, Inc.
editorial staff Casey Fenton, Daniel Hoffer, Sebastian Le Tuan and Leonardo Bassani da Silveira
user 12 million (November 2018)
Registration Yes
On-line 2004 (currently active)
https://www.couchsurfing.com/
Countries with more than 500 registered couch surfers (January 3, 2011)
Cities with more than 4000 registered couch surfers

Couchsurfing is a commercial and internet-based hospitality network . Members use the website to find free accommodation while traveling, to offer accommodation themselves or to do other things, such as showing a traveler around the city. In November 2018, Couchsurfing reportedly had 12 million members.

At the end of August 2011, Couchsurfing's corporate structure was transformed to allow the website to be financed by investors.

features

Members provide hosting services through the website. In order to better assess the trustworthiness of the members, there are detailed user profiles. By evaluating other users, interested parties get an idea of ​​how satisfied other "CouchSurfers" were with the host and the accommodation. Interest-based discussion groups and a function for sending private messages are also available.

The principle of operation

Membership in the organization is acquired by registering on the website. The core of the offer is the exchange of hospitality. A member can offer a place to sleep at will - this is not absolutely necessary, but every registered person is expressly encouraged to do so.

Accommodation is based on agreements between the parties involved. The duration, type and termination of the stay are usually agreed in advance. It is forbidden to ask for or pay money for the mediated overnight stays, as this contradicts the principle of couch surfing. Guests (surfers) can, however, pay an amount towards the cost of meals or laundry, if these are offered by the host and used by the guest.

The following measures are intended to ensure security and trust:

  • Personal references that guests and hosts can leave behind for each other after using the service.
  • The chargeable identity check by credit card & telephone number

Every member who has collected enough experience can, as a so-called Ambassador ( Ambassador apply) and is then available as a volunteer contact for new and existing users. In addition, each member can apply for various teams and take on administrative tasks on a voluntary basis (e.g. translations, answering questions sent in, group administration, etc.). Sometimes volunteers organize multi-day meetings or camps among the members to bring people closer to one another.

history

In 2003, Casey Fenton founded CouchSurfing International, Inc. with himself as chairman and forum participant. The couchsurfing community began to grow rapidly in 2004, and the domain couchsurfing.com (later changed to couchsurfing.org) was registered as early as 1999.

Temporary failure

After a serious database error on June 28, 2006 and problems with backup copies, the project was temporarily unavailable.

A suicide note from Fenton on the website reported the occurrence of a serious database error that would have destroyed too much important data to continue in its current form. He decided to abandon the project for personal reasons, but later changed his mind.

After the great response from the community with over 2000 support offers, he decided to continue the project. Within a few days it was confirmed that the website would be rebuilt and users could log in again, albeit with a limited range of functions. CouchSurfing 2.0 was announced on July 3, 2006 and should go into operation within ten days. CouchSurfing.com has been fully operational again since July 7, 2006. With the help of professional data forensic experts , user profiles of 87,000 of the 90,000 registered users were successfully restored.

Abuse of the platform

Incidents have become known that the agency through couch surfing has been abused by sex offenders. In March 2009, for example, a man in Leeds threatened to kill a Hong Kong couch surfer who was staying with him and raped her twice. The woman escaped the following day and called the police. The perpetrator was sentenced to ten years in prison. There were further incidents in 2012 in Marseille , 2013 to 2014 in Padua and 2015 and 2016 in Munich.

Commercialization

In August 2011, Couchsurfing officially announced its move to a for-profit organization. The form of the company was changed, the general terms and conditions were adjusted, the management changed and finally the website was completely rewritten. a. Many previously public statistics on the number of users and geographical distribution are no longer available.

The commercialization of the website has been criticized by various members for various reasons. The change in the data protection regulations was also a point of criticism from Peter Schaar , the then data protection officer in Germany .

Charge

In May 2020, Couchsurfing announced that as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, despite savings, the network would be forced to collect a membership fee from users from “developed countries” in order to continue to exist.

See also

Movie

  • Isabel Braak: Couchmovie (2013), comedy, 53 min

literature

Web links

Newspaper reports

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d couchsurfing.com: About-us
  2. couchsurfing.org  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.couchsurfing.org  
  3. ^ Couchsurfing Verification , Retrieved October 27, 2015
  4. Casey Fenton's request in the MySQL forum for help with a database breakdown
  5. The whole news is in the article CouchSurfing Deletes Itself, Shuts Down on TechCrunch.
  6. telegraph.co.uk
  7. yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk
  8. Il piégeait les étudiantes qu'il hébergeait , on: Europe1, accessed on October 28, 2015.
  9. The dream is over , Corrective of February 10, 2015.
  10. Abendzeitung Germany: Judgment in Munich: 8 years in prison for couch surfing rapists. Retrieved August 23, 2020 .
  11. ^ Non-Profit CouchSurfing Raises Millions In Funding , at: http : //www.forbes.com.Retrieved October 28, 2015
  12. CouchSurfing Raises $ 7.6 million ... ( Memento of the original from November 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , on: reuters.com. Retrieved October 28, 2015  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.reuters.com
  13. After going for-profit, CouchSurfing faces user revolt , from: gigaom.com.Retrieved on October 28, 2015
  14. Schaar criticizes the backpacker network Couchsurfing , On: welt.de Retrieved on October 28, 2015
  15. https://blog.couchsurfing.com/couchsurfing-needs-your-help/
  16. couch movie on IMDb