Couchsurfing: Sometimes it isn't worth it...

Hello Everybody,

 

A few posts ago, I wrote a little explanation for why Ozell and I haven't couchsurfed very much on this trip.  In fact, we have not couchsurfed since we left our first stop in Toronto.  As we mentioned in one of our very first posts, we had an absolutely wonderful experience couchsurfing with Andrew in Toronto.  Ozell joked that we may have been spoiled, and I think Andrew is definitely in the uppermost percentile for quality hosts and places to stay.  And when we have hosted people in San Diego, many of them have independently commented that their experience with us was their best couchsurfing experience they have ever had.  This is usually attributed to us offering them a comfortable, clean, modern, and private living space and the fact that we lived along the Pacific Ocean in southern California.  We also are friendly with our guests, but we do not impose ourselves upon them.  We let them do what they want to do.  When I was hosting at my old place, I had a extra set of keys for guests to use.  When Ozell and I hosted at our last place, we had a keyless entry deadbolt lock that allowed both us and our guests to come and go as we pleased.  Last night, was not nearly as enjoyable...

 

I need to preface all of the following with the qualifier that our host last night was a nice guy, did open his home to us, and some things that made for an uncomfortable evening were outside of his control.  Having said that, couchsurfing last night was not worth the $30 we each saved by not having to pay for a hotel room.  And given some of my own personality traits, it was a frazzling evening for me.  Ozell did not enjoy the experience either.

 

I want to keep this brief so I am going to just bullet point some of the issues:

 

The place was not clean.  Anyone who knows me, knows that I am not a super neat freak.  However, the place last night had excessive trash, an unkempt kitchen, and soiled furniture.  Our host was a professional and 30 years old.  He could and should be living a little better.  The place was equivalent to a messed up fraternity house.  For those of you thinking, "Sean, you lived in 1659 Bacon Street.  My how you have changed and become an elitist snob.", I would like to remind you that 1659 Bacon Street was a messed up hole before I ever moved in, and my roommates and I did keep it reasonably clean when it came to the things we had control over.

 

When Ozell and I were unfolding the sofa bed so we could go to sleep, at least one silverfish was crawling over the completely soiled mattress.  Given Ozell's inclinations towards bugs, I thought there was a chance he would react negatively to the sight of the silverfish.  He did not, and I brushed the bug to the floor.  We put the oily and dirty comforter over the mattress to buffer us from the unrecognizable stains.

 

Except for the oily and mottled comforter, there were no linens for us to use.  Ozell managed to just sleep in his shorts.  I used my travel towel as a small cover for my legs.

 

Ozell and I had to sleep out in the living room on the couch.  While I never would expect a private bedroom while couchsurfing, we were designated to the couch in the living room because the host two other German couchsurfers who showed up yesterday and were going to stay with him.  This was not mentioned to me during my previous communications with the host when we were arranging our stay.  I personally consider it appropriate to mention the sleeping arrangements guests will have and how many other couchsurfers will be present during their stay with us.  I now have learned to specifically ask these questions.  To crowd the apartment even more, the host's good friend had the water heater at his place catch fire and burn down two rooms in his apartment.  Thankfully, he was not hurt, but now he was homeless and was also going to crash in this apartment.  At one point in the evening, it looked like one of the girls who also lived in the apartment which caught fire was also going to stay the evening.  But, thankfully, that did not turn out to be the case.  For many people, this might have been only a minor inconvenience, but for me, that many people in the apartment started to agitate my social clausterphobia. 

 

The host did not have an extra set of keys, and you needed the keys to both enter and exit the apartment.  This really restricted our and the other couchsurfers' mobility.  This was exacerbated by the fact that the host on multiple occasions (actually every occasion) demonstrated that he had difficulty meeting us at the times he specified he would.  Some of this might have been directly due to the misfortune his friend had endured, but it also appeared that he just didn't think that updating us on his schedule changes was a priority.  This resulted in us and the other couchsurfers waiting a very long time last night stuck in the apartment unable to eat or do anything.  This in turn resulted in a very late dinner around midnight which then caused Ozell and I not to be able to go out to the club we wanted to check out that evening.  We ultimately also had no choice in where we went to dinner which was a pretty decent walk from the apartment.  We all just had to go to where the host wanted us to go.  Again, normally, this would not have been too bad, but the restaurant we ate at only served one dish which happen to be exactly the same thing Ozell and I had for lunch earlier that day.  Neither of us were in the mood for it again at midnight.

 

One of the German couchsurfers warned me about the shower this morning.  I had already decided that I was going to wait until we got to the hotel before I got a shower even though I could have really used one.  Anyways, he took one this morning and said the shower head had some electrical wires emanating from it which were not insulated.  When he went to adjust the shower head, he received a pretty good size electrical shock. 

 

Oh, and the apartment turned out to be full of smokers.  In fact, I was the only non-smoker there.  At least there was decent ventilation, but everyone knows cigarette smoke stinks and clings, and it was moderately nauseating to me.  Now this aspect, I only can only fault myself for not paying more attention to the host's couchsurfing profile because it typically says whether the apartment is smoking or non-smoking.

 

So all of these events contributed to a pretty uncomfortable couchsurfing experience last night.  And, I want to state again the host was nice enough and generous enough to let us stay at his place.  He has good references which is why I agreed to stay at his place in the first place.  Obviously, other couch surfers have had a positive experience with this host.  but for me, there were too many personality related conflicts (clean/unclean, punctual/late, independent/overly engaging, etc) present to make this an enjoyable and worthwhile couchsurfing experience.

 

We will see how the next one goes!

 

We are off to Florianopolis for some rest, relaxation, sunshine, waves, and New Years Eve!

 

Cheers,

 

Sean  :)