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/

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

Unfortunately, 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.

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