I miss the golden years of couchsurfing. I met so many lifelong friends that way. There was a passionate hosting community that I loved. Big communities would organize regular meet and greets at local bars and such.

But it thrived in a different era. The web was less polished. People still used dumb phones. Not sure if Yelp existed yet. You relied on your host for local information, so engagement was built in to the fabric of your stay. Airbnb also didn’t exist or was still in its infancy, so there were more people with extra space that wasn’t being monetized - although before Airbnb, the idea of having a complete stranger in your home was insane to a lot of my friends. You either loved or hated it, so the CS community was special in that way.

I remember when the hosting community complained loudly of the negative changes, when the founder sold out to investors and tried to appeal to the masses. I thought at the time they were being dramatic but they turned out to be right. The platform stopped feeling like a community and I personally felt like it started catering to newbies without explaining the culture of sharing your lives with people from very different backgrounds and values.

Guests would have to put in the effort to write each host individually and personalize their request, but the new UX made it easier for lazy surfers to just post that they were in town and get offers from hosts that way. This heavily favored the young, the attractive, and women.

The mobile app that came later (as CS was dying out) was kind of nice since it helped meet up with other travelers and locals more spontaneously, but it got overrun with local men looking to hook up with female travelers. CS always had that meat-market element, as well as those just looking for a free place to stay. But there used to be enough sincere people in the community to offset the creeps and the freeloaders.

I’d love to see something take its place. I think there’s a real hunger for human connection these days. But our digital environment has changed the way we approach the world and I think it has a real impact on how people engage with each other. I’m assuming since this post is in a sub dedicated to budget travel that there’s an economic motivation behind this question, but as a former host I can say that reviving the concept will only succeed if the principles of mutual giving are promoted above “a free place to stay”

I hosted more than I couch surfed, but when ever I was hosted, I always spent as much or more on treating my host to dinner or drinks, or cooking for them, or bringing gifts from home. That was what made CS magical!