It’s apparently called couch surfing, and it really, really sounds cool. There are a bunch of people that sign up and offer their couches, spare rooms, etc, for travelers to use while they visit the area. It probably wouldn’t work real well for families or such, but would certainly be pretty cool for a single college student or the like. Seems a bit dangerous, but that, to me, adds to the allure.
If I could be sure the other person had good intentions, I would think something like this would be a lot of fun, but unfortunately I think it’s too dangerous. I wouldn’t want to put myself in the position of getting raped or killed.
I’ve been listed on that site for a few months now. I’ve already met some cool people (only 1 in real life) and now I’m kinda half-way planning a trip somewhere with some guy I haven’t even met (halfway because it’s not for sure yet)! None of my friends can afford to travel abroad right now, and I don’t want to go alone. He’s in the same situation. I’ve heard nothing but great reviews from people who have actually done it. There’s one guy on there who took an inflatable couch with him and toured the US couchsurfing the whole way!
Not quite the same thing, but I’ve used homestays while in Russia, especially when hotels are full and I didn’t have a reservation. How a hotel with 3000+ rooms can fill up is beyond me though. US$20 for a fold-out couch in the heart of Moscow is hard to beat.
I’m intrigued. I may take advantage of this in the future. Frankly, I’d be most concerned about hosts helping themselves to my money.
Yeah. When I first came to Japan we had something called the “Tatami Timeshare” which was basically this idea. You signed up for the list, paid a small fee for the newsletter publishing costs, and got a list of people you could call, with contact information and location. I was used as a crash location once, I used it to find a place to stay twice.
It’s not really that much different than crashing at an acquaintance’s place. If you’re not comfortable staying at the house of a friend you don’t know very well, you probably won’t like it though.
IÈm a member of Pasporta Servo, which is a “hospitality exchange”, basically the same thing. It’s been around since the eighties.
As a young traveller, I’d certainly use an organization like that. You’re bound to meet nice, hospitable people and can travel at low cost. I’d make sure that the hosts had not specified that they would only want to host single girls, though. 
I would assume, however, that couch-surf etiquette would be the same as during hitchhiking: I’d have to do my best to socialize and make myself agreable, even if I wouldn’t feel like it.
Now that I’m richer and have less time off, I would not use couch-surfing, because I’d prefer to pay a little more for the comfort and privacy and time to myself a bed&breakfast can offer.
As a host, I’d prefer an organiszation that required a little more effort from it’s users then just signing up and paying a small fee. I’d prefer host a member of an rganizations like Sunspaces Esperanto club, which more or less expect that someone shas taken the troubel of learning Esperanto. Or a Doper. Or any system where travellers’s reputations can be tracked and where members have have a reputation to lose.
In the Netherlands, there is a similar system for housesitters. Oddly enough, criminals haven’t abused the system, as far as I know. It probably isn’t worth their effort to enlist, meet the owners, “move in” and rob a house. Not if you contrast it with just burglarin the place…
I have no problem using PS at my age (42), but then I’m less encumbered and more non-traditional than I lot of people.
Yes, I was trying to think of a good way to say this. These organisations seem to work well when the members already have a shared cultural or social space: Esperanto-speakers, Dopers, musicians, ex-pat South Koreans, whatever.