Adventures of Anette: Couchsurfing

Monday, June 11, 2012

Couchsurfing: When the Guest won't leave PART II

Anette 1:31:00 PM

Those of you who've read my previous post know how I tried out hosting a girl through Couchsurfing.org for the first time this weekend, and how it ended up with my guest forcing herself to stay longer than originally planned despite me already having other plans.

As I suspected, about thirty minutes after I finished the previous blogpost she called me, and said she had found a place to stay for the night in Kyoto. I was relieved, and thought I finally would get rid of her, but again she had other things in mind.
I met up with her another half an hour later, and it turned out that the place she had found not was for this evening, but instead for the following night (although I'm suspecting that she in reality is off to Osaka instead). She told me a straight lie about how she had searched CS for other hosts, without any luck. I asked her when she had done this, and she replied "sometimes in the middle of the day". Just too bad for her that I already had checked her CS-account, and it stated she hadn't been online for 23 hours.

So, as the clock was close to 11 pm I had no choice but letting her stay with me one last night. I guess that had been her plan all along.. >.<

And so ends my first (and probably last) experience with CS! What a waste of time and energy. >.<

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Couchsurfing

Couchsurfing: When the Guest won't leave..

Anette 9:24:00 PM

A couple of weeks ago I decided that I wanted to try being a host at couchsurfing.org, the page for travelers who wants to make their journey cheaper by spending the night in another couch-surfer's apartment rather than in an expensive hotel. I figured it would be an interesting and fun thing to try out, and as I'm a low-budget traveler myself I felt it was a good thing to offer lodging to a fellow traveller or two.

My first couch request was from a German girl, who stated that she wanted to stay in Kyoto until Saturday morning. As she planned to arrive on Friday I thought it would be much of a problem letting her sleep in my room for just a day. But it seems everything wouldn't go quite as planned..

Despite a minor problem with the buses, which resulted in me having to wait for an hour in the rain at our designated meeting spot, everything went alright on Friday. The girl was friendly, and really patient with me and my so-so German. However, from the next day the problems started.

Although she had stated on Couchsurfing that her stay in Kyoto was only until Saturday, she somehow assumed that it was fine for her to extent her stay, without even consulting me about it. I told her that I already had plans for the evening, as a friend of mine was having a karaoke-birthday party downtown. My couch-surfing guest wanted to come along, but quite understandably my friend said that she didn't really want strangers at her party.

So I told my guest that I would let the door to my room stay open, but that if my guest wanted to stay out later than 8 or 9 I couldn't guarantee that the front door would be open, as I live in a dorm and the door gets closed at random times depending on the day. We discussed this for a long time, and it ended with her forcing me to lend her my dorm-key, which she then would leave behind the house for me to pick up when I got home.

I felt really uncomfortable by this, not only because of the thought of the key being left outside the house, but also because I was letting a stranger access to a dorm which has a lot of strict rules, and that she didn't even considering what the other residents or the landlord would think of a stranger wandering around by herself in their house. It almost feels like she saw my dorm as some sort of hotel.

Eventually the plan did go more or less all right though, I got home early in the morning and both her and the key was there. When I woke up in the morning, however, she had already gone out leaving me with a note and all of her luggage. She wrote that she only was going out to take a look at the Golden Pavilion, which is about a quarter walk away from where I live, and that when she came back we could try and find her another place to stay for the evening. So I waited for her all day, and after I had had dinner at 7:30 pm I decided that I couldn't wait anymore, and went to school to continue working on my thesis.

Now the clock has passed 9 pm, and she still hasn't contacted me at all. I suppose she'll turn up really late at my dorm, thus forcing herself to stay one more night as there aren't any other options for her to go. I don't really know what to do, but frankly I just want to throw her luggage out on the street and make her find a hotel to stay at or something. Too bad I don't think I have the guts to do that ><.. I guess I might be too 甘い.

It is kind of sad though, because I don't think I'll ever want to host anybody again after this experience. At least not in the near future. I feel that this guest really is misusing my trust, and my patience is running low right now.. Sigh..

Continue to read part II of this story

What about you, have you ever tried couchsurfing/hosting? What do you think of it?

Luggage left in my room by a couch-surfer.. ><

About Me

A modern-day shield-maiden who loves to explore the unbeaten paths of the world. From her base in Tokyo, Anette takes on both rural and urban challenges, and on her path, she has overcome anything from natural wilderness and cultural barriers to commuting in overcrowded Tokyo trains.

Life is too short to be stuck on one page, and this mindset reflects the diversity of Anette’s blog.
Besides being a career woman she is also a globetrotter, with 39 countries and counting.
No challenge too big, no adventure too small!

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