One of the best things about the digital age is the internet’s ability to bring the world to us in the comfort of own homes: we can tweet Libyans, facebook Australians and challenge Russians on Call of Duty – all without leaving our laptops. But for those who like a bit of physical global action on top of this virtual interaction, it can also be a valuable tool for travelling worldwide. Most of you journeying this vacation probably booked or at least researched your trip online, and there are hundreds of websites that can help you plan a holiday. However, this week I discovered one that facilitates travel in a different way: I have become a CouchSurfer.
Unfortunately, I’m not going to paddle across the Atlantic on my sofa. CouchSurfers are part of an online community that has grown exponentially since its launch in 2004 and now numbers over 2.6 million members from 246 different countries and territories worldwide – all wanting to help travellers and to go on a few international jaunts of their own. The principle behind it is simple: you offer temporary accommodation, whatever that might entail – couch, spare bed, floor space-to others – and can take advantage of theirs in return. Once you’re signed up you search for couches in your desired location, find a profile that looks friendly, send them a message and hope they can take you in. Everyone is also asked to list the languages they speak and there are an incredible 334 languages represented. Helpfully, the search will flag up any profiles likely to present serious communication problems; although you’re welcome to try learning a new language, speaking English loudly and slowly, crude forms of sign-language, rudimentary pictorial communication or a combination of the above if you fancy it.
Welcoming strangers into your home may seem like an odd idea and I was a little dubious at first. It does seem to go against everything your mother taught you, but the website’s creators have designed it so that you can filter the people you open your door to. You can read their profile, see their verifications and check out the references from people who’ve stayed with them before. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that the guy who prefers to host only single girls is hoping to offer a level of hospitality that you might not be looking for. The vast majority of profiles, however, appear to feature interesting and friendly people, most are in their twenties and a large proportion are students. Just over half of the members are based in Europe and Couch-Surfers are resident on every continent-that even includes a few in Antarctica if you fancy something really extreme! The most well represented cities are Paris, London and Berlin but the top ten also features some from further afield, Istanbul, Buenos Aries and Melbourne for example: it really is a global enterprise.
As a student keen to do some travelling in the long Oxford vacations, the idea of free accommodation all over the world sounds like a dream come true, but the inventors of CouchSurfing insist there’s more to it than that. Their ‘vision’ states their wish to create ‘a world where everyone can explore and create meaningful connections with the people and places they encounter.’ They plan to achieve this vision by building ‘connections across cultures’ and ‘by opening our homes, our hearts, and our lives’ to, quite simply, ‘make the world a better place.’ An ambitious project then…
But they certainly make it easy for you to start building those connections; as well as searching for specific hosts you can find groups based in your area or with shared interests and events near you ranging from pub nights and comedy clubs, to protests, language exchanges, free-hugs-days and knitting sessions. There’s an active club in Oxford that hosts weekly meetings so you can meet neighbouring surfers, and The Vaults Café in Radcliffe Square is also an official ‘CouchSurfing Zone’ designed to be a meeting place for travellers just arriving in the city. In short-there is plenty of sofa-surfing action occurring on our doorstep.
So far, all I have contributed to the noble CouchSurfing mission is a profile describing me, my (wonderfully comfortable) bedroom floor and what I hope to get out of the experience. Admittedly, nothing world-changing yet. To get a more experienced viewpoint I asked St Hugh’s Classicist and veteran CouchSurfer Alice Kornicki, who spent a month travelling in Europe for the bargain price of £300 thanks to free accommodation with fellow CouchSurfers along the way. I asked if she’d had any uncomfortable experiences in her two years since becoming a surfer but she described them all as positive: ‘all the people I’ve stayed with or hosted have been interesting, fun, considerate and friendly, and I’ve stayed in touch with a lot of them.’ And the advantages of travelling this way? ‘Since people let you stay for free, it enables more people to travel and see the world, and also to see a different side of the places that you visit, since you have a local showing you around.’ She thinks more people should get involved and would recommend it to ‘anyone who wants to really experience other cultures and meet people from all over the world.’
I have to agree it’s pretty cool that Jacek in Krakow, Lorenzo in Venice and Federico in Buenos Aries are all prepared to let me stay in their house and willing to show me around their home town. A little bit of local knowledge goes a long way and for students wanting to avoid the tourist track (not to mention the tourist prices) staying with a local is the ideal way to do it. If we manage to forge some cross-cultural connections while we’re at it then thats an added bonus.
Well I’m waiting for my first ‘couch request’ to come in and I have the beginnings of a plan for a backpacking trip to Eastern Europe in the summer. If you’re interested in travelling CouchSurfing style have a look at the website www.couchsurfing.org , start requesting and start surfing. It’s completely free and, once you get beyond that potentially nauseating vision statement, I have to admit it’s also kind of a beautiful idea.
