Website Couchsurfing

By Kristine Kostuck
Contributing Writer

The Website couchsurfing.org gives its users the opportunity to educate travelers about the country they plan on visiting by introducing them to residents of that country. Travelers can use the information to make their trips easier as well as more comfortable. It can also cut travel expenses as the site connects them with hosts that are willing to open their homes to travelers.

The mission of the nonprofit site is to connect people through hospitality, while promoting better understanding between different cultures. Which can bring new adventures and lasting friendships. It has been growing steadily since its start in 2004 and with about 2,000 people joining daily, more people are taking advantage of the unique benefits the site offers.

Despite its growth, there are things users need to take into consideration before connecting. There are many terms and conditions you must agree to before becoming a member. Among these, users must agree to communicate with people from all over the world—the site does not perform criminal background checks on its members. Users are to trust the people they are conversing with, using their own judgment.

This is generally the case with most social networks. But in the case of couchsurfing, how do you trust someone you meet online, much less depend on them for hospitality? It is easy to let your guard down and see only what you want to see of others when you are dealing with something as exciting as traveling. But users shouldn’t completely let their guards down when they are traveling so far from the familiar, and there are key things to look for when surfing.

Mitchele Hockett, a Concordia sociology student who recently did a case study on online trust, thinks that there is a way to find security in this program. A two-and-a-half year member herself, Hockett, describes her use of the program as a “huge cultural experience” after a trip to Philadelphia a few years ago. There she stayed with three guys she met through couchsurfing. She also used the site while she traveled abroad and met one of her roommates through surfing.

During her first trip she stayed with guys she’d never met in person, which she’d never done before. Hockett admits it took her awhile to trust the program, even though she had a friend who found the site safe and helpful. The thing that caught her attention and ultimately made her trust the program was the safety services it offered.

As a user, whether a surfer (traveler) or host (local), you are required to have a detailed profile. This is especially important if you are planning to have travelers stay with you. Anyone that hosts can have a reference written about them. References cannot be tampered with by anyone, even the people they are written about. Beyond this, users, not including the person the reference is written about, are able to look at the profiles of the people that posted the comments.

There is also a system called vouching. This is where people, speaking from their own experiences, recommend reliable users to others. The vouching system is meant to accredit the trustworthiest hosts. Vouching can only be done after three or more people have stayed and written a congenial reference.

Hockett was also comforted by the network’s alerts sent out when something happened to one of its users during travel.

The site seems to have a lot of positive feedback and the list of horror stories is limited. Hockett says that people are more at risk of socially awkward situations than dangerous ones. She can recall one person involved in her study that stayed with someone who was a nudist; until her host walked in the door she had no idea he was one.

This type of situation can easily be avoided if you carefully read everything in someone’s profile. Hockett noted in her study that users follow a pattern when viewing profiles and staying with hosts. These patterns were based on race, gender and similar interests. Meaning white people were more likely to stay with other whites and females were more likely to stay with other females.

This proved that even though the site can be very helpful, it is not following through on its initial goal, which was to cross cultures and show its users that there is comfort in the unfamiliar. “This is supposed to be a colorblind site,” said Hockett. “We have to acknowledge our differences. You can’t fully understand culture without doing that.” She hopes to present her research to the organization to show them that cultural barriers they wanted to cross are still there.

Even though Hockett supports the organization in her lecture, she noted that the site is relying on the face-to-face contact perception we get when we meet people, is done through others, and even if you can establish trust online it is not the same as developing it in person.

When you meet someone for the first time, trust is based on first impressions, how that person reacts with others, and their background. When couchsurfing you have a profile picture as a first impression, you can look at the references and the information they include about themselves to decide. It all comes down to the type of person the user is. Is this enough information to trust someone?

Questions and comments: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)