Couchsurfing.org

They charged $60 with no warning. No wonder the host response rate is so low. Get an ad banner and stop ripping us off

Don't trust the site claims that you can join for one month for "only $2.99." Once they ask you for your credit card information they charge you $60 to "authorize" you. At no point did they ask if they could actually charge this, they just do it. Then the site is filled with old, old profiles and almost no one current.

This used to be free, foreign owners got money hungry and now defraud innocent people. There are a few legit hosts on here but it's not worth a penny and you'll end up being upset by the site's poor design as well as misleading lack of information or appropriate American accountability.

I had a recent issue where i tried to help someone on couch surfing that was desesperately looking for a host, i tried to help her but her response wasnt nice and i replied, she bullied me posting a reference and in the public forum, and turned out its a FAKE profile. And yet despite 3 different stranger people messaged me to support, Couchsurfing dismissed my inquires, and ignored to really address the situation.

Another very similar review to many already on here, but I'm quite happy to bring the overall rating down even lower. I was tricked like many others into paying $102 AUD when I actually had no idea I was paying anything. The amount and even the fact that it was a transaction and not some sort of automatic validation process (which it heavily implied) were written in light grey 10pt font such that people go straight to autofilling credit card details. I have no idea how these people go to sleep at night knowing that they steal people's hard-earned money.

It's a great idea, but in practice, especially when you're new (& male), it's difficult to find hosts. I'm a liberal / friendly guy but I've been declined again & again. I have 200 facebook friends, but hardly any who use CS, so I have no references... & apparently most men only host women, most women don't host anyone, and the few who do would never host anyone without a dozen references lol. You can get "verified" -- but it's $84 & i'm not sure how much it would help. I'll keep trying but so far, it's been disappointing :(

Couchsurfing robbed me.

I was sure I was making a card verification transaction, but I didn't notice a price in LIGHT GREY COLOR on the last screen. These scammers took ridiculous amount of money for that stupid green check mark in my account.

When they refused to cancel my payment, I promised to write negative feedback wherever I can. Hell, with covid and stuff, these guys seem to have nothing to lose.

I stayed with Chiara, and Lorenzo. They were such great hosts from making me feel welcome, to great conversations; and great food! I had a great experience with couch surfing, and recommend it to anyone!

My account was shut down after joining for just a day with one bad interaction with a member. Do not recommend. No support. And it's a paid service. The bad reviews speak for themselves.

So after years with couch surfing, they totally deleted my account. They said, someone Flagged me... I reached out to them. I talked to the rep. I said, what did I do? What did I say? Would you mind telling me...and Crickets?...NO RESPONSE...NO Clarification...Who the hell needs this? Seriously, when you've been paying a Montly fee? Every single month, don't you defer to the people that are paying for your service, your platform... that is failing. I hear financially. Wow. You would take the words of someone that would. Flag OVER a longtime. Paying customer. You deserve to FAIL Couchsurfing... Go away.!

Who should close the account of those people who misuse it Since 4 months I am waiting for my account. You guys are not turning on.I have more than 50 references and excellent on all references.I request you to restart my account else I am about to commit suicide. I got very upset my 5 years of hard work!You spoiled my hard work in one shot. Please on my account please

Around 8 years ago, as a young woman, I was a guest at a man's apartament in Paris. He crawled at my bed at night. I told him to get out of it and he did it. Next day I didn't let him get out of house in the evening because I didn't trust him. I've seen that he got a bit angry but he stayed. He justified himself by underestimating situation, said sorry and gave me a few tips for safe travelling on CS. After that trip, I deleted my CS account.
If you ever are in a similar situation - leave the accomodation, write long paragraph to warn other women and raport to CS administration. Sexual harrassment is not acceptable!

DO NOT VERIFY EVER! I didn't. I used this way before. It was a tough site to find place, but now it is dead and just used for stealing money from people. THEY ASK TO VERIFY BY ASKING CREDIT CARD NUMBER! AND NO INFO ON HOW MUCH THEY WILL CHARGE! THEY CAN CHARGE ALL YOU HAVE.
Sorry for caps, just to raise awareness. Sue them if you can.

Disgraceful company.

I didn't know I was signing up for a lifetime membership at all. Or I was going to be charged. They charged me £54 odd and after a couple of emails back and forth they refuse to refund me despite it being a genuine error.

They have now taken to ignoring me. I asked to speak to a manager but they ignored me.

They weren't sympathetic. Quite robotic in response. Like off a script

Appalling company
Have no respect for them now whatsoever. No decent, honourable company would operate in this manner.

Their website cites that they will not issue refunds. To add insult to injury, most of the hosts on the site are long-inactive, so I couldn't even utilize the service, while I was being overbilled.

One of my favorite sites. Host and get hosted. Travel and meet people. Meet interesting people in your community. It is a great way to travel and meet people by getting hosted. Host people to get to know interesting persons. I am almost 10 years member in this site. Unfortunately now it grew so big that a lot of people who do not share the hosting idea are members, however the concept is still great.

CouchSurfing might not be perfect but how else can you get a free place to stay when you're traveling? I feel like the worst part is that some of the community members are a little flaky. So sometimes when you think you've got a great place to stay, it turns out that you don't. I don't think it's anyone's fault... the community has a lot of great generous people, but I just think it's the nature of the beast. Overall Couch Surfing is an amazing concept and I would recommend that everyone try it once.

Made a student broke from verification. And charged me over $90. Karma is real and I know for a fact.

-5 stars

I am honestly SO MAD

They have been scamming people with the "lifetime verification" they did not say that I would be charged $87 CAD until after the fact.

Please, please, please use another platform.

If you have also been scammed out of money... you can file a report through your country's department of consumer protection or go through small claims.

AVOID COUCHSURFING.ORG AT ALL COSTS! THEY ARE PRACTICING EXTORTION AND SHOULD BE REPORTED!

Further to my previous review and having been forced to pay the Couchsurfing fee which were actually call "contributions" although with no access to your account until you made the contribution, this company went far beyond the greed factor and into the realm of "extortion!" My account was active still for many more months to come due to the fact that I reluctantly paid the fees, however, a new pop-up on the CS site came up stating that "due to Covid19" they are requesting more money than what was previously asked for and still calling this a contribution all while blocking access to everyone's accounts regardless if they've already paid the fees or haven't! While I don't have an issue with the site itself and the experiences I've had thus far, it definitely left a bitter feeling when everyone was locked out of their account around Covid and asked to pay a fee in order to access any of your information, friends, contacts, reviews etc. There was a lot of hype about this and the fact that this site was always supposed to be free, but that's no longer the case! They went beyond just asking for donations (which I'm guessing many would have done!) You were forced to pay the fee or wouldn't have access to any of your account information. What's actually worse is that I've learned that Couch Surfing isn't charging for every country! As far as I'm aware, it's Canada and the United States right now. I recently had a surfer who mentioned this and as much as I hated to go back to Couchsurfing and pay my yearly fee, I was compelled to do so because of the history I had already established on the site. I simply cannot believe the audacity of this company and the fact that charging a fee is NOT universal as it would just cause them to lose more customers. Unbelievable!

I went on a trip and used couchsurfing thinking it was like airbnb or something just to travel make friends maybe exchange stays but the first person I stayed with was OK but didn't really make friends and it was awkward as I didn't know what to expect. Then I stayed with a guy that ended up being really bad won't even put everything on here but he was drinking doing drugs talking about the girls he has been with from there and about prostitution etc I didn't want to go anywhere else after that but did finally end up meeting a good host that was friendly and then in Canada I met an awesome host that didn't harass me at all showed me around and made a great friend I hope to exchange time with. I met others that were trying to harass women or get something from them take advantage of someone. You really never know until you meet a person and it all depends on the person and host. For women some men try to come on to you or sexually harass you or assault you so be careful and if you can find a women then stay there probably safer.

I signed up to use the app and agreed to contribute $1.99 per month to use the community. Then I went and tried to verify my phone and email and somehow that triggered a whole separate charge of $60. And customer service claims I agreed to some one time fee for "lifetime verification" which I NEVER agreed to and never was even given a chance to authorize or not authorize ANY sort of $60 charge.

Then customer service essentially said that they wouldn't refund anything snd that this fee that I NEVER agreed to, is used to keep them in business.

So they won't do anything and now I have to file a dispute with my bank.

And other reviews on trust pilot and other sites clearly have numerous complaints over the same thing.

Just nothing but a trashy, useless and despicable app with a lying and deceitful customer service team.

Wow. It is really a scam (after comments was read). I returned my money immediately after I chargebacked it with my bank. But I have a digital card so I opened another one, transfered money there and closed the old one because these bandits can charge again.

My feedback from appstore:
Very disappointed with this service. When I registered there for the first time in my life they have ask my right after the registration to confirm email and complete verification without mentioning on the main page that they will charge money for that. I have never seen any verifications for money in my life before so I was not vigilant at that moment. When they ask for a bank card data for the verification I was surprised but explained to myself that this is how they push users to make inner purchases in future. I did everything fast and mechanically as many of us do when fill up a bank card details and after I already pressed OK I mentioned a small sentence with a price above (it was regular info sentence with with the price that was not marked). I really didn't see it. "My fault" - was my first thought - "But no worries, they seem to be a noble company so they will return money for sure" - was my second thought. I have wrote them right after I did the mistake and explained everything to them: that it was an accident and I wrote them the next moment after I was charged. With big unpleasant surprise I have received the answer that they do not do refunds (I wonder is it actually legally?). I wrote them again and said one more time that it was really an accident and I am not even sure that I will use their service at all. No answer was after that. So I called them thieves and was truly with a big awful first impression from them.

Hope, you will be more careful.

This company seems to have a history in ripping off people and i am absolutely determined to go further with this as they just charged me for a subscripition i asked to be cancelled an year ago when i first tried it for which i paid almost £60-70 as a first time fee or smth like that and once i actually tried it for a few days and i understood the system did not fit my needs i asked for a refund and subscription cancellation and they denied it throwing in my face terms and conditions. Now, for the second time, this greedy company told me i accessed the app which I didnt and even forgot about it until i saw the charge in my email and when i requested my refund as the system failed in their advantage and i didnt even use the app so i unwillingly paid for a new subsciption whcih as a reply to my tefind request they cancelled my subscirption immediatly but refused to give me my money back!
So in their business politics people unwillingly pay for a service they are able to cancel in just a sec but not pay back due to their system errors

Completely unsustainable company built on making USE of sustainability principles and on greedy $#*! decision to just rip off people.