CS played a nasty game during Covid with their paywall introduction
I logged back into Couchsurfing after a long time and, like many people here, found out that the platform has now basically become paywalled. You have to pay to read messages, pay to use the site, pay to access a community that was originally built on people freely hosting, sharing, trusting strangers, and giving their time and homes without expecting money in return.
That already feels completely against the spirit of Couchsurfing.
But then I remembered the email Couchsurfing sent during COVID, which I’ve pasted the header as a picture. I need to share this with you all. The E-mail reads:
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Dear …,
All of us who are members of Couchsurfing believe in something greater than money, possessions, and status. It took over 14 years for the Couchsurfing community to come together. Without your immediate help, this community will be lost forever.
Given the challenging realities brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, Couchsurfing will soon be unable to meet our financial obligations. We have reduced the size of our team, taken pay cuts, eliminated or renegotiated all contracts, eliminated our physical office space — we are now a 100% remote workforce — and applied for COVID-19 relief funds provided by the United States Government through the CARES Act. Unfortunately, this will not be enough.
As of May 14, 2020, we are asking for member contributions of $2.39 per month, or $14.29 per year if paid upfront, to keep Couchsurfing alive. This member contribution is required to access the Couchsurfing website and mobile applications. Your member contributions will be used to support Couchsurfing through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, and to continue keeping this community safe. This is a decision of last resort, and not one taken lightly.
There is good news: All Couchsurfing members can now send unlimited messages and Couch requests. As third-party advertising is no longer supporting Couchsurfing, all third-party advertising will soon be removed from the website and mobile applications. Member contributions will allow us to significantly reduce the cost of Verification in the near future. The Couchsurfing website and mobile applications will continue to evolve and we are in the process of developing many of the exciting features requested by the community.
More details about these changes are available on our blog.
If you know of anyone who wants to promote and uphold the Couchsurfing ideals, we ask that you speak with them about Couchsurfing and encourage them to become a member.
Should you have any questions or concerns, please contact Couchsurfing Support by emailing support@couchsurfing.com.
Thank you,
The Couchsurfing Team
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At the time, they framed the payment as an emergency measure. They said COVID had made things financially impossible, that they had cut costs everywhere, and that they needed member contributions to keep the community alive.
I remember paying back then because it sounded temporary and crisis-driven. I thought: okay, if this is really about helping the platform survive COVID, fair enough.
Reading the email again now, the wording feels very different. They said the money was needed to support Couchsurfing “through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.” So COVID was used as the emotional justification, but the payment model clearly wasn’t just a temporary pandemic measure.
And that leaves a really bad taste.
Thousands of users spent years building profiles, writing references, hosting people for free, creating the actual value of the platform. Couchsurfing didn’t create that community alone — the users did. Hosts did. Travelers did. Volunteers, event organizers, and generous strangers did.
Now those same people are being charged to access the very community they helped build.
I don’t mind supporting a platform that needs money to operate. But I do mind when a community built on generosity is quietly turned into a commercial product, especially after using COVID as the moment to introduce mandatory payments.
I regret paying back then. And I feel very sad losing all and reviews I build up there. But for now there’s nothing else to do: we are moving to Couchers! 💪🏻