It is quite annoying when you have the impression that people are only interested in free accommodation without any respect for the host. As a matter of fact there is quite a fine line between CouchSurfing and free accommodation. A person can be a wonderful guest and friend at one place which explains many not other than glowing references and multiple vouches.
However, the same person could be tired, out of cash or in whatever state of mood when arriving at another host's place. When somebody desperately needs a place to sleep for the night, they would stay with anybody who offers a place. Worst case scenario: A freeloader not interested in you, eating your food without asking, leaving a dirty lump of washing and souvenirs like bed bugs or even swine flu.
Nearly every surfer prefers a host that fits but they would definitely keep options open and "reserve" a second choice host. The problem would occur when this second option host is YOU. As a host, we may examine the request, profile and your own possibilities very well before accepting the person. This is also the reason, why I am not keen on last-minute requests. Email contact is a good way to find out more about the personal connection.
Is a member required to host before surfing?Well, I would not feel very comfortable to host someone who does not intend to host me back. So if their profile doesn't contain any couch information I tend to be reluctant. Some members organise a lot of meetings and potlucks, give generously to their hosts. So why not hosting these members? It is not pleasant to see when a member has surfed many couches, receive positive references and then delete their profile or don't log in anymore.
We cannot eliminate this behaviour and as a host, the only thing we can do is to select our guests properly. Since we cannot guarantee that it will click we can do a few things. I look at a profile and the first communicator is the photo. Until now I was never wrong and people whom I met were quite decent characters. It happened only one time that we decided not to continue our friendship although this person was a decent character.
After I realised that a traveller in an internet cafe cannot read a whole profile, I ask them to read the couch information only. I'm not too keen on last minute and 1-night requests because we simply do not have the time to get to know each other. The groups on a profile are important because if somebody is a member in several satanist and sadist clubs, it would be a reason for me not to host them. References and friends are most important but I will start to look at the references and profiles of their references.
Of course everybody would like to save money. If we stay with our parents or best friends we will save a lot of money too. But I wouldn't like to feel like a free B & B nor would I like strangers to save money at my expenses.
Couchsurfing Leadership has given their stance to us on Ambassador Info group. We may not charge for the couch itself but it would be OK to charge for food, phone calls, internet and any costs which may occur to us due to a surfer staying at our place. Such costs may be water, electricity, gas, petrol etc. You can visit my profile and look for the group: Ambassador Info and Q & A for questions.
