Couchsurfing Reviews 766

Like everyone else, got scammed into paying 89 usd by using the verification feature. Beware of the fraud!!

Evil con b*stards ruined a legit project looking money and whoever is pocketing it let me tell you I'm coming for you

Caught in the verification scam like many others, I was charged €56 euros (48 pounds). If I had known the amount beforehand, I wouldn't have agreed to the verification. They already had my card details from my monthly membership. It's disheartening to see Couchsurfing mislead people and act unethically. My positive experiences since joining in 2014 are now tainted by this scam and their poor customer service.

Not happy with this app at all. Just because you are a guy they will never believe you even if you provide them every single evidence or proof. Very racial, harrassing and dangerous platform. And in the end my profile gets deleted even when I was the one who made the complaint. Would never recommend this app.

I decided to pay for one month and then I checked my account and they charged me for one month and a lifetime membership! $104aud. They are refusing to refund the money that I really needed while on my latest trip

Member since 2019 - have always hosted, and have found it difficult to be accepted as a guest so have never been a guest.

Stopped using the platform during the pandemic, then re-started recently - the charge seemed weird and a bit disappointing.

Also got caught in the £51 scam charge for verification - wrote to Couchsurfing Support & they refuse to give a refund. My last message to them - after which they've started just ignoring my e-mails:

"Your T&Cs are not clear, prior to starting the verification process, that there will be a charge of £51 for it. Having read the Couchsurfing reviews on Trustpilot, where your average is 1.1 out of 5, and having read various posts on X/Twitter about customers complaining about being misled by Couchsurfing - it seems this is quite the little operation that Couchsurfing has got going.

If you insist on making this difficult, I'll pursue a refund through my bank company for misleading T&Cs on Couchsurfing's behalf.

I want my request escalated and I want a refund of the £51 payment.

I couldn't care less about the Couchsurfing community - I've already contributed to it by hosting multiple surfers, having great reviews and getting nothing in return".

I'm surprised HMRC hasn't yet shut this company down - but I guess they only concentrate on the decent citizens who pay their taxes diligently, rather than on major corporations like this one.

Shame on these people, hopefully Karma will get them good.

man what a waste and scam this website. Please be careful they charge you 90 dollars for a verification link wich is total trash. How can a social Website like this scam be so successful. Shame on the inventors. Almost nobody replying this website is not worth BS

Had an account for a long time. Wanted to login today and had to pay. After checking reviews decided to deleate my account.

Scammers . Took my 51 GBP in the name of verification which does absolutely nothing

They will take your money from registration
and then close the account without content prove. No refund or anything. Bad website not recommend

I just copy paste this, because the same 56€ scam happened to me now, too.

"I was offered to get verified through my credit card. My first impression was that it's like other websites that charge you for a small amount (something like 1$) and then refund it, after for example, you enter the small amount you received. the process works like that more or less in online platforms. But later on, I noticed that I was charged 56 euros!
"Verification" and "charging" are two different concepts, and the message is a bit misleading and unclear.
When I wrote to them immediately and asked for a refund, they replied that it was a one-time payment for life verification. I didn't understand what they had verified and how they justified that cost. Did they verify my identity, background etc? The answer is no!
I guess this site with such misleading behaviour should be categorized as scam. "

I'll join the group of people who got scammed by couchsurfing. I can't believe this happened to so many others. They took 56 EUR for a "verification". It's well hidden and when I contacted them about it they simply referred to T&C's with no intention to solve the issue at all. I hope you read this BEFORE it happens to you.

Same happened to me as to many others, they charge verification fee (€56) without notifying about the charge or the amount. We need to file a joint complaint against the company. Who is in?

couchsurfing.com is a TOTAL FRAUD. They took 56eur just for verification without even notifying.

I too have been scammed by Couch Surfing. I have lost £50 which I can’t afford to. These guys are criminals. How do we report tbem ?

When I logged in to Couchsurfing after a long while, I was offered to get verified through my credit card. My first impression was that it's like other websites that charge you for a small amount (something like 1$) and then refund it, after for example, you enter the small amount you received. the process works like that more or less in online platforms. But later on, I noticed that I was charged 56 euros!
"Verification" and "charging" are two different concepts, and the message is a bit misleading and unclear.
When I wrote to them immediately and asked for a refund, they replied that it was a one-time payment for life verification. I didn't understand what they had verified and how they justified that cost. Did they verify my identity, background etc? The answer is no!
I guess this site with such misleading behaviour should be categorized as scam.

BAD POLICY. I feel cheated. As I signed In to couchsurfing I was told to write my creditcard info and pay minimi 2,50€. I pressed the picture with this small amount. I was taken to a page whit card info to be filled BUT suddenly there red with this veeery small lettered text about lifetimemembership that costs like 60€. I DID NOT CHOOCE this option, but due to misleading infopolicy I was charged this money from my account. I think this is very bad way to make people pay. CHANGE THIS please.

What once was an amazing platform, downgraded themselves as being a scamming artist for scamming me out 56 euros out of my pocket. Hope you are happy with it guys!

Used couchsurfing.com a lot in the past. Loved it. Amazing. This was before AirBnB, possibly where AirBnB got their inspiration from.

So, like many other things online, the power of couchsurfing.com comes from the number of people who use it.

And like everything online, as soon as you charge people to even sign up and simply login, never mind a small fee, to, say, for example, arrange a couch surf.

It used to be free, but now, you have to pay to even log in, even just to change your email in the account settings, nobody can do anything without first paying.

Name any of the most popular dating apps, social media accounts, chat apps, search engines, hotel booking website that charge you to even simply make and use your account? None, why because all the free ones are where all the people go to, the platforms where everyone is at, is what brings the most value. Couchsurfing.com should find ways to make money once people are on their platform, not charge a fee simply to signup and use the platform.

I have no problem paying £2.50 per month, but the fact you have to pay, even if you want to host, especially in many developing countries where they may not easily have easy abilities to pay, just drops all confidence in the number of users on couch surfing, so essentially, the payment method they have created now, means, you are paying for a service that has and will become worst that it was because there simply won't be the number of users that there used to be.

The pandemic ended 2 years ago but still on their main page they are pleading for the monthly feee due to a pandemic. It's clear the CEO and management want to extract as much cash as possible from this before watching it fail to competition which has already begun.

My opinion is, either sack the CEO and make a better business model out of it, I would happily pay for every couch surf I successfully do. Or watch this cherished app fail over the coming years.

In a time where cooling-off periods and transparency are common practices, it's surprising that I wasn't given any prior notice of the impending charge. This departure from what I've come to expect from Couchsurfing makes it seem like profit has taken precedence over community support.