Cover Story

Nov. 26, 2008

Surfing the Couch

Zero-Budget Travelers Discover a Place to Crash and a New Global Perspective

By Lee Molloy

This week millions of Americans will be in a state of panic. They’ll be drinking greedily at the airport bar, screaming at their kids in the back of the car, or just praying that the bus will hurry up and come before they can’t feel their fingers anymore because of the obscene cold. The stress-filled ritual of 41 million Americans traveling to visit friends and family for the holidays has only one known cure — collapsing in a tryptophan-induced, alcohol-soaked, heap on the couch.

Of course, while Americans obsess about turkey and fight over the things families have fought over since before mashed potatoes were invented, travelers from all over the world, who have no vested interest in this most American of holidays, will continue to fly to Miami to soak up some of our winter sun. Many of those are also going to be crashing, or in the argot of those in the know, surfing a couch.

Zack Lancaster, 31, is a project manager for William R. Nash, a company that specializes in building hospitals. He is also, however, one of more than 800,000 members worldwide of the nonprofit CouchSurfing Project (couchsurfing.com), a network of people who since 2004 have offered, at no charge, a couch, or perhaps even a bed, in their house or apartment to visitors traveling to their town. In the past few weeks, Lancaster has hosted almost 40 travelers in his swanky skyscraping Miami apartment.

“I never hosted anyone until about three months ago,” Lancaster said. However, “Now that I’ve moved closer to the beach and into a place with a ridiculous view I get bombarded with requests.”

CouchSurfers create profiles of themselves reminiscent of those on social networking sites Facebook and MySpace. When they are ready to travel to a specific destination, they search for potential hosts and send a message asking if they can stay. 

“You’re not obliged to host everybody who e-mails you,” says Miami Beach CouchSurfer Evelyn Rodriguez. “The first time I only wanted to host a female until I got more confident with the system,” Rodriguez said. Not surprisingly, safety is an important issue.

“We definitely encourage safety on our Web site,” says CouchSurfing.com Global Ambassador in Charge of Public Relations and Marketing Crystal Murphy. “First is our referencing system: A CouchSurfer will leave a reference for you and vice versa — were they [the surfers] party people or quiet people? Did they [the host] show you around or not show you around?” Next comes the vouching system. A CouchSurfer can vouch for the integrity of another surfer only if they have met him or her in person and can truly attest to their character. “Whenever you have three vouches you can vouch for someone else,” Murphy explains. The system also includes a verification process whereby someone who wishes to host or surf can pay $25 to have their name and address verified by CouchSurfing project administrators, adding another layer of safety. According to Murphy, results show “99.8 percent are reported as positive, both hosting and surfing,” and the system is working.

The First Surfer

Casey Fenton was born in his parents’ house in Conway, N.H., in 1978. His mom and dad were hippies who didn’t believe strongly in Western medicine, and raised him and his four siblings as vegetarians. By the time he was 17, Fenton was already living the wandering hippie lifestyle.

“In 1999 [Fenton] took a trip to Iceland and decided to try something a little different,” Murphy said.

Having no place to stay in Reykjavík, Fenton considered the usual suspects of accommodation — a hotel or a hostel — and found them lacking. It was then that he acquired a list of more than 1,500 Icelandic college students and proceeded to spam them with requests to crash at their place. Amazingly, within 24 hours close to 100 Icelanders had replied and offered him a place to stay, and the opportunity to experience “their” Reykavik.

According to Murphy, after the Icelandic adventure, Fenton vowed to “never travel the hotel tourist thing again,” she said. And with that, the couch surfing project was born.

By January 2004, CouchSurfing.com was up and running. “Now, four years later, things are going really great,” Murphy said, and “in the next two months we will have our millionth member.”

The Surfer’s Mission

The mission of the project is to “Participate in Creating a Better World, One Couch at a Time,” according to the organization’s mission statement.

The project is also a not-for-profit entity in the process of gaining 501(c)3 tax-exempt status. A team of volunteers and organizers called “ambassadors” manage the organization, along with “only six paid members that are in charge of maintaining the site,” Murphy said.

“CouchSurfing represents global understanding and tolerance; it strives to provide a really unique experience,” she said. “People that aren’t open to the idea aren’t going to be on the site. It takes a certain type of person — someone that wants to have new experiences and meet new people.”

The CouchSurfers whom The SunPost spoke with all seemed to agree, and expanded on how the CouchSurfing project is more than just a free bed for the night.

“I’m from Mississippi, so growing up I never had the chance to interact with other cultures,” Lancaster said. “I once thought that people from different parts of the world were so different that we’d be lucky to get along at all. After hosting people from different cultures, I see that we are all basically the same. … CouchSurfing has made the world seem smaller. It makes me wonder why wars are ever started if we are all so much alike.”

Fredy Rodriguez, an assistant editor for a television company, recently signed up to be a CouchSurfing host after moving from Little Haiti to Miami Beach.

“I visited the site and read the idea behind the project: cultural exchanges and strangers of diverse nationalities bonding over travel,” Rodriguez said. “It sounded a little radical, but an interesting, progressive idea. I figured that most people who would embrace the idea of CouchSurfing are like-minded, and the sort of people I’d want to meet anyway.”

Rodriguez has a laid-back and easy-going nature, which perhaps makes him the perfect candidate to have hosted more than 20 strangers in his home. “People have much to offer each other, if they could only trust each other more,” he said. “You know that saying — ‘a stranger is a friend you haven’t met yet’ — or something like that.”

The Surfer from Serbia

Boris Bulatovic is a professor of Slavic literature and languages at the University of Novi Sad, Serbia. He is currently in the United States to attend an American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies event in Philadelphia, but stopped off to catch a couch in Miami Beach on the way.

“I heard a lot of great stories about Miami Beach. So, I had no doubt where to go this year,” said Bulatovic, in a deep voice with thick Eastern European accent. Due to starting his search late, Bulatovic says he “had a problem finding hosting on Miami Beach” but eventually lucked out. “My host is an extremely great guy,” he says. “I feel like I know him much more than just two days.”

Bulatovic has been traveling as a CouchSurfer since winning a rail ticket to travel around Europe for a month in 2006. “As we are living in Serbia we can’t survive a whole month in Europe,” he says. “I heard of the CouchSurfing.com Web site and thought it was a little bit crazy — why would someone have us for free? … First I was really suspicious about that, but sent a few e-mails and got positive answers.”

His trip included travel to countries such as Austria, Hungary, Germany, Netherlands, France, Portugal and most nations in between. “I didn’t spend a single euro on accommodation for about 30 days,” said Bulatovic. “I spent 300 euros (roughly $240) for a whole month.”

Things, however, were not always easy for Bulatovic on his European adventure. During part of the German leg of his trip he was unable to find anyone to host him at all, and on a shoestring budget, he “spent a few nights on the trains and sleeping outside.”

In Italy, Bulatovic ran into trouble of a different kind. “In Italy it is 90 percent guys,” Bulatovic says of Italian CouchSurfers. “One girl told me, ‘I would be glad to host you but my boyfriend is extremely jealous.’” So, in Milan he ended up spending a night with a gay man. “He said, ‘Baby, do you mind sleeping with me in the same bed?’ I said, ‘OK’ but was sleeping right on the edge of the bed. I didn’t know which way to turn — both ways would be dangerous. … He didn’t try anything, but it was very strange for me.”

Bulatovic thought he had survived his encounter unscathed until he read online the host’s review of his stay: “Boris is cool, funny and gay.” Although quick to contact CouchSurfers.com to correct this piece of misinformation, his popularity increased exponentially. “In the meantime I received more than 100 e-mails from all the continents apart from Africa,” said Bulatovic.

Now, Bulatovic is surfing couches in the United States.

“I have very bad feeling to U.S. foreign policy,” he says “but I like the people from here.” It is perhaps not surprising that Bulatovic has problems with the government — in 1999 he was in Kosovo during bombing by NATO forces. “It was really crazy,” he said. “For the first two weeks we were in shelters under the ground. … The oil refinery in Novi Sad was bombed. Oil would rain down every day. Everything was poison. ... It was quite dangerous. From the air and from Albanian troops.”

Ultimately, however, Bulatovic exemplifies the spirit and mission of the CouchSurfing Project, because he bears no grudge at all.

“People are really cool here and I have never had a bad experience. … American people are really friendly. People in Europe are not so open,” he said.

He also has a good feeling about President-elect Obama. “Most of the people in Serbia, including me, were really enthusiastic about the U.S. elections,” he says, and believes that Obama is “much better for U.S. citizens, especially black people; I feel they feel much more proud. … It’s obvious he is a cool person who can understand people’s problems." 

Never Too Old to Surf

Bulatovic’s open mind also personifies the successful CouchSurfer experience.

“There isn’t one particular type of CouchSurfer,” Murphy says. “It’s definitely a very unique way of traveling.”

While it’s true that most CouchSurfers are in their 20s, there are almost 150,000 registered surfers in their 30s and another 60,000 between the ages of 40 and 70. Furthermore, there are almost 1,000 surfers between 71 and 90 years old.

“I can remember right now a good experience in which a middle-aged couple from France came to stay with me,” said Fredy Rodriguez. “I was interested in learning how to cook some French food and they were more than happy to teach me. I have used these recipes to impress my girlfriend and my family.”
In the end, it doesn’t matter where you are from, what you do for a living, who you like to sleep with or how old you are, because a successful CouchSurfing adventure is about having common sense and some common courtesy. 

“Make sure that you are realistic and smart when you do it,” Murphy said. “And keep an open mind.”

Comments? E-mail letters@miamisunpost.com.