Couchsurfing Safety

Life can be unsafe on the road. You could get robbed, shanghaied, or accidentally let a cockroach run up your nose. Warnings and safety tips are good things to read before you go in order to avoid those possible problems. However, there's a point (which each person must define for him/herself) when it's enough -- enough paranoia, enough warnings.

For me, that point sometimes comes when experts warn of dire consequences which haven't yet transpired (for anyone in the course of millions of experiences), and I thought about that point when reading an article from the UK's Sky News ("How Safe Are Travel Networking Sites? Travel Networking Sites Hit Record Levels But Experts Question How Safe They Are").

The article quotes Charlie McGrath of Objective Gap Safety, a company which offers a gap year safety course and which is run by folks who "...specialise in training journalists and industry professionals operating in war zones and other hazardous areas"*, in reference to the potential dangers of staying with strangers via Couchsurfing and Hospitality Club sorts of sites. The article quotes McGrath as saying, "Young backpackers especially who haven't been away much need to be wary and cautious of these sites because you don't really know who you're going to be staying with." True.

The very thing decried in the above quote, though, is what makes Couchsurfing special: you don't know the person with whom you'll be staying, but you'll know your host well by the time you leave his / her home with, possibly, a new friend for life. Couchsurfing has a system set up whereby members can be verified and / or vouched for -- in this modern version of a coconut telegraph, you can check out the person with whom you're crashing as well as possible prior to heading up to their house. That wouldn't weed out psychopath hosts who've carefully hidden their mass murderer aspirations, but that's where your discretion comes in.

McGrath says backpackers should seek out commercial lodging rather than using hospitality sites, and that's indeed the way the vast majority of travelers roll. Were I back on my first solo trip again, I'd pick hostels over Couchsurfing sheerly for the social value (mass numbers of new people in new places). Couchsurfing has some distinctively distinctive pros, though. What do you think? Have you Couchsurfed, and will you do it again, or host a fellow traveler yourself? Tell us in the comments below.

• Learn more: About Couchsurfing

Related reading: Hostels 101 | Hostels FAQ | What's a Gap Year? | Safe Student Travel | Travel Warnings and Alerts

^{Photo © Jim Stone}

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