Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Who am I Who are you?

Different Types of CS Hosts - stolen from http://cruisesurfing.blogspot.com

1. The Ambassador
The Ambassador is not necessarily an official "CouchSurfing Ambassador", but they sometimes are. They will try to spend as much time with you as possible and act as your personal tour guide. You're not just staying over for free, you're got a new (temporary) best friend. Ambassadors will introduce you to other CouchSurfers and they know all the best budget places in town. Ambassadors are happiest when conversations revolve around CouchSurfing.

2. The Martyr
The Martyr seems to be inconvenienced with having you over, but still agrees to host you. They rather you do your own thing, remind you that you have to be out of the house first thing in the morning and remind you not to touch any of their food. Martyrs see hosting as sacrifice.

3. The Servant
The Servant is a big believer in hospitality and that "guest is king". They will sleep on the couch while you get the bed. You will be pampered to the point that you will feel guilty for such amazing hospitality. Servants are generous to a fault.

4. The Commune Chief
The Commune Chief invariably turns their apartment into a something resembling an intentional community. It's irrelevant how many couches there are in the house. What's relevant is how many sleeping bags can you fit on the floor. These communes usually take on a life of their own and starts to self-organize. Commune Chiefs think it's odd that anyone would want to only host one CouchSurfer at a time.

5. The Charmer
The Charmer is sweet and charming. They will wine you and dine you. And they will hang out with you and connect with you. You're just not sure if you're couchsurfing or on a date.

6. The Surrogate Family
The Surrogate Family will pick you up, fuss over you and feed you. You won't just be a couchsurfer, you'll be adopted into the family.

7. The Entrepreneur
The Entrepreneur is always looking for opportunities for "additional revenue streams". They will not be shy to suggest "donations" for utilities or ask you to buy them gifts, drinks or dinner as payment for hosting. Entrepreneurs will drive you around if you agree to pay for the service.

8. The Connector
The Connector seems to know everyone in town and will introduce you to many of them. You will end up having random adventures with lots of their friends, many of which may only be able to communicate with you with hand signals and lots of vodka. Connectors are have a natural
ability to make their guests feel like a local.

Different Types of Surfers

1. The Hippy
The hippy sees CouchSurfing as a natural extension of their everyday philosophy. They may hitch-hike and dumpster dive as well. They may not actually have much of plan, because the Universe is showing them the way. The hippy goes with the flow and may be vague with when they are arriving or leaving. But you will get lots of hugs.

2. The Flashpacker
The flashpacker doesn't need to couchsurf to save money, they do it because it's exciting. They are typically armed with some fancy gadgets and never get lost because they use google maps on their smartphones.

3. The Digital Nomad
The digital nomad is an amalgamation of the Hippy and Flashpacker, except that they are long-term travelers. They work from their laptop so they are location independent. They tend to be slow travelers and will typically try to couchsurf for a longer periods, to get to know places and people better.

4. The Weekend Warrior
These are people who have regular jobs during the week but travel and couchsurf on weekends. They'll turn up Friday evening and stay til Sunday night, when they'd return home. More common in Europe than North America, where you can get really cheap flights.

5. The Couchpotato
This couchpotato is a bit of an anomaly. Every so often you'll get a CouchSurfer who'll come over and want to do nothing. You'll have to make plans for them and show them around or they'll just sit on your couch and surf the net/tv all day.

6. The Rockstars
These people are awesome! They will drag their hosts out, party it hard and take you on random adventures for the duration of their stay. You will feel like a traveling circus just made a pit-stop at your house and rocked your world.

7. The Customer
You'll feel like you're running a hostel. The Customer requests a couch because they are in town for a job interview/conference/house-hunting and they will hardly interact with you or anyone else. They see couchsurfing as a way to get a free place to sleep and that's the end of it. The Customer is most likely to get "annoyed" if the facilities are not up to their standards.

8. The Drama Queen
I call people who use "Emergency couch groups" regularly, drama queens. They've "hacked" the CouchSurfing system by just posting to these groups that they are desperate for a couch. These people are a pandora's box and you never know what sort of dramas (or traveling companions) they'll bring along to your house.

9. The Horde
This is more like an invasion, rather than a couchsurf. These people travel in packs and it can be a novel experience if the host is an extrovert. Or it could lead the host to tears if she's an introvert!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love your description of the different types of couchsurfers and hosts! Very funny. I blog about my experiences -- also often humorous -- at http://couchsurfingcook.com. Check it out some time for a laugh! Or follow me on Twitter at couchsurfngcook. Look forward to more of your posts!

SperO said...

Ah I stole it actually :) Thanks I like to read other peoples CS blogs!

roy said...

Glad you liked my article Amanda :)
I love reading other CS blogs too!!

Roy

roy said...

P.S. I've added both of your blogs to a CSer Blog roll on: http://couchsurfingdiary.blogspot.com/

Let me know if you come across any other CS blogs.