Is It Safe To Use Couchsurfing?

First, I want to tell you that I’m not an “expert” on Couchsurfing, I am just a beginner, and all I wrote on this article is pure from my opinion and my experience. I made a Couchsurfing account long time ago, since I was in Indonesia, but somehow I didn’t use it back then, and started to use it around a year ago, when I moved from Tyumen to Tomsk.

Is it any level such as expert, beginner, normal, or anything on Couchsurfing? Is it kinda game? Well, no actually, it just what I think. I could say somebody expert on Couchsurfing when they use it a lot and already have a lot of reference/review from the other Couchsurfers. By the way, until I wrote it, I just have 6 references, and there are people who have hundred references. I don’t know what else to say, they just cool.

So, maybe you have another question, what do I mean by “reference”? Basically it is kind of what other people think about us. It has three parts of reference, the first is FROM HOSTS, we can get this review from the people who have been become our host, they who let us stay at their place. They can make a review about the couchsurfers who stayed with them. For example, are they nice? What did you do with them? Would you like to host them again? And more. Also, they can give some praises for them like: Friendly, Reliable, Fun, Respectful, Flexible, Thoughtful, etc. And once this review submitted on their profile, it CAN’T BE DELETED.

Second reference is FROM SURFERS, so to make it fair, the surfers can make references about the hosts too. What do you like about the host? What do you do? Is the place comfortable? Or anything they want. Of course the surfers can give praises to the hosts too. When the surfers/hosts gave them praises or positive reference, they will get a green star. Is it important? Well, I think yes, because the more stars you have, the more people will trust you.

Third reference is PERSONAL reference, you don’t need to stay with them too to get this reference. May be you already know eachother, you meet at an event, or anything. You can write your reference here, for example: Are they positive/negative person? What is interesting about them? How do you know each other? Etc. This kind of reference doest give you a green star.

Remember once again, once the reference submitted, it can’t be deleted, so be careful when you write a reference about someone.

May be some of you still confused about Couchsurfing, I know many have account on it, but they just leave it. May be they just don’t know how to start. Couchsurfing is not only place for you to find host when you are traveling, or to help traveler who come to our city. No, it’s more than that. You can find events near your place, and you can meet people by HANG OUT feature too. So, I think, Couchsurfing is basically a website/application for them who like to meet and share stories with the other people. They may have many different interests, but one for sure, they must be like traveling

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So, let’s back to the first question, IS IT SAFE TO USE COUCHSURFING? My answer is YES. Of course we need to be a smart user, before we decide to host someone, to meet someone, to travel with someone, we need TO READ their profile. You can read about them, you can see their experiences, you can see their references, and more. After that you can start to communicate with them, you can send messages by Couchsurfing, or even you can exchange your phone number/social media (after you trust them). DON’T BE LAZY TO READ THEIR PROFILE. I think they write many things about them because they want people to know more about them first, before they actually meet each other.

You can also see some users with the green mark along with their name, it means that the users are already verified by phone number and they also paid for it, so I believe that they are really serious on Couchsurfing. Some people are just verified by phone number, I think they are trustworthy too. Some profiles are not verified yet, or even don’t complete their profile. Should we trust them? Well you have your own way on it. Just be smart and careful. For your information, when you did payment verification, you’ll have unlimited chance to do introduction and send request to another Couchsurfer, but when you have not, you just can make 10 request on a week, and you need to use it wisely!

Oh, before the end, I want to tell you about my Coucsurfing experience, here they are:

1.  On my first weeks in Tomsk I tried to find somebody on Coucsurfing who want to meet me and hang out around the city. Then I met Anastasia and Dima, they are a couple wife and husband, they offerend me to stay with them. Of course I accepted it. I stayed 2 days and 1 night with them. We played board games, sang with ukulele, had dinner together, and also went around the city on excurtion and watched a concert. They are really nice and fun! I lived at their son’s room, which is very comfortable. Not long after that, I met Ivan, he offered me to see same interesting places in Tomsk, we went by his car. We went to some parks, churches, and also we were trying ferris wheel!

2. I met with a Russian and a French girl from the Hang Out feature. They are good travelers. And have been traveled to many places, so we were sharing our stories, and until now we still keep in touch.

3.  Last week I went to Moscow to make a new passport. I stayed 3 night there, and I slept at the apartments belong to Michael, Anastasia, and Roman. I know them from couchsurfing. I sent them request to stay days before I came to Moscow, and they accepted me. It was all free, I don’t need to pay for place, but as my grateful for them, I cooked some Indonesian foods for them, and they said they like it. They really nice and helpful.

Are you interested to use Couchsurfing? J

Well, thus it is what I think about the safety of Couchsurfing. So far I don’t have any bad experience when I use Couchsurfing. This application really makes me believe that there are a lot of kind people on this world!

Btw, here is a link to my couchsurfing https://www.couchsurfing.com/people/ikhwanussafa-sadidan

I would be very happy to talk about your experience on Couchsurfing!