Couchsurfing: The Best Hook-Up App Ever
Couchsurfing’s Hookup Secret: It’s The Greatest Hook-Up App Ever Devised
Mike Nudelman/Business Insider
Riccardo G.’s profile on CouchSurfing.com, the website that playmates intrepid wanderers with willing hosts, notes that he lives in the "best neighborhood to go out and have drinks," that he offers a "cozy/clean/nice sofa/couch" and that he’ll even let you bring your "petite dog, if you just can’t live without him."
He describes himself as "amazing, outgoing, funny, wise" and says his interests include friends, eating, drinking, the gym and puppies. His photos demonstrate the good-humored Latin American native – dark, spectacular, and fit – in exotic destinations around the world, from Cairo to Capri. Nowhere does the profile state explicitly that if you are an attractive female traveler, you might skip the couch entirely and wind up in Riccardo’s bed, but it’s a good possibility.
In eight months using the service, Riccardo, who is thirty two and works for an ad agency, has let eight visitors crash at his apartment, of whom he’s hooked up with five, for a sixty two percent "success rate." If you count the extra two who climbed into bed with him for a cuddle and then fell asleep, the percentage climbs even higher. (Riccardo and other Couchsurfing users quoted in this article asked to be identified by pseudonyms.)
On the business front, the crowdsourced hospitality site has been experiencing a rough patch lately. After a controversial transition to a for-profit model in 2011, which brought $22 million in funding in the past two years, growing anguishes have set in. In October, layoffs claimed an estimated forty percent of the staff, and CEO Tony Espinoza announced his departure – providing an opening to competitors like BeWelcome and Hospitality Club.
Albeit the company has initiated a doubling down on mobile, the practice of users like Riccardo might suggest another path to profitability.
I simply do not know of an lighter way for a boy to get laid with exotic women in exotic countries. Long live Couchsurfing!
Never mind OKCupid and Tinder. The almost decade-old Couchsurfing, which is available in 100,000 cities across the globe, is becoming the go-to hookup app for a certain class of youthfull world travelers. Bloggers like Maverick Traveler will help you spot the "8 Signs of a Promiscuous CouchSurfer Damsel" by decoding her profile, and female-centric advice site YouQueen has even suggested tips on "How to Use CouchSurfing as a Dating Site and Get Away with It." Meantime, a site called CouchBangs.com, which announces that "Couchsurfing isn’t just for Couchsurfing," offers a forum for proud couch-cuddlers to share their practices via brief posts with titles like "French Female in Istanbul" and "Brazilian Chick in Fresh York."
CouchSurfing’s Community Guidelines explicitly warn against contacting other members for dating, noting, "we will consider this harassment" – albeit without stipulating what the penalties are for violating this rule. In an email interview, the site’s interim CEO Jen Billock told Business Insider that "members are . encouraged to report other members who are manhandling the site to our Trust and Safety team, who will take suitable activity, according to our policy, when Terms of Use violations are reported or observed."
Perhaps, but use of the site to find sexual playmates (a practice known in some bro-friendly circles as "cooch surfing") is nonetheless fairly routine.
"Get in my bed"
"All of my friends, they love these stories," Riccardo tells Business Insider over beers in a quiet bar in Midtown Manhattan. "They call me the next day asking what happened. I’m like, ‘You know, whatever, we went out, had hook-up. ‘ They’re like, ‘No, no, no-tell me when she got there, where you went, did you smooch her, every single detail.’"
Mike Nudelman/Business Insider
We had the same questions.
"My very first Couchsurfing hookup happened when I was staying with my friend in Miami," Riccardo recalls. "He has a studio and was hosting two ladies from France." He slept on an inflatable air mattress with one woman, while his friend collective his bed with the other. They didn’t go all the way. "She had her period," he explains. Months later Riccardo got a phone call from the same doll, asking if she could stay at his place in Fresh York City. This time, they made it official. "I never talked to her again," he admits, adding, "I mean, we’re friends on Facebook."
Couchsurfing was born after a budget-conscious traveler named Casey Fenton sent out a mass request for accommodations in Iceland and received fifty invitations from students with a free spare futon. Fenton soon realized people all over the world might not mind sharing their extra space gratis while making fresh friends in the process. Today, each of the site’s seven million members has a unique profile which reads like a private ad, highlighting interests, locations traveled, details about their accommodations and, most significant, references. This system permits friends you’ve made globally or locally to vouch for you and the unlikelihood of you being a serial killer. Members can request a couch, host a traveler, or find fresh friends to meet up with locally.
Riccardo agrees to host only female travelers and stipulates that they be junior than him. He accepts them based on their attraction "of course," but physical appearance isn’t the only criterion. "I’ve seen adorable damsels that have boring pictures and I’m like, ‘You look boring, sorry.’ At the end of the day I’m going to spend three days with you. I want to have three days with somebody I can talk with. Not somebody just empty."
In Riccardo’s case, it all starts with a request for approval – from his pal in Miami. "I’m always sending him links like, ‘Hey, do you like this chick? Should I invite her?’" he says. "There’s more people coming to Fresh York than Miami, so he’s always like, ‘You bastard!’ Then he always asks to do Facetime because he wants to see them."
"The very first time," he says, leaning over his beer, "I had two women that stayed … I didn’t sleep with either. Big fail!"1++
He got a little closer on his 2nd attempt, a chick from Slovakia with blonde hair (his weakness) and puny, dark, squinty eyes.
She was in the process of moving to Fresh York and needed a place to stay for four days while she looked for a permanent home. "We went out for drinks the very first night," he says, "and I hit on her. I attempted to smooch her. She, was like ‘No, no, no-I don’t want to make it awkward.’ I was like well, whatever, so we kept on drinking, dancing, and having joy."
Riccardo later learned he’d made a critical error. Experienced couchsurfing casanovas know to hold off on making a budge until later. Your guest is already committed to coming home with you, so why risk the old fashioned treatment? His friend later advised him on a more direct strategy.
"Come, get in my bed," he’ll say, just as his guest is preparing to hit the sack.
At very first, Riccardo could not believe it was that plain. "I’m going to get spanked," he thought. "I’m going to sound like such a wank just telling them." But he attempted it on his next guest and bingo. "We got home just laughing and telling jokes, and I just said it. She was like, ‘Okay!’"
"My friends say, ‘You’re telling me that line – get in my bed – it works?’ I’m like dude, it works."
Riccardo is asked if he feels sleazy. "I do feel guilt, but not like I took advantage of somebody." Instead of calling his friend with tales of his latest conquests, he has recently found himself calling to complain. "I’m telling him it was awesome last night, I had hookup and everything-but it was empty hook-up."
We ask if he’ll stop, since it’s become so unfulfilling, he smiles and wiggles his head no.
Mike Nudelman/Business Insider
Why stop, when it’s so effortless? As Maverick Traveler, a self-proclaimed nomad who "wanders the earth, seduces beautiful women," and blogs about his adventures, puts it, "I simply do not know of an lighter way for a stud to get laid with exotic women in exotic countries. Long live Couchsurfing!" The anonymous blogger is also the author of the popular "How to Bang CouchSurfing Girls-The Accomplish Guide" (which, after he declined to comment for this article, mysteriously disappeared from his website) and "8 Signs of a Bitchy Couchsurfing Female" (which mysteriously didn’t).
According to his blog, he commenced using the site in two thousand nine "as a implement to get to know a city, meet interesting people, and, of course, to bang chicks." Four years of his exotic lifestyle later, Maverick is sharing the secrets of Couchsurfing as a "gateway to effortless lays" – from prep ("Wash your cum-soaked bed sheets") to avoiding a negative review at all costs: "Under normal circumstances, I use every trick in the book to get a bang, but with a possible negative looming over my head if things don’t work out, I play it cool with Couchsurfing chicks."
Most of his readers are clearly appreciative of his advice: "Nice post. I didn’t know CS was a bangtool," reads one response.
Chick Meets Boy(s)
Jessie S. just turned in her two-weeks notice, a final prep for her upcoming road excursion through the Americas along the Rocky/Andes mountains to arrive in Brazil just in time for World Cup 2014. Presently she lives in her hometown of Philadelphia, and however single and actively looking, the early twentysomething hasn’t met anyone of interest locally.
Most Couchsurfers are travelers at heart and don’t want commitment. They’re a little more rebellious.
"I haven’t had hook-up in five months!" she tells Business Insider. "But I have made out with about ten different guys." While she encounters slew of prospects in Philly – studs she works with, dudes from her martial arts school, studs on her community soccer team – she chooses to do her hunting further afield. "I’ve determined it’s truly not worth it to get romantically involved with any of those guys. It’s significant to stay professional, and guys I train with need to see me as a fighter and a teammate or it gets too complicated."
A Couchsurfer since 2009, Jessie has traveled the globe using the service. But it’s not a dating site, she insists, "It’s a social site. But with anything social, there is sometimes a spark. I’m very sultry and very lightly seduced!" She bursts out laughing. "I have high standards, I don’t just sleep with any man I think is hot. But once there is a connection, there isn’t much holding me back."
For example, this stud in Wales. "There was a very strong attraction on both of our parts," she recalls. "When he came downstairs to suggest me blankets and pillows for the couch, I just asked him, ‘Can I sleep in your bed?’"
Then there was Ireland, where despite being a little fuzzy on the specifics, Jessie also recalls making the very first budge with her masculine host. "Whether it was spoken or if I just went for it and kissed him, I ended up sleeping in his bed that night and having hook-up with him. It was funny because the next morning his roomie, who had seen me sleeping on the couch the night before, barged in his room and was very astonished to find me naked in his bed!"
Of course, that sort of spontaneity is part of the appeal. "When you are a traveler it’s hard to be able to commit to anything, so if you do want any form of romance in your life, you kind of have to be cool with this way," she says. "You recognize that you are kindred spirits and you have a lot to suggest to each other, but you’re not going to abruptly budge to this person’s country to be with them. It works because most Couchsurfers are travelers at heart and don’t want commitment. They’re a little more rebellious, and people who are used to cracking the rules understand that."
What the World Needs Now
An active participant in her local Couchsurfing community, Ana B. organizes events and goes to weekly meetings designed to connect local and visiting CSers. It was at one of these weekly rendezvous where she met her hubby. "We hooked up, embarked dating, moved in together and now I’m pregnant!" she says. "We’re having a Couchsurfing baby!"
Mike Nudelman/Business Insider
A Couchsurfer since 2007, who very first began using the site as a way to practice her English with non-Portuguese speakers, the South American native is always "switching, learning, growing" and is "pretty messy," but draws the line at leaving a raw floor in the bathroom. Ana has hosted inbetween thirty and forty travelers in both Portugal and Brazil, proof of which she keeps displayed pridefully on her refrigerator. "I collect refrigerator magnets, so I ask my guests to bring me one from their country. Now I have lots of them!"
Having hooked up with about a third of her visitors – some while still single, and others with her hubby – she has lots of stories too.
Like the time Ana and her hubby hosted a "indeed adorable, adorable, and loving" Israeli duo during Brazil’s famous Carnival festival. The guests booked their stay six months in advance, so there was slew of time to become acquainted via Facebook. "We began talking and I eyed that she had pictures smooching other chicks on the lips and she has nice hooters. I thought, ‘When she comes to Brazil, we’ll see.’" After a cheeky game of "Never Have I Ever" lubricated by numerous caipirinhas, the visitors were all of a sudden upgraded from the couch to the bed. "We never expect it to happen until the last night, when the person wants to go crazy," she says. Her guest, it should be said, left Ana a glowing reference on her profile, spewing out that she "simply loved every moment with her."
When asked how she broaches the subject without offending her guests, Ana replies with conviction that Couchsurfing tends to inspire connections that are more intimate than one has with close friends. Puny talk leads to wild stories of past practices. In Ana’s case, the fact that she and her spouse have had threesomes with other women often happens to get worked into the conversation. "You see it in the other person’s face if she is interested, if she is nosey. And if she is interested and we are interested in her, why not?"
She says the main benefit to Couchsurfing hookups is that they come without strings linked. "There’s no wondering if he will call the next day or jealousy over the fresh lady he’s dating now. It’s ideal."
The Competition
CouchSurfing remains adamant that its service is designed to bring people together for cultural exchange and free lodging, not hookup. "Couchsurfing is not a dating site," Billock asserts. "However, there are many examples of people who have met through Couchsurfing and formed all kinds of wonderful relationships – friendships, travel companions, married couples."
But mid-November brought the launch of a challenging site, Loveroom, that is explicitly designed to facilitate hook-up – a direct treatment that appeals to users like Ana. Originally floated as what its founder Josh Bocanegra calls a "thought experiment to connect people in a fresh way" via a ordinary Launchrock splash page, it was billed as "a platform where single people & couples can share a room with other people under one condition: they need to be attractive." According to the user, that is. "The users are 100% the judge of who they think is attractive," clarifies Bocanegra.
The idea, says Ana, is, "’You can come to my house, you can stay for free, and if I like you and you like me we are going to have hookup, no strings fastened.’ I like that, the honesty."
As to whether it will truly take off, she predicts, "Dudes will undoubtedly join. But I think if I were a single woman, I wouldn’t create a profile, because it’s a site that basically says I will have casual lovemaking with you."
That said, Ana’s married, and in fact, she is one reason why the site announced a fresh feature just six days after it’s launch. "I contacted the website admin to talk about creating a couples profile and Josh instantaneously replied," she says. "In less than twelve hours the feature for couples was available!"
At this stage, such timely additions to the site are feasible and user feedback is priceless. "We didn’t need any funding whatsoever," says Bocanegra of his passion project. "I did all of the programming myself, [with] my gf" – Loveroom co-founder Jeanine Fuentes – "did a lot of the design work." In fact, Bocanegra lives off the residual income from his very first successful tech startup, Beats4Real, which he created at age 16. Loveroom is now looking for developers to ensure the site can treat its rapidly growing request.
While the site had registered 6,500 users as of this writing, Bocanegra isn’t sure any have met in person. "I’d give it a duo of months," he says. Still, it has attracted slew of press and seems to have identified a market niche that Couchsurfing was serving only reluctantly.
"As of right now, Couchsurfing is our largest competitor for sure," Bocanegra says, "but I wish we could team up somehow!"
Couchsurfing: The Best Hook-Up App Ever
Couchsurfing’s Hookup Secret: It’s The Greatest Hook-Up App Ever Devised
Mike Nudelman/Business Insider
Riccardo G.’s profile on CouchSurfing.com, the website that playmates intrepid wanderers with willing hosts, notes that he lives in the "best neighborhood to go out and have drinks," that he offers a "cozy/clean/nice sofa/couch" and that he’ll even let you bring your "puny dog, if you just can’t live without him."
He describes himself as "amazing, outgoing, funny, wise" and says his interests include friends, eating, drinking, the gym and puppies. His photos showcase the good-humored Latin American native – dark, cool, and fit – in exotic destinations around the world, from Cairo to Capri. Nowhere does the profile state explicitly that if you are an attractive female traveler, you might skip the couch entirely and wind up in Riccardo’s bed, but it’s a good possibility.
In eight months using the service, Riccardo, who is thirty two and works for an ad agency, has let eight visitors crash at his apartment, of whom he’s hooked up with five, for a sixty two percent "success rate." If you count the extra two who climbed into bed with him for a cuddle and then fell asleep, the percentage climbs even higher. (Riccardo and other Couchsurfing users quoted in this article asked to be identified by pseudonyms.)
On the business front, the crowdsourced hospitality site has been experiencing a rough patch lately. After a controversial transition to a for-profit model in 2011, which brought $22 million in funding in the past two years, growing aches have set in. In October, layoffs claimed an estimated forty percent of the staff, and CEO Tony Espinoza announced his departure – providing an opening to competitors like BeWelcome and Hospitality Club.
Albeit the company has initiated a doubling down on mobile, the practice of users like Riccardo might suggest another path to profitability.
I simply do not know of an lighter way for a man to get laid with exotic women in exotic countries. Long live Couchsurfing!
Never mind OKCupid and Tinder. The almost decade-old Couchsurfing, which is available in 100,000 cities across the globe, is becoming the go-to hookup app for a certain class of youthfull world travelers. Bloggers like Maverick Traveler will help you spot the "8 Signs of a Trampy CouchSurfer Dame" by decoding her profile, and female-centric advice site YouQueen has even suggested tips on "How to Use CouchSurfing as a Dating Site and Get Away with It." Meantime, a site called CouchBangs.com, which proclaims that "Couchsurfing isn’t just for Couchsurfing," offers a forum for proud couch-cuddlers to share their practices via brief posts with titles like "French Dame in Istanbul" and "Brazilian Woman in Fresh York."
CouchSurfing’s Community Guidelines explicitly warn against contacting other members for dating, noting, "we will consider this harassment" – albeit without stipulating what the penalties are for violating this rule. In an email interview, the site’s interim CEO Jen Billock told Business Insider that "members are . encouraged to report other members who are manhandling the site to our Trust and Safety team, who will take adequate activity, according to our policy, when Terms of Use violations are reported or observed."
Perhaps, but use of the site to find sexual fucking partners (a practice known in some bro-friendly circles as "cooch surfing") is nonetheless fairly routine.
"Get in my bed"
"All of my friends, they love these stories," Riccardo tells Business Insider over beers in a quiet bar in Midtown Manhattan. "They call me the next day asking what happened. I’m like, ‘You know, whatever, we went out, had hook-up. ‘ They’re like, ‘No, no, no-tell me when she got there, where you went, did you smooch her, every single detail.’"
Mike Nudelman/Business Insider
We had the same questions.
"My very first Couchsurfing hookup happened when I was staying with my friend in Miami," Riccardo recalls. "He has a studio and was hosting two women from France." He slept on an inflatable air mattress with one damsel, while his friend collective his bed with the other. They didn’t go all the way. "She had her period," he explains. Months later Riccardo got a phone call from the same damsel, asking if she could stay at his place in Fresh York City. This time, they made it official. "I never talked to her again," he admits, adding, "I mean, we’re friends on Facebook."
Couchsurfing was born after a budget-conscious traveler named Casey Fenton sent out a mass request for accommodations in Iceland and received fifty invitations from students with a free spare futon. Fenton soon realized people all over the world might not mind sharing their extra space gratis while making fresh friends in the process. Today, each of the site’s seven million members has a unique profile which reads like a private ad, highlighting interests, locations traveled, details about their accommodations and, most significant, references. This system permits friends you’ve made globally or locally to vouch for you and the unlikelihood of you being a serial killer. Members can request a couch, host a traveler, or find fresh friends to meet up with locally.
Riccardo agrees to host only female travelers and stipulates that they be junior than him. He accepts them based on their attraction "of course," but physical appearance isn’t the only criterion. "I’ve seen lovely damsels that have boring pictures and I’m like, ‘You look boring, sorry.’ At the end of the day I’m going to spend three days with you. I want to have three days with somebody I can talk with. Not somebody just empty."
In Riccardo’s case, it all starts with a request for approval – from his pal in Miami. "I’m always sending him links like, ‘Hey, do you like this chick? Should I invite her?’" he says. "There’s more people coming to Fresh York than Miami, so he’s always like, ‘You bastard!’ Then he always asks to do Facetime because he wants to see them."
"The very first time," he says, leaning over his beer, "I had two chicks that stayed … I didn’t sleep with either. Big fail!"1++
He got a little closer on his 2nd attempt, a dame from Slovakia with blonde hair (his weakness) and petite, dark, squinty eyes.
She was in the process of moving to Fresh York and needed a place to stay for four days while she looked for a permanent home. "We went out for drinks the very first night," he says, "and I hit on her. I attempted to smooch her. She, was like ‘No, no, no-I don’t want to make it awkward.’ I was like well, whatever, so we kept on drinking, dancing, and having joy."
Riccardo later learned he’d made a critical error. Experienced couchsurfing casanovas know to hold off on making a stir until later. Your guest is already committed to coming home with you, so why risk the old fashioned treatment? His friend later advised him on a more direct strategy.
"Come, get in my bed," he’ll say, just as his guest is preparing to hit the sack.
At very first, Riccardo could not believe it was that plain. "I’m going to get spanked," he thought. "I’m going to sound like such a wank just telling them." But he attempted it on his next guest and bingo. "We got home just laughing and telling jokes, and I just said it. She was like, ‘Okay!’"
"My friends say, ‘You’re telling me that line – get in my bed – it works?’ I’m like dude, it works."
Riccardo is asked if he feels sleazy. "I do feel guilt, but not like I took advantage of somebody." Instead of calling his friend with tales of his latest conquests, he has recently found himself calling to complain. "I’m telling him it was awesome last night, I had lovemaking and everything-but it was empty hook-up."
We ask if he’ll stop, since it’s become so unfulfilling, he smiles and jiggles his head no.
Mike Nudelman/Business Insider
Why stop, when it’s so effortless? As Maverick Traveler, a self-proclaimed nomad who "wanders the earth, seduces beautiful women," and blogs about his adventures, puts it, "I simply do not know of an lighter way for a dude to get laid with exotic women in exotic countries. Long live Couchsurfing!" The anonymous blogger is also the author of the popular "How to Bang CouchSurfing Girls-The Accomplish Guide" (which, after he declined to comment for this article, mysteriously disappeared from his website) and "8 Signs of a Bitchy Couchsurfing Damsel" (which mysteriously didn’t).
According to his blog, he commenced using the site in two thousand nine "as a device to get to know a city, meet interesting people, and, of course, to bang chicks." Four years of his exotic lifestyle later, Maverick is sharing the secrets of Couchsurfing as a "gateway to effortless lays" – from prep ("Wash your cum-soaked bed sheets") to avoiding a negative review at all costs: "Under normal circumstances, I use every trick in the book to get a bang, but with a possible negative looming over my head if things don’t work out, I play it cool with Couchsurfing chicks."
Most of his readers are clearly appreciative of his advice: "Nice post. I didn’t know CS was a bangtool," reads one response.
Female Meets Boy(s)
Jessie S. just turned in her two-weeks notice, a final prep for her upcoming road excursion through the Americas along the Rocky/Andes mountains to arrive in Brazil just in time for World Cup 2014. Presently she lives in her hometown of Philadelphia, and tho’ single and actively looking, the early twentysomething hasn’t met anyone of interest locally.
Most Couchsurfers are travelers at heart and don’t want commitment. They’re a little more rebellious.
"I haven’t had hook-up in five months!" she tells Business Insider. "But I have made out with about ten different guys." While she encounters slew of prospects in Philly – guys she works with, dudes from her martial arts school, fellows on her community soccer team – she chooses to do her hunting further afield. "I’ve determined it’s indeed not worth it to get romantically involved with any of those guys. It’s significant to stay professional, and guys I train with need to see me as a fighter and a teammate or it gets too complicated."
A Couchsurfer since 2009, Jessie has traveled the globe using the service. But it’s not a dating site, she insists, "It’s a social site. But with anything social, there is sometimes a spark. I’m very sultry and very lightly seduced!" She bursts out laughing. "I have high standards, I don’t just sleep with any stud I think is hot. But once there is a connection, there isn’t much holding me back."
For example, this dude in Wales. "There was a very strong attraction on both of our parts," she recalls. "When he came downstairs to suggest me blankets and pillows for the couch, I just asked him, ‘Can I sleep in your bed?’"
Then there was Ireland, where despite being a little fuzzy on the specifics, Jessie also recalls making the very first budge with her masculine host. "Whether it was spoken or if I just went for it and kissed him, I ended up sleeping in his bed that night and having hook-up with him. It was funny because the next morning his roomy, who had seen me sleeping on the couch the night before, barged in his room and was very astonished to find me naked in his bed!"
Of course, that sort of spontaneity is part of the appeal. "When you are a traveler it’s hard to be able to commit to anything, so if you do want any form of romance in your life, you kind of have to be cool with this way," she says. "You recognize that you are kindred spirits and you have a lot to suggest to each other, but you’re not going to abruptly stir to this person’s country to be with them. It works because most Couchsurfers are travelers at heart and don’t want commitment. They’re a little more rebellious, and people who are used to cracking the rules understand that."
What the World Needs Now
An active participant in her local Couchsurfing community, Ana B. organizes events and goes to weekly meetings designed to connect local and visiting CSers. It was at one of these weekly rendezvous where she met her spouse. "We hooked up, embarked dating, moved in together and now I’m pregnant!" she says. "We’re having a Couchsurfing baby!"
Mike Nudelman/Business Insider
A Couchsurfer since 2007, who very first began using the site as a way to practice her English with non-Portuguese speakers, the South American native is always "switching, learning, growing" and is "pretty messy," but draws the line at leaving a humid floor in the bathroom. Ana has hosted inbetween thirty and forty travelers in both Portugal and Brazil, proof of which she keeps displayed pridefully on her refrigerator. "I collect refrigerator magnets, so I ask my guests to bring me one from their country. Now I have lots of them!"
Having hooked up with about a third of her visitors – some while still single, and others with her hubby – she has lots of stories too.
Like the time Ana and her spouse hosted a "indeed nice, adorable, and loving" Israeli duo during Brazil’s legendary Carnival festival. The guests booked their stay six months in advance, so there was slew of time to become acquainted via Facebook. "We embarked talking and I spotted that she had pictures smooching other ladies on the lips and she has nice orbs. I thought, ‘When she comes to Brazil, we’ll see.’" After a cheeky game of "Never Have I Ever" lubricated by numerous caipirinhas, the visitors were abruptly upgraded from the couch to the bed. "We never expect it to happen until the last night, when the person wants to go crazy," she says. Her guest, it should be said, left Ana a glowing reference on her profile, spewing out that she "simply liked every moment with her."
When asked how she broaches the subject without offending her guests, Ana replies with conviction that Couchsurfing tends to inspire connections that are more intimate than one has with close friends. Petite talk leads to wild stories of past practices. In Ana’s case, the fact that she and her spouse have had threesomes with other women often happens to get worked into the conversation. "You see it in the other person’s face if she is interested, if she is nosey. And if she is interested and we are interested in her, why not?"
She says the main benefit to Couchsurfing hookups is that they come without strings linked. "There’s no wondering if he will call the next day or jealousy over the fresh female he’s dating now. It’s flawless."
The Competition
CouchSurfing remains adamant that its service is designed to bring people together for cultural exchange and free lodging, not lovemaking. "Couchsurfing is not a dating site," Billock asserts. "However, there are many examples of people who have met through Couchsurfing and formed all kinds of wonderful relationships – friendships, travel companions, married couples."
But mid-November brought the launch of a rivaling site, Loveroom, that is explicitly designed to facilitate hook-up – a direct treatment that appeals to users like Ana. Originally floated as what its founder Josh Bocanegra calls a "thought experiment to connect people in a fresh way" via a plain Launchrock splash page, it was billed as "a platform where single people & couples can share a room with other people under one condition: they need to be attractive." According to the user, that is. "The users are 100% the judge of who they think is attractive," clarifies Bocanegra.
The idea, says Ana, is, "’You can come to my house, you can stay for free, and if I like you and you like me we are going to have lovemaking, no strings affixed.’ I like that, the honesty."
As to whether it will truly take off, she predicts, "Dudes will certainly join. But I think if I were a single woman, I wouldn’t create a profile, because it’s a site that basically says I will have casual hookup with you."
That said, Ana’s married, and in fact, she is one reason why the site announced a fresh feature just six days after it’s launch. "I contacted the website admin to talk about creating a couples profile and Josh instantly replied," she says. "In less than twelve hours the feature for couples was available!"
At this stage, such timely additions to the site are feasible and user feedback is priceless. "We didn’t need any funding whatsoever," says Bocanegra of his passion project. "I did all of the programming myself, [with] my gf" – Loveroom co-founder Jeanine Fuentes – "did a lot of the design work." In fact, Bocanegra lives off the residual income from his very first successful tech startup, Beats4Real, which he created at age 16. Loveroom is now looking for developers to ensure the site can treat its rapidly growing request.
While the site had registered 6,500 users as of this writing, Bocanegra isn’t sure any have met in person. "I’d give it a duo of months," he says. Still, it has attracted slew of press and seems to have identified a market niche that Couchsurfing was serving only reluctantly.
"As of right now, Couchsurfing is our thickest competitor for sure," Bocanegra says, "but I wish we could team up somehow!"