Couch surfing

[RosieTR]

Anyone tried this? Anyone hosted this? We have a spare bedroom in a, well, not prime location in Phoenix but not totally awful either. Lots of people love to come to town in March to escape the winter doldrums but I wasn't sure about opening up to couch surfers though we have had relatives come visit. Right now travel is probably not going to happen much for us since we plan to move in the later spring, but it would be interesting to host and then have the option to surf at some point. Since it's coming to the nicer part of the year in Phx I was idly wondering if anyone has done this on the hosting side. I think one of my friends traveled Europe on the surfing side.

There seem to be specific ones geared to certain interests, which might be nice: we are childfree hikers and somewhat rock climbers/mountaineers so could provide advice/guidebooks for folks like that. I believe some of the sites do this, some are more general.

[fidgiegirl]

I did it once with a friend. She did it often and raved about it. I think I got stuck on a pullout bed in someone's living room or something so a whole spare bedroom would have seemed like luxury. The site she used, I think actually called couch surfing, really vets people, she said.

I have heard of other sites where you rent the room out for $$ for short term people, but can't remember the name. If I remember I will be sure to shoot it your way.

[Float On]

http://www.airbnb.com/ is what I've used. Anything from a couch to a room to a house is available on there. We've had fun with the hosts and some have even become good friends.
I've thought about putting a room in our house on the list since we're in a tourist area but I haven't yet.

[chrisgermany]

I can highly recommend servas.org. as a hospitality group. We have been travelling and are hosts.

[Spartana]

You can check out www.couchsurfing.com to see how other's do it. You might also check out how to become a small private hostel (i.e. not affliated with a hostel organization like AYH. It would invlove renting a room for one or even several people for money. Usually hostels have set hours where they may be closed for part of the day - say between 9 am to 5 pm - even if the "guests" were staying over night. So that gives the owner some privacy. And you can decide if there are kitchen priveleges or not and how a bathroom is shared as well as if the guests have to clean the room or if you do. I would be a bit leery of doing this myself - as well as having a couch surfer - since there may be insurance requirements or just an uncomfortable feeling having a stranger in my home.

[ctg492]

I have never heard of this. Bed and Breakfast places, but not a home as stated. Really, people open up their home to random strangers or a person stays in a stranger's home?

[Float On]

I have never heard of this. Bed and Breakfast places, but not a home as stated. Really, people open up their home to random strangers or a person stays in a stranger's home?

Yes. I've stayed in other people's homes 3 times through BNB. And had GREAT experiences. We travel and do a lot of art shows and sometimes I just can't win a good bid on priceline and the price to stay in a home is less expensive than a hotel rate. I know one year in Omaha, I just couldn't find a hotel. Ended up in a cute house, closer to the show than a hotel would of been and ended up with a new friend. I live in a tourist area and have considered putting our house on the list. Making a little extra money wouldn't be bad. The way BNB works, the guest pays by Credit Card to reserve the room, the host has to 'check-in' the guest once they arrive in order for the money to be transfered to their checking or saving accout.

[ctg492]

FLOAT ON, Ok that sounds a bit better to me, not just placing an ad in the paper type thing. Gotcha on how it works :)

[Maxamillion]

I've heard about this before and have considered doing it. IIRC, I think on the couch surfing site, you can leave reviews/feedback about how the experience went.