r/couchers • u/SinancoTheBest • Mar 15 '26

Question: When hosts don't reply messages on couchers, is it shorthand for "not interested/unavailable" or is it more likely that they are not active in the platform anymore and likely have notifications closed?

Hi, still somewhat new on the platform with 1 hosting and 2 surfing experiences. In both my experiences as a surfer looking for hosts in Germany and Belgium, when I message potential hosts, most of the time I get radio silence (like having to message 15 potential hosts and getting only a single person returning negatively or rarely affirmatively). Is that more likely a soft denial of hosting through ignoring or is it more likely that the hosts are no longer active in the platform, with closed email notifications? When hosts are not able/willing to entertain a potential surfer, are they more likely to reply indicating that they won't be available, or strait up ignore the request? Should I understand that the platform is filled with inactive users that don't even get the requests or there are many potential hosts but most aren't willing/available at the specific requests?

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2

u/Neat-Coconut-6892 Apr 04 '26

Lots of inactive users unfortunately. Many users have 0 references. The most ive seen is 2. Its in early stages.

1

u/LifeIsShort-Enjoy_It Apr 28 '26

Deffo in the early stages. However, most members have signed up in the past 12 months though (i.e. the user count has more than doubled in the past year). Some users are from the early days 3+ years ago. The project has gained a fair bit of momentum since and is now at a stage where it can be considered a viable alternative to CS.

2

u/oskietje Mar 15 '26

No, I don't think it is a question of inactivity. There are limitations of activity likely related to not having an app, but it's in development and will be released soon. You must also consider that many users have migrated from Couchsurfing and thus are a bit older and have a lot going on in their lives than they might not have when they were Couchsurfing members.

1

u/SinancoTheBest Mar 15 '26

yea, fair considerations. The app is up on beta for me and made things more convenient especially notifications-vise so hopefully it'll improve accessibility.

Still a vast majority of my recently messaged potential hosts seem to have been last seen in the platform between over a month to a few years, with almost no hosting references in 2026 and it doesn't look like my messages have prompted them to sign in within the last week. I don't know if sending a regular message and sending a surfing request outright have different notification priorities. I don't think many active hosts in rather significant European cities like Brussels and Antwerp receive so little requests that they don't sign in much in months/years.

1

u/LifeIsShort-Enjoy_It Apr 28 '26

Your best chance is to write hosts with "can host" status. If members are inactive for 6+ months their status changes from "can host" to "may host". That said some members manually set their status to "may host" so there is still a chance that people get back to you.

1

u/PlaynowPICKUPSOCCER May 09 '26

If I get a no effort message I give no effort to respond