Status: Closed — this petition is no longer accepting signatures.
Final supporters
"Stay with locals for free.", says the new CS frontpage nowadays. When would you like to check in and check out? This beautiful network for cultural exchange, developing a better world together is seeming to forget about their own core principles, which is not fair to the people who daily create this network by sharing their lives and being as hospitable as they can be. The requests I'm receiving also reflect this: many copy paste, impersonal messages just to find a free place to stay. And who can blame these guys if even the frontpage advertises my home just as a free place to stay? Please take this section off of your front page CS!
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Updates
December 7, 2015
Reaching this level of support confirms that I am not the only one feeling exhausted by how our community is being misrepresented. It is draining to keep fighting for the soul of this network when the platform itself pushes us in the wrong direction. We have a long road ahead of us.
23 Comments
In the good old days (2007-2011) Couchsurfing focused on building friendship - not a free hotel where you crash in and let the host do your laundry. We built friendships across agegroups and country borders - the point was sharing! Please try and capture this spirit again!
It's a pity that CS has lost the real and original spirit. My house is not a free hostel. I am interested to share culture
They forget that CS is based on its users and community, and change the concept and market it without taking in consideration what the CS community feels or thinks about it... :(
I feel that the CS Spirit has dwindled in the following years. People are joining CS as a means of getting free accommodation instead of the genuine cultural exchange that was intended from the inception of this website. There needs to be something done about this issue!
Airbnb was inspired by Couchsurfing's concept so why is Couchsurfing trying to inspire to be like Airbnb? If CS keeps marketing itself like a free hotel/Airbnb it will keep attracting cheapos rather than hospitality-exchange-minded travelers.
It was a wonderful idea but they site knows the reality. Free couch is easy to sell for them. So they deliberately don't have a system to rate the guest's cultural sharing or friendliness. The reference system is exactly the same for surfer and the host while the host is the one making an extra effort. They don't do it because they are getting an endless supply of single males who host and females who request either alone or with friends/partner. No surfer (not hosts) actually believes that they are there to form a friendship. Everybody's best intention is to bother the host, happy to take whatever the host has to offer or just need they could crash at the end of the site seeing the whole day. They might make an effort to be friends in case in they plan to come back to same city later. I was at a couch surfing meet with a serial surfer who said in the meeting - "you cannot expect someone to become friends after a few days of hosting!!"
The site and the system is actually aimed not at cultural exchange but to maximise benefits to surfers (girls) at the expense of hosts. The site has a created a monopoly by only aiming for higher number of users. Majority of surfers are female and 99% of them only surf and act as judges to the hosts 90% of whom are single men. After hosting around 50 people, I have learnt there is no cultural exchange. Majority of surfers are youngsters who are believe that they are being hosted as they are the cool people and some older person is simpleton they can freeload from. The site doesn't have a system for a very high percentage of people who don't show up the last minute. Majority of surfers are promised a free bed without there being any effective rating for what they offered the host.
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Status: Closed — this petition is no longer accepting signatures.
Final supporters
"Stay with locals for free.", says the new CS frontpage nowadays. When would you like to check in and check out? This beautiful network for cultural exchange, developing a better world together is seeming to forget about their own core principles, which is not fair to the people who daily create this network by sharing their lives and being as hospitable as they can be. The requests I'm receiving also reflect this: many copy paste, impersonal messages just to find a free place to stay. And who can blame these guys if even the frontpage advertises my home just as a free place to stay? Please take this section off of your front page CS!
Updates
December 7, 2015
Reaching this level of support confirms that I am not the only one feeling exhausted by how our community is being misrepresented. It is draining to keep fighting for the soul of this network when the platform itself pushes us in the wrong direction. We have a long road ahead of us.
23 Comments
I'm missing the CS spirit of 2008. New people to CS are getting the idea that CS is just a freeloading site because of CS management's poor leadership. You guys need to do some deep soul-searching!
In the good old days (2007-2011) Couchsurfing focused on building friendship - not a free hotel where you crash in and let the host do your laundry. We built friendships across agegroups and country borders - the point was sharing! Please try and capture this spirit again!
It's a pity that CS has lost the real and original spirit. My house is not a free hostel. I am interested to share culture
They forget that CS is based on its users and community, and change the concept and market it without taking in consideration what the CS community feels or thinks about it... :(
I feel that the CS Spirit has dwindled in the following years. People are joining CS as a means of getting free accommodation instead of the genuine cultural exchange that was intended from the inception of this website. There needs to be something done about this issue!
Airbnb was inspired by Couchsurfing's concept so why is Couchsurfing trying to inspire to be like Airbnb? If CS keeps marketing itself like a free hotel/Airbnb it will keep attracting cheapos rather than hospitality-exchange-minded travelers.
It was a wonderful idea but they site knows the reality. Free couch is easy to sell for them. So they deliberately don't have a system to rate the guest's cultural sharing or friendliness. The reference system is exactly the same for surfer and the host while the host is the one making an extra effort. They don't do it because they are getting an endless supply of single males who host and females who request either alone or with friends/partner. No surfer (not hosts) actually believes that they are there to form a friendship. Everybody's best intention is to bother the host, happy to take whatever the host has to offer or just need they could crash at the end of the site seeing the whole day. They might make an effort to be friends in case in they plan to come back to same city later. I was at a couch surfing meet with a serial surfer who said in the meeting - "you cannot expect someone to become friends after a few days of hosting!!"
The site and the system is actually aimed not at cultural exchange but to maximise benefits to surfers (girls) at the expense of hosts. The site has a created a monopoly by only aiming for higher number of users. Majority of surfers are female and 99% of them only surf and act as judges to the hosts 90% of whom are single men. After hosting around 50 people, I have learnt there is no cultural exchange. Majority of surfers are youngsters who are believe that they are being hosted as they are the cool people and some older person is simpleton they can freeload from. The site doesn't have a system for a very high percentage of people who don't show up the last minute. Majority of surfers are promised a free bed without there being any effective rating for what they offered the host.
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I'm missing the CS spirit of 2008. New people to CS are getting the idea that CS is just a freeloading site because of CS management's poor leadership. You guys need to do some deep soul-searching!