KOCHI: Imagine travelling to a distant land, acquainting yourself with its culture, eating local food and making new friends without shelling out a penny from your pocket. Popularly referred to as couch surfing, the concept involves a traveller requesting free lodging at the home of a resident of the city he or she wishes to visit. The website, couchsurfing.com, which started the trend has now spread over 2,00,000 cities in world and boasts of a global community comprising 14 million users. With over 7,140 Kochiites opening their doors to tourists across the world, the city has one of the most vibrant and active couch surfing communities in the country.
Kochi stands way ahead of other tourist destinations like Jaipur, Puducherry and even Goa in terms of the number of hosts who are a few thousand more than most tier 2 cities in India. “Kochi ranks number one compared to other towns in Kerala. Around 2,000 people are actively hosting in and around Kochi out of the 7,000 registered. Filtering down further, around 200 to 300 are extremely active in the community,” says Luckman Kasim, an Aluva native, admin of the Kochi couch surfing WhatsApp group and an active host for the past two years.
“The couch surfing community in Kochi has been very active for the last year or so. They have been conducting regular meet-ups and outdoor events in the city. I come across at least five events every month,” says Divya Jayaraman, a Chennai-based couch surfer who has hosted close to 250 travellers over the past eight years. One of the most active and prominent faces in the couch surfing community in south India, Divya held an event in Kochi last year which brought together several enthusiasts in the city who shared their hosting experiences.
While the service has been largely popular with millennial travellers from the West, Indians too are warming up to the concept. Sujith Pulpara, who has hosted over 70 travellers at his 1-BHK in Tripunithura claims that a majority of his guests have been foreigners from over 23 countries. “When I started hosting in 2016, many of my guests were from abroad but lately I have been getting requests from solo Indian travellers as well,” says the cafe owner.
Although the foremost benefit of the platform is the option to visit multiple cities without having to shell out a bomb for accommodation, consummate couch surfers say that its innate ethos lies in community building and cultural exchange. “For people who have been using the platform, the most important aspect is not the free stay because many of them can indeed afford a hotel. But staying with a local accords value to their travel experience. They get to eat local food, acquaint themselves with the culture,” says Divya. Talk to any of the platform users and stories of compassion abound.
Safety concerns
Even though the interface is pretty simple and allows a prospective traveller to send a request to a registered host on the website, the notion of letting a stranger into one’s house or staying with unknown people comes with a few safety and security concerns. The portal has a strict verification procedure for both travellers and hosts. Experienced couch surfers stress on the importance of going through reviews and references posted on every profile. “Whenever I get a request, I go through the person’s entire feed and check if the profile is verified or not. A lot depends on your intuition when going through the photos. I make sure I upload a C-form for every guest I host,” says Luckman who claims he has never had a bitter experience so far.
Though the number of solo woman travellers has seen a steady rise in recent years, the proportion of woman hosts, however, ranks much lower compared to their male counterparts. Kochi especially has only a handful of women who have signed up as hosts out of the 300 or so active ones. “Safety plays a key role. It is much harder for a woman to convince her family members to let a stranger into the house. In fact, she has to be convinced herself that she is not risking her security. Also, most women prefer to host only other female travellers or couples,” adds Divya.
Gaining momentum
While the service has been largely popular with millennial travellers from the West, Indians too are warming up to the concept bolstered by the recent surge in solo travel.
Although the portal has a strict verification procedure for both travellers and hosts, experienced couch surfers stress on the importance of going through reviews and refernces.