Couchsurfing Travel App

It doesn’t flow well and is quite unapproachable to a newcomer.

I’m going to go backpacking around the UK this summer, and I thought this app would be ideal. But as soon as I downloaded the app and signed up I was faced with a payment, before even getting to see what entailed. I would have most likely purchased the subscription if I got to at least see what I was going to buy but I couldn’t even access it, let alone get to try it out. Hopefully someone makes a decent couch surfing app, or these guys change it up a little, because it feels like I’ve walked into a shop and there is the checkout desk telling me to buy now, before I even know what I’m buying. Let alone be able to look and asses my purchase. It’s a shame because I was really looking forward to this app.

It needs a subscription to even enter the app and see how it works. I want to be able to see if there are people using the service in the destination I am travelling to first, otherwise there’s no point…

Why the app is so outdated and ugly? Bank details input: hard to navigate between fields. Battery usage: I put one star because app uses battery a lot (why?). Used for a half an hour and it ate 30% of my battery(14pro) (see your usage in battery section.) Overall looks like development team is totally incompetent.

I’m not going to do that without at least being able to see how the app functions

The hosts do not update their availability status which creates frustration within the community and makes it very difficult to find a place to stay. It’s often necessary to send at least 20-30 requests to hosts and maybe only around 5 will reply. Those who do reply will often be unavailable to host and the rest are no longer using the platform. Couchsurfing penalises surfers who fail to make each and every request personalised towards the hosts profile, but fails to take action against hosts who cannot be bothered to keep their profiles up-to-date. Couchsurfing really needs to review their terms and conditions because at this point in time the system only works if the surfer is prepared to invest several hours into finding a host.

They don’t show you the amount it says verify yourself but through your bank instead they scam you.

They charged me £51 to verify my account without mentioning it was going to happen! I tried to refund and close account within ten minutes and it says no refunds allowed. Very shady company!

I’m a fan of Couchsurfing but recently I’ve found that so many people have a profile but never host, stay and never reply. Some haven’t been active for 7 years! Can’t you delete these people as they aren’t using the site as intended. Also, there used to be a map option which was very useful. Thanks.

Love the app, love Couchsurfing. Not too keen on the verification payment though :)