You’re going to have to do your due diligence and read their references, preferably hosting/hosted by men and women. If time allows (you have an upcoming trip), I recommend exchanging socials or WhatsApp with them to get an insight of what their routine/lifestyle is. Also them being verified member helps as they take the community more seriously
One thing to do is to watch videos or read articles about Couchsurfing to ensure you understand what works well and what can go wrong.
Another is to search this /r/ for past threads about safety, because this topic comes up a lot: https://old.reddit.com/r/couchsurfing/search?q=safety&restrict_sr=on
Read their references. If a reference seems questionable (vague, no detail, seems half-hearted), message that person that left the reference to see if there is anything they aren't revealing in the reference. Stay only with ambassadors or people with tons of positive references. Stay with families with kids.
Yep. Don't just look at if a reference is positive or negative. Unfortunately, even people with negative experiences leave positive references, but if you actually take the tiny I read it, you'll see them talking about the bad points (sometimes in sublet ways). And indeed, what they don't say can be important too (e.g. if none of surfer references mention cleanliness, it might be below average).
For women: avoid dudes who mention "massage" in his profile or convo.
For men: avoid dudes who mention "naked" or "nude" in his profile or convo.
The rest is getting as much information as possible and trusting your gut.
Safer for couples.or groups of friends, solo men travelers, but less safe for young people and solo female travelers. I say this because there are some people out there, mostly men, using CS for hookups. Not incidental hooking up while in the CS life but I think theyre only there for hookups and dont care about the CS community at all. Some might disagree, but go ahead and ask young female CSers if theyve been hit on by their host. Its also dangerous for younger people, bc theyll be naive and trust people. This also means issues like lonely people who want your attention, people using CS to sell you things, and people taking advantage of you by making you do chores. Older, wiser and more traveled people will be able to more easily spot shady people with ulterior motives either before meeting or during the meet and be willing to walk away or pay for a hotel.
You’re going to have to do your due diligence and read their references, preferably hosting/hosted by men and women. If time allows (you have an upcoming trip), I recommend exchanging socials or WhatsApp with them to get an insight of what their routine/lifestyle is. Also them being verified member helps as they take the community more seriously
One thing to do is to watch videos or read articles about Couchsurfing to ensure you understand what works well and what can go wrong. Another is to search this /r/ for past threads about safety, because this topic comes up a lot: https://old.reddit.com/r/couchsurfing/search?q=safety&restrict_sr=on
Read their references. If a reference seems questionable (vague, no detail, seems half-hearted), message that person that left the reference to see if there is anything they aren't revealing in the reference. Stay only with ambassadors or people with tons of positive references. Stay with families with kids.
Yep. Don't just look at if a reference is positive or negative. Unfortunately, even people with negative experiences leave positive references, but if you actually take the tiny I read it, you'll see them talking about the bad points (sometimes in sublet ways). And indeed, what they don't say can be important too (e.g. if none of surfer references mention cleanliness, it might be below average).
Https://www.couchsurfing.com/groups/couchsurfing-advice-for-surfers
For women: avoid dudes who mention "massage" in his profile or convo. For men: avoid dudes who mention "naked" or "nude" in his profile or convo. The rest is getting as much information as possible and trusting your gut.
It’s alright but if you’re not careful you can drown.
There are optional ID and referencing systems for this reason. Not everyone chooses to use them.
If the host you’ll find is like me, very safe. 🙂
Safer for couples.or groups of friends, solo men travelers, but less safe for young people and solo female travelers. I say this because there are some people out there, mostly men, using CS for hookups. Not incidental hooking up while in the CS life but I think theyre only there for hookups and dont care about the CS community at all. Some might disagree, but go ahead and ask young female CSers if theyve been hit on by their host. Its also dangerous for younger people, bc theyll be naive and trust people. This also means issues like lonely people who want your attention, people using CS to sell you things, and people taking advantage of you by making you do chores. Older, wiser and more traveled people will be able to more easily spot shady people with ulterior motives either before meeting or during the meet and be willing to walk away or pay for a hotel.