Melbournian Rachel don't host much in these days, because she lives with her parents. She has only hosted twice. “I host because I love to have people come to stay. It's important to me that my surfer and I converse, even if we have different ideas. I'd be wary to host someone who didn't look like they were interested in sharing.” Rachel says.
Because of her living situation, she meets up with people, the surfers, occasionally. Usually she shows them around Melbourne. “I'll invite them to whatever i'm already doing. I don't like to meet up with someone if I don't have the time or energy to give them a good experience.” She says.
She has surfed and had only one bad experience when she was in San Francisco. “My host and I just didn't click. He was a great host, looked after me and took me out, but we just didn't have much in common to talk about! As a result I ended up feeling in the way and like i was using him - but that was my hang up, not his.” She says.
She has had lot of good experiences. “One of the best was being taken out snow hiking on a whim by a nudist ex-army couchsurfer in Canada. I was a little wary about meeting him but he was such a wonderful, giving and entertaining guy I really learnt a lot about ignoring your prejudices that day.” She says.
Rachel thinks it is annoying whe people try to set up a time then not replying to her messages. “I figure something else has come up/they don't have internet access/they've changed their mind. But that is definitely the minority.” She says optimistically.
Rachel reckons that couchsurfing is going to get bigger. “Already newspaper articles are talking about it as a common concept of traveling for my age range, rather than a strange alternative. I'm hoping the demographics begin to vary a lot more as more members join - more nationalities, more ages, and more interesting people” she lists.
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