Couchsurfing Travel App - Hosts & Travels Connect

Couchsurfing Travel App is the ultimate way to lodge with native inhabitants, forge lasting connections with fellow travelers, or accommodate explorers visiting your area. More than 14 million travel enthusiasts engage with Couchsurfing across over 230,000 cities worldwide.

Discover hosts in your forthcoming stopover

Explore myriad local hosts providing accommodation in numerous cities globally.

Build new friendships

Identify individuals in proximity seeking to connect by activating availability on Couchsurfing Hangouts! Additionally, peruse the array of gatherings arranged by Couchsurfers in your town or upcoming excursion spot.

Connect with travelers sans traveling

Unable to journey presently? Be a host or rendezvous with incoming travelers in your vicinity.

How Couchsurfing Works

1. Create a Profile

Complete Your Profile: The first step is to fill out your Couchsurfing profile completely. This profile reflects your lifestyle, interests, and what’s important to you. A well-completed profile helps you connect with others, whether you’re attending local events or hosting guests.

Include Photos: Make sure to add clear and engaging photos of yourself to give potential hosts or guests a glimpse of who you are.

2. Explore Your City

Connect with Locals: Reach out to experienced Couchsurfers in your area to learn how Couchsurfing works. Most cities host weekly events at local bars or coffee shops.

Join Events: Visit your city’s Place Page on the app, check for upcoming events, and click "Join" to participate. This is a great way to meet new friends and immerse yourself in the local community.

3. Surf the World

Search for Hosts: If you're ready to travel, search for the cities you plan to visit and browse profiles of locals with available couches.

Send Couch Requests: Review profiles and references carefully before sending Couch Requests for your desired dates. It’s recommended to send about five requests to increase your chances of finding a host. Personalize your messages by explaining why you want to meet them.

4. List Your Couch

Make Your Space Available: After exploring the platform and attending some events, consider offering your couch, spare room, or air mattress to travelers.

Set Your Couch Status: Under "Couch Information," indicate whether you're available to host. You can set it to:

"Not Right Now (but I can hang out)" if you want to be a resource for travelers without hosting.

"No" if you’re not available.

"Maybe/Yes" if you want to appear in search results for travelers looking for accommodation in your area.

Be a Great Couchsurfer

Whether you’re traveling the world, hosting travelers, or making friends locally, being a conscientious and generous Couchsurfer will enrich the connections you make with the people you meet.

Share something

Be it stories, songs, food or your favorite coffee shop, Couchsurfing is about sharing and connection. Be open to giving, receiving, and discovering the unexpected.

Respect differences

Help make the world smaller and friendlier. The diversity of people across the globe is a beautiful thing, so contribute by respecting and appreciating those differences, be they cultural or otherwise.

Participate

Spend time with your host or surfer. Make new friends and help each other discover new things about the world. If you’re new to Couchsurfing, tap into your local community first. It helps to know people near you, so meet other Couchsurfers in your area by joining groups and events.

Be neat

Hosts, tidy up your space before Couchsurfers arrive. Surfers, leave it better than you found it. Keep your things in order and always clean up after yourself.

Connect

Finding a place to stay is just part of the Couchsurfing experience. More importantly, it’s about human connection. When you write a couchrequest, let hosts know why you think you’d enjoy each other’s company and what you’d like to contribute to your stay. When you’re there, get to know your host and their way of life. See what you learn.

Be reliable

If your plans change, let your host or surfer know.

Trust your instincts

When looking for other Couchsurfers, always carefully review their profiles and especially the references. Communicate through Couchsurfing to get a better sense of who they are.

Leave a reference

Be sure to leave references for people after hosting or surfing! References help other members make informed decisions. Leave truthful references that describe your experience with another member accurately.

Community Guidelines

“Be Considerate and Respectful” is a core Couchsurfing principle that requires people to treat other people in the Couchsurfing community with civility, respect and consideration – both online and offline. Respect opposing or differing opinions and beliefs. Try to listen to and understand others with whom you may disagree. Encourage others in the community to also be welcoming and respectful.

Following these simple guidelines will help make this community a better place for us all:

Respect Others: Couchsurfing is a meeting place for people of different cultures, lifestyles and ideals. By joining our community, you promise to communicate with respect and consideration, even if you encounter someone you disagree with.

Work Together to Resolve Disputes: Couchsurfers are always encouraged to work through their member disputes and problems together with the other Couchsurfers. Working together with others and appreciating different viewpoints are important aspects of the Couchsurfing experience.

Don’t Attack Members or Their Content: Personal attacks are not allowed on Couchsurfing, nor are disrespectful or insulting attacks directed at other people and their contributions to the community. See Couchsurfing Policies and Terms of Use for more information.

Use Good Judgment and Be Empathetic: When interacting with others on Couchsurfing, try to see the world from their perspective. People contribute to the Couchsurfing community in their own way. Disputes between members can occur when differing cultural norms create a misunderstanding, as many things are acceptable in some cultures and unacceptable in others.

Member Interactions: It is okay to disagree. In fact, alternative points of view are a key part of cultural exchange as long as your comments are civil, respectful and polite. Remember to give the impression of assuming goodwill on the part of the person with whom you are disagreeing.

Retaliation Is Not Okay: It is never okay to violate Couchsurfing policies, even in response to another person who has done so.

Safety Is a Cornerstone of the Couchsurfing Community: Member safety is very important to Couchsurfing and the health of the community. Please review our Safety Basics and Personal Safety Tips pages for more information.

Report Violations: If you feel another person is violating Couchsurfing policies, use the Flagging or Report tools available next to posts, Events, messages, and on profiles.

Personal Safety Tips

Do your homework

Before meeting, look for hosts or surfers whose profiles are complete with a real name, clear photos, and detailed descriptions of themselves and, if applicable, their couches.

When looking for an event or joining a Hangout, review the profiles of those attending and know the location, particularly if you’re in an unfamiliar area.

Read references of hosts or travelers to get a sense of others’ experiences.

What’s NOT there? Is there missing information or questions the member could answer for you that would help you get a better sense of who they are?

Women travelers may prefer to book with female hosts, and vice versa.

Make sure you understand the level of privacy a host is offering when surfing. Carefully read through My Home section on member profiles and be sure to ask questions about anything that’s unclear.

Communicate

Get to know potential Hosts or Surfers through our messaging system. Don’t give out your personal contact information until you’ve met. Keep Hangout communication within the Hangout application.

Make sure you have a plan to communicate with friends, family and backup accommodation options once you arrive. Will you have your computer? Will your mobile phone work?

Ask questions! Have conversations! You’ll know what to expect (and so will your Host/Surfer), and you’ll likely both be more at ease when you meet. Some things you may want to ask:

How many people live in your home?

Do you allow guests to use the kitchen?

How many Surfers have you hosted (or how much have you Surfed)?

Are there safety precautions I’ll need to take in the neighborhood or surrounding areas?

These initial conversations will tell you a lot. If anything about your interaction makes you uncomfortable, look for a different Host/Surfer.

During your host/surf experience

Upon meeting, spend some time getting to know your Host or Surfer. Do you feel comfortable with them? Is everything as you expected? If you feel uneasy or something doesn’t seem right, trust your instincts and do what you need to do to be comfortable.

Get to know the “rules” of the house – are there hours when it’s best to be quiet? How will you get in and out if you and your Host/Surfer have different schedules?

If you feel uncomfortable for any reason with your Surfer/Host, address the situation politely and directly to see if you can find resolution.

Maintain your faculties. Travel can be disorienting. Use of drugs and alcohol can further complicate this. Don’t leave your well-being in the hands of someone else.

In any situation where you feel unsafe, threatened or in immediate danger, remove yourself and contact the local authorities – such as police or emergency services – right away. When you’re in a safe location, report the incident to our Trust and Safety team. All reports are confidential.

How to use the app

1. How do I change the language of the mobile app?

We have released a few languages on our IOS and Android mobile apps. In order to change the language the app is currently using, you will need to go to your phone's settings.

If you go to Settings > General > Language & Regions (IOS), or Settings > Languages (Android) you will be able to see all the languages that have been added to your phone.

Removing the language from the list, should prevent the app from defaulting to it. Please keep in mind that as we release new languages, the app will default to the first language we support on that list. If you prefer to always use the app in English, please make sure that English is placed at the top.

2. How to Use Couchsurfing Hangouts

Hangouts allows you to see nearby Couchsurfers that want to hang out whether you’re in your hometown or halfway across the world.

    1. Download the Couchsurfing iOS or Android application. 

    2. Open the Couchsurfing app and choose “Hangout Now” from your dashboard. Once you’ve done that, you can either:

Make yourself available by sliding the button in the top right to green. Once you’ve done that, you can browse other Hangouts by closing the availability screen. If you’d like to join an existing Hangout, just hit the “Let’s Hangout” button. Once someone in the Hangout has accepted you, you’ll be able to chat with them in the Hangout window to plan your excursion.

Set your status to something you’d like to do and wait for others to join your Hangout. You can do this by either selecting one of the existing options or typing your own. Once you hit the “Update My Status” button, your Hangout will be available and others can request to join. You (or someone already in your Hangout) will need to accept them so you can chat.

3. How do I block someone in Hangouts?

If you meet someone in Hangouts that you’d prefer not to interact with on Couchsurfing, you can block them.

Click on the member to go to their profile. From there, select the drop-down in the upper right corner and choose ‘Block’. Doing so will prevent them from contacting you on Couchsurfing, and will also send a confidential report to the Safety Team. 

4. How do I search for Hosts, Friends, and Events on the Mobile App?

To search for Hosts using the app, tap into the Search page from the app navigation bar (iOS) or side navigation drawer (Android). 

You will first be asked to enter a location where you are looking for a host. Once you do so, you will see prospective hosts in this area.

If you like, you can add filters to your search by tapping the Filter button. Later, if you want to remove your filters, you can tap into the filters page and select "Clear". There is no 'search sorting' at this time, but this is definitely something we are considering building in a future release of the app. 

iOS    

Android

Friends

You can search for specific members by going to the Hosts search page, searching for their location, tapping into the Filters page and then by entering their Name or Username into the "Keyword(s)" filter. You may also want to select "Everyone" rather than "Hosts" incase your friend's Couch Status is set to "Traveling" or "Not Now". 

iOS          

Android

Once you add your filters, tap the "Search" button to go to your search results. 

Events

To search for Events on the app, tap over to the Events search page:

iOS devices: it's a tab on the search page

Android devices: it's a button in the Navigation drawer 

iOS 

Android

To change the location, tap the search bar and select a location from the autocomplete results. 

You can then tap into Events search results to view the event, Join or Leave it, share it with other people and to see who else is attending. 

And More

• Organize your upcoming voyage

• Share snapshots from your expeditions