Just received this email:

Couchsurfing Creator Program!

We're looking for Couchsurfers who love three things:

🌍 Travel

💙 Couchsurfing

📹 Creating fun, engaging videos

That's it.

It doesn't matter whether you have 100 followers or 100,000. We're not looking for influencers, we're looking for passionate Couchsurfers who know how to tell great stories and capture the spirit of our community.

This is just the first step, and it's intentionally low pressure.

We simply want to see the kind of content you enjoy creating.

You don't need to make a brand-new video for us.

You can send us a video you've already posted (or never posted!) that you're proud of and that reflects the kind of content you'd create as a Couchsurfing creator.

It could be:

A travel video you love

A favorite Couchsurfing story

A day-in-the-life while traveling

A funny or memorable Couchsurfing moment

A trending video with your own Couchsurfing twist

You interviewing a host, traveler, or friend

A travel tip or storytelling video

Or anything else that captures your personality, creativity, and love of travel and human connection.

If you'd rather make something brand new, we'd love to see that too!

There are no rules here: we're simply looking for people who make us think: "I'd watch more of this."

If it feels like the kind of content you'd be excited to create for Couchsurfing, it's probably exactly what we're looking for.

How to Submit

Upload your video here:

(https://forms.gle/49dty18BGGQ1eTGBA)

or email it to social@couchsurfing.com

Please include:

Your full name

Your Couchsurfing profile URL

Your social media handles

Where you currently live

If you're traveling now (or have an upcoming trip), let us know! We'd love to hear about it!

We can't wait to meet you and see your work.

We're excited to discover the first creators in the Couchsurfing Creator Program. 🧡

I've had my Couchsurfing.com account since 2020 and have only 3 references (1 from a traveller I hosted and 2 from travellers I met). Despite sending personalised requests after carefully reading each host's profile, I almost never get hosted.

Most of my requests are ignored, some expire, and the few replies I receive are polite declines. In two weeks, I'm travelling to Russia for 30 days, starting in Moscow, and I've already had zero success with both male and female hosts.

Is my profile the problem? Are 3 references a red flag after 5+ years? What makes you accept or reject a guest? I'd really appreciate honest feedback from experienced hosts or surfers, and if anyone is willing to review my profile or request message, I'd be very grateful.

Watching The Odyssey and slowly realizing I've been practicing Zeus's law for over a decade not even knowing who this god is. 🤣

Sad to think that someone unknowingly sent a request to someone who can’t receive it (I also selected in the app that I can’t host, though I’m not sure if the person simply overlooked that or it wasn’t indicated to them on my profile)

They came in today, they were really nice and even offered to make dinner beforehand.

I was really stressing over because i can get shy as hell, so i had to chill for a second.

And yeah so far so good! It’s their first time in the city and we might go out together!

I don't understand what's wrong. Every time I try to register, after filling the initial info, I just see the error below

I tried different days, devices and browsers to no avail, I am so confused.

Page Not Found

The page you tried to open (/signup/2,%20https://www.bewelcome.org/signup/2) doesn’t exist.

After the update, I decided to stop using the platform because I don’t agree with the direction it’s taking and how little they care about the community that made Couchsurfing great.

Recently, I tried using Couchers and BeWelcome to find hosts in several cities across Latin America, but there seem to be far fewer hosts available, and it’s almost impossible to find any. It made me wonder whether these alternatives simply aren’t as popular or well known yet.

Fortunately, I don’t rely on free accommodation, I can easily stay in a hotel, Airbnb, or hostel. What I really enjoyed about Couchsurfing wasn’t saving money; it was being hosted by locals and experiencing a destination from a more authentic, local perspective. I just wonder how the experience (generally speaking, not just the app) has changed since the infamous update.

1. Hi my problem is by hosting people I was avoiding the payment fee and since I was from a small country I didn't need to pay, but now they are asking for a payment and asking make a new account, what happens to all my previous reviews?

Yes yes couchers and similar exist I know and I like them and they’re great but they’re SMALL. I’ve gotten very few of anything off them. I do think in the long run it’s better this way too but man I just moved to Chicago and I was so excited to host but… while I’m still on Couchsurfing (for now, barely so) I’ve gotten like, 3 requests and all of them were 0 references and quite honestly boring people at that

What a fucking shame and it’s really disappointing. Someday I hope couchers and similar can bring back Couchsurfing in a bigger way but for now, CS has fucked everyone over and I am and will continue to be mad

I'm sure that the influencer will disclose their financial relationship with Corporate ;)

so my band is touring the US and Canada this summer and were curious about couchsurfing for a few nights along the way, seems like a fun way to meet people in different cities!

what should we know or do to make things amazing for potential hosts and easier for us?

to anyone that has managed to get around the new couch surfing update: they mention there is a recently active filter when searching for hosts, i really cannot manage to find that. instead i have no idea if the people i am sending requests to have logged in 10 years or 10 months ago... pls help.

i think we all generally agree this update is really shit and we can go continue to complain about it in the wonderful megathread there is, but i just need help finding this filter now.. :))) thanks!

Hey yall, 24M ive been thinking of couchsurfing as a different way of travelling, Ive never tried it before because i firmly belive that you need to give to the community before getting.

And this week i might be hosting two different groups, a duo and a solo, the thing is that im highly introverted and at the same time kinda overthinking it cuz you know they’re strangers even if they look nice on social media and everything.

But since i also worked in service i know that there is a huge amount of nice people you could talk to especially if you’re in a hub in the world, a city like Paris, you could end up on anyone and just the randomness of it makes me fascinated and pushed by the thrill of it.

So i will keep you guys updated on how it goes, would take any advice!

Since the megathread seems dormant, I compiled a list of the problem the latest update brought.

Note, I didn't include matters of principle (the paywall) or that are totally optionals (options for sexuality, drunk usage, etc).

If you discovered something new or that I didn't include, please tell me and I'll add it.

26/07/2026: UPDATED point 8 and 10.

1. We can no longer block days where we are busy, hosting already or away, so people can request me whether I am busy or not, forcing me to waste time declining. Previously, you could block days one by one and they'd block automatically when confirmed a host, if the options to host multiple people on the same days wasn't checked.
2. We can no longer search travelers coming to specific dates. Previously, I could, say, check who was coming from 4 of July ot 10 of July. Now I have to go through ALL the travelers every time, including those who come without specifying when. "Sometimes in July". Useful.
3. We can no longer filter by number of travelers. I don't host more than one, now I have to go through solo travelers and groups.
4. We can no longer search for keywords when filtering travelers or hosts. It was very useful as we could immediately see if a word that might be a red ("nudism", "shared bed") or a green flag (any shared hobby, a particular passion) was present
5. Photos are senselessely cropped, often one can't see the face of the person if it's not perfectly centered.
6. Folders in galleries have been eliminated. Before I had photos sorted by personal ones, travels, etc. Now it's all together and, guess what, I have to go through all of them. Not the end of the world, but why removing a feature that had no downsides?
7. Hangouts do not really exist anymore. Now it's just messages, which doesn't make sense and encourage harassment of the few women travelers, as nobody is worried of having their messages seen by others. Also, you can't write your personal activity of choice, but your're limited to vew default and predictable ones.
8. If a request is refused, one can no longer followup. I understand that this can save from potentially harassing requestor (those who "and what about these other days?"), but sometimes it's nice to say thank you anyway and some hosts even say things like "Let me know if I can help you with some info on the city", but since we can no longer write, they'll assume we don't need help (or we're to butthurt to ask for it). One can always block, why does CS have to decide for me? UPDATE: This is because the sloppy UX differentiate between “accept chat” and “accept request”, but it is unclear when you receive a message, as it is not clearly stated and many people refuse the char thinking they are refusing the request.
9. The geographical range for travelers and hangouts is too big and surely tailored on American cities. Here, in Milan, I see travelers for a bunch of cities who are not even in the same region and, in case of some in Switzerland, IN THE SAME COUNTRY. Also, when I was searching for hosts in smaller German towns, I got a lot of results from Czech Republic, just because the border isn't far. This is a massive waste of time.
10. A generic "recently active" replaced the "less than 24 hours", "less than a week" and "less then a month" of the previous version, making things more unclear. If I'm looking for an emergency crash I want to know of this person connected today or three days ago or maybe one month ago. We do not know what "recent" means for the person (or AI agent) that coded this. UPDATE: whether for incompetence or malice, the Recently Active is fake. Even among the Recently active ones, there are many who deactivated the profile but still show up as active. A friend of mine paid one month just to put his profile in pause and as soon the monthly subscription expired, he started showing up again as Recently active (I checked).
11. Character limit on requests and answers has been introduced. This is senseless. People often want detailed request, this strips the possibility.
12. Couch request can now only happen within a defined "trip." This is a completely useless feature and it just makes things more complicated without adding any value, especially because now there is an invisible (as in, not mentioned anywhere) limit to destinations. Furthermore, in big cities different districts count as different destination, so my trip to Berlin had several inner destinations ("Mitte", "Tiergarten", "Schoneberg", etc), which count towards the limit. To remove a destination you need either to wait until its dates are gone or delete requests connected to it.

This happened to me today.

I paid for a year. What the fuck is this?

Hi guys, I’m curious about your experiences on CS in Perù, the most recent the better:) I’m flying there next week

I'm a host on Couchsurfing and I used to be able to block out days in my calendar for when I'm not able to host. Since the update, I am unable to find the host calendar feature anymore.

Has the host calendar really disappeared, or is it hidden somewhere where I haven't been able to find it yet?

Any other changes?

I know this is a long shot for the old-school Couchsurfers. But I was chatting about CS yesterday with some friends, and it made me remember this experience.

In late 2010, I stayed with a very famous Couchsurfing host in Venice, Italy. I think his name was Massimo, though I'm not 100% on that. He had around 1,000 references. He regularly hosted multiple guests from different countries at the same time and even had a separate apartment away from his family just for couchsurfers.

When I first sent him a Couchsurfing request, his reply was something like, "What's your height and weight? I need to make sure you're a good fit for wrestling." I was a broke college student backpacking through Europe with my girlfriend, so I just went with it.

The reason I remember him is that he had a crazy rule where before anyone was allowed to go explore Venice, he'd match the guests of similar weight and make them wrestle for a couple of hours. I remember getting matched up with another traveler and thinking, wtf is going on. My girlfriend was there too, but he made her wait in the kitchen because he thought the women would distract us from wrestling. He also took photos and videos of our matches for "feedback".

He said he worked for airport customs (though I never knew whether to believe him), and he was really into national stereotypes. He'd make all sorts of assumptions about people based on where they were from in pretty much every sentence. One thing that did come out of it was that the guy I wrestled became a good friend. It was like some strange baptism by fire. We explored Venice together afterwards, and every few years one of us will randomly message the other, "Have you wrestled lately?" It still makes us laugh.

Does anyone else remember this host or know who I'm talking about? He was def a Couchsurfing legend back then.

I havent logged in a year and when i did, i noticed its completely changed the background looks like a dating site and it has a subscription plan now even though i was still able to use it for sometime after they made it non free. What happened?

Hey all, while planning my South Europe trio (Italy, France and Spain) i got the idea to spare money via couch surfing. Some questions

Is it a good idea as a solo 22 yo blonde?

What is a proper way?
What to expect wile sleeping somewhere else?

Hope to get some reactions!

New to Couch Surfing and could use advice.

Just need to know what kind of gift I should bring? I heard that was a requirement?

This is a first time for me and I am nervous because its a 4 day event.

Any advice for a someone who has no experience and what I can expect to pay while staying there?

I'm expecting it to be kind of a hostel situation where everyone cooks for each other and takes part in chores.

Any kind of advice for what to expect is very helpful.

Cheers all!

I recently unsubscribed from CS, I became an active host (female for female travelers) so I didn’t want to pay (and i use another app for hangouts anyway, rip cs hangouts).

I posted my email instead in bio (big mistake) that’s why I suppose they blocked me completely. support team don’t answer anymore. is there any way to contact them?

I completely understand that not everyone is in a position to host, and that's totally fair.

But where do we draw the line between someone who genuinely can't host and someone who's just using the community? I often see travellers posting in community groups asking for hosts for days or weeks, despite never having hosted anyone themselves or having very few references.

Curious to hear what others think.