Couchsurfing
ه معنای کاناپه گردی یک سایت گردشگری است که به صورت یک شبکه اجتماعی و یکی ازمعروفترین پرتالهای گردشگری در اینترنت است که در زمینه «مهماننوازی و اقامت رایگان» فعالیت میکند و چند سالی هست که بین ایرانیان به محبوبیت قابل توجهی دست یافتهاست خدمات میزبانی در اینگونه سفرها رایگان است اما این بدان معنا نیست که میزبان باید برای مسافر پول خرج کند، در این سیستم، میزبان نباید برای فراهم کردن محل اقامت از میهمان درخواست پول کند، همچنین، میهمان نیز حق ندارد خرجی به گردن میزبان بگذارد و نباید از سیستم سوءاستفاده نماید، البته تقبل هزینه به صورت داوطلبانه مجاز است. خدمات میزبانی در اینگونه سفرها رایگان است اما این بدان معنا نیست که میزبان باید برای مسافر پول خرج کند، در این سیستم، میزبان نباید برای فراهم کردن محل اقامت از میهمان درخواست پول کند، همچنین، میهمان نیز حق ندارد خرجی به گردن میزبان بگذارد و نباید از سیستم سوءاستفاده نماید، البته تقبل هزینه به صورت داوطلبانه مجاز است..[۳][۴]
Couchsurfing is a service that connects members to a global community of travelers. Use Couchsurfing to find a place to stay or share your home and hometown with travelers. Couchsurfers organize regular events in 200,000 cities around the world. There's always something to do and new friends to meet.
Use the Couchsurfing app to plan and manage your trip itinerary.
Find hosts in your next destination
• Browse the millions of local hosts offering a place to stay in thousands of cities and towns
• Stay with and meet locals and have an authentic travel experience
• Explore accommodations options near where you are right now, or near your future destination
Make New Friends
• Discover thousands of fun events planned by other Couchsurfers in your hometown or in your next travel destination
• Use Couchsurfing Hangouts to show you who’s nearby your current location and available to meet up right now
Meet Travellers Without Traveling
• Host or meet up with incoming travellers coming to your city
• Can’t travel right now? Let new cultures and friends come to you
And More
• Easily create and manage a Couchsurfing profile
• Manage your incoming or outgoing requests, messages, and more
• Add pictures to document your travel adventures
• See which of your Facebook friends also have a Couchsurfing account
COLLAPSE
What Is Couchsurfing?
Although the term "couchsurfing" loosely refers simply to staying with hosts while you travel, over 4 million couchsurfers a year turn to couchsurfing.com for a safe way to find hosts who offer free accommodation. It's the online hub and premier social site for helping budget travelers and backpackers meet potential hosts all over the world.
Some hosts are often former travelers themselves or expatriates who moved to another country and want to stay in touch with the travel world. In other instances, many hosts are locals who are interested in meeting friends from other countries or practicing their English. All agree to open their homes to strangers for free. The interaction often develops into lasting friendships!
"Couch surfing" has a catchy ring to it, but there is some good news: you won't always be relegated to sleeping on couches. Many hosts have spare bedrooms; you could even have your own bathroom. On some glorious occasions, guest cottages are available!
Couchsurfing a few nights can dramatically lower expenses when traveling in places such as Hong Kong, South Korea, and Singapore where accommodation is notoriously pricey.
Is Couchsurfing Free?
Yes. Money shouldn't be exchanged, but bringing a host a thoughtful gift is good road karma. A trinket from your home country or bottle of wine will work although neither are expected. If turning up empty handed, offer to cover a meal or the groceries to cook at home.
What is expected from you as a couchsurfer is a little interaction. Just as when hitchhiking, the recipient of a freebie should interact with hosts, not simply just use them for convenience. Don't remain aloof or so busy that your host winds up feeling used or neglected. A big part of the couchsurfing experience is having a local available for giving you advice that can't be found in the guidebook. Their insider recommendations can save you money and enhance your trip.
The Benefits of Couchsurfing
Along with the obvious benefit of finding a free place to stay, couchsurfing can enhance your trip in other ways:
- You get a peek behind the tourist curtain and can go a little deeper to connect with a destination. A good host will provide a deeper understanding of the place you are visiting.
- Your local friend will know the hidden hotspots and can offer money-saving advice for insider sights and activities. You'll learn about scams to avoid and where to find the best eats in town away from the tourist traps.
- You may have access to a kitchen. Grocery shopping and cooking meals at home are cheaper and healthier than eating out in restaurants for every meal as travelers often do.
- Even if you already have accommodation, you can use the Couchsurfing website to find traveler meetups and hangouts.
- Lasting friendships are often formed through couchsurfing.
Couchsurfing isn't just for solo backpackers! Couples and families with children regularly find hosts who share the same interests.
Rethink Couchsurfing the Entire Time
Free accommodation is great, but so are personal space and privacy. Don't plan to couch surf or share hostel rooms every night of your trip. Doing so will exhaust you and cause you to be less excited about meeting the hosts at your next destinations.
Interacting with hosts and travelers from all over the world is great fun, but doing so also requires energy. Plan to treat yourself to private rooms every now and then for some personal space and relaxation.
Is Couchsurfing Safe?
Although staying with complete strangers seem inherently dangerous, particularly if you watch the nightly news, the social-network system on couchsurfing.com is designed to weed out bad hosts and guests. A lot of emphasis (tips, suggestions, etc) is placed on safety, for obvious reasons.
First, you can choose what type of host you with whom you wish to stay (e.g., male, female, family, etc) and can get a feel for their personalities and interests based on their public profiles. The more time and information put into your own profile, the better. Couchsurfing.com recommends have conversation (through the Couchsurfing website) and asking relevant questions before agreeing to stay with a host.
Before choosing a host, you can see reviews left by other travelers who stayed before you. If the public reviews don't give you enough confidence, you can even contact those travelers to see if they had a good experience and would stay with a particular host again.
Couchsurfing.com once made use of a vouching system to increase safety. Vouching was retired in 2014. But you can still clearly see how much experience someone has hosting travelers. A multi-level account verification system prevents people from dumping old profiles and starting new ones if they get a bad review. Sticking to verified, experienced hosts is one way to increase safety. The app allows people to photograph their government IDs to gain verification.
Hosts know that acting poorly toward guests will result in negative ratings and reviews, effectively eliminating their chances of hosting travelers in the future. This is usually enough to keep members of the Couchsurfing community in check.
As with any social network that has millions of members, you are ultimately responsible for your own personal safety when making contact with strangers.
The CouchSurfing.com Website
Couchsurfing.com first became a public website in 2004 as a way to match travelers with willing hosts. The site operates much in the way of other social websites; people add friends, build profiles, upload photos, and send messages.
Signing up for an account on the Couchsurfing website is free, however, members can optionally pay a one-time fee to become "verified" for additional credibility.
Of course, most people visit the website when looking for a place to stay, however, it also serves as an online community for travelers. Need to buy a motorbike in Vietnam? You can probably connect with a traveler who is leaving Vietnam and wants to sell hers. The Couchsurfing app features a way for travelers to meet up.
Couchsurfing.com is good for meeting real-life friends, even at home! The community pages are handy for getting real-time information from other budget travelers about upcoming destinations.
The groups on the Couchsurfing website are operated by local volunteers known as ambassadors. Local groups often have informal meetings and gather for events and outings. Even when not traveling, you can use the groups and ambassadors to meet fellow travelers and interesting people at home.
Tip: Trying to learn a new language? Use couchsurfing.com to find people from that country who may be passing through your hometown. Travelers are often happy to meet up for coffee and a practice session.
How to Be a Good CouchSurfer
Although couchsurfing is completely free, remember that your hosts aren't compensated for offering up their homes and time — they are doing so to meet people and form new friendships.
Be a good couchsurfer by getting to know your host; plan to spend a little time with them rather than just turning up when it is time to sleep. Don't treat their home as a free hotel. Bringing a small gift is optional, but always plan to interact a bit. After departing, leave a nice referral on the website for them if the experience was positive.
Benjamin Franklin once said, "Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days." No matter how positive the interaction, heed that sage advice and never overstay a welcome!
Many people think you need to live in a foreign country, have a close foreign friend, or spend long nights with your head buried in a boring grammar book, to master English…In fact, you can become a very successful learner of English if you follow some basic rules.
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