CouchSurfing

CouchSurfing is a site where travellers can find 'free couches' to sleep, offered by volunteer participants worldwide.

CouchSurfing is a worldwide network for making connections between travelers and the local communities they visit.

URL = http://www.couchsurfing.com/

Discussion

Couchsurfing vs. Open Couchsurfing volunteers conflict

According to a group of volunteer developers, in the beginning of 2007 Casey Fenton, the network's founder, put a strong hold on the transition towards a peer-to-peer model of functioning. Guaka and several other core people stopped volunteering for the organization. See also OpenCouchSurfing.

The incident is described in our entry on the Couchsurfing Conflict

For the full source material see the entry Couchsurfing is Dead]

More Information

Read their about/faq pages for detailed info on how it works, at http://www.couchsurfing.com/help.html

Part of the Hospitality Exchange Networks and a P2P Exchange Infrastructure Projects

See also their Center of Adventure Economics

Crash At Mine has been set up as an open source alternative.

Another good alternative is BeWelcome, founded by former Hospitality Club volunteers.