Couchsurfing

While sharing is a longstanding form of exchange, new forms of sharing have emerged. What is innovative about today’s sharing is that it is a market form in which strangers—rather than kin and communities—exchange goods and services. The
contemporary sharing economy creates new ways of provisioning goods and services and opportunities for what we have called connected consumption, relying on peer-to-peer
relationships rather than existing market actors to mediate exchanges. In this chapter, we suggest that participation in the sharing economy is motivated by economic and ecological concerns, as well as a desire to increase social connections. However, we question how effective the sharing economy has been in meeting these goals. Further, we suggest the importance of digital technologies, facilitating the emergence of “circuits of commerce,” in overcoming the trust and reputational barriers that once restricted sharing
to kin and community. Finally, we suggest that the market orientation and organization of sharing economy platforms—as well as whether exchanges are monetized or nonmonetized—are critical characteristics shaping these platforms and their potential to provide truly alternative economic arrangements.

El turismo contemporáneo ha traído consigo muchos cambios en el comportamiento de consumo de los turistas. En los últimos años es notable la aparición de numerosas plataformas de consumo colaborativo, definido por Bostman (2010) como una reinvención del comportamiento de consumo vinculado a la tecnología, donde las personas comparten, intercambian, prestan y regalan bienes y servicios a través de internet. Couchsurfing es una plataforma colaborativa de intercambio de hospitalidad que permite a los individuos crear un perfil en línea y conectar con anfitriones locales de distintos puntos turísticos del mundo. Este trabajo de tesis tiene como objeto de estudio la motivación de una muestra de usuarios de la ciudad de La Plata que utilizan la plataforma Couchsurfing para la realización de sus viajes. Se realizó una investigación exploratoria con método mixto que permitió indagar los motivos de viaje de los couchsurfers a través de entrevistas en profundidad, encuestas y análisis documental. Los resultados encontrados mostraron que los principales motivos que impulsaron la decisión de participar en Couchsurfing fueron el intercambio cultural, la interacción social, las razones financieras y la búsqueda de autenticidad. Se discute la diferenciación de esta forma de viaje con el turismo tradicional y las diferentes motivaciones, llegando a la conclusión de la existencia de un segmento de mercado que busca experiencias únicas y diferenciadas, y a su vez, se aleja de la oferta turística convencional.

Gunumuz dunyasinda, bilgi ve iletisim teknolojilerinin seyahat oncesi, esnasi ve sonrasinda kullanim yogunlugu ve cesitliligi giderek artmaktadir. Bu durum modern turizm endustrisinin geleneksel paydaslarinca saglanan mal ve hizmet tedarigi ve bilgi akisinda alternatifler olusturmaktadir. Paylasim ekonomisini benimsemis ag toplumu bireylerince alternatif yaratilan paydaslardan bir tanesi de konaklama endustrisidir. Calisma kapsaminda, postmodern turizm faaliyetlerinin konaklama arzini olusturan platformlardan olan CouchSurfing sosyal agina yogunlasilmistir. Bu baglamda, platform kullanicilarin genel ozelliklerine, konut sahibi, paylasim turisti ve diger deneyimlerine (aktivite, bulusma ve bilgi-deneyim alisverisi) yonelik sorgulamalar gerceklestirilmistir. Bu sorgulamalar dogrultusunda nitel bir arastirma sureci izlenmis ve orneklem seciminde uc ust (yas, cinsiyet ve referans) ve uc alt (konut sahibi, paylasim turisti ve kisisel referanslar) olmak uzere alti kriter gozetilerek sekiz...

Vastly growing online free-hospitality networks are a phenomenon of modern times. They have been already subject of social and peace studies, here explored from the perspective of information science.
The main focus in this research, author puts on the role of information in modern society, particularly on access to information and information management as prerequisites for participative and democratic society.
Both theoretically and empirically, author explores first the changes in society that were caused by popular usage of Internet, secondly introduces the phenomenon of free-hospitality as an example of modern social network, lastly explores in details functioning of these networks and throughout whole text the role of information in here.
keywords: CouchSurfing, hospitality club, free hospitality, sociology, tourism, internet, gift exchange, gift exchange trust, free, couch surfing, modern society, structure, free values, free culture, sociology, sociology of tourism, socjologia turystyki, wymiana darów, struktura społeczeństwa, warm showers, pasporta servo, servas, BeWelcome, home exchange, homeshare, hospex, hospitality exchange, open couchsurfing, opencouchsurfing, OLPC, L/GHEI, gościnność, intimate tourism ...

Absztrakt
Felismerve, hogy a közösségi gazdaság üzleti modelljét nehéz a normál piaci logikába illeszteni, a tanulmány célja megvizsgálni, hogy a különböző fogyasztói szegmensek hogyan viszonyulnak a bizalmon alapuló megosztás új lehetőségeihez. A személyközi és az online bizalmat, a közösségi gazdaságban való részvétel motivációit és a bizalmon alapuló szálláshelyek felértékelődésének okait a vonatkozó szakirodalom szintézise mutatja be. Az empirikus kutatás célja feltárni, hogy van-e különbség a közösségi gazdasághoz kapcsolódó bizalomadás mértékében az alapján, hogy a fogyasztók milyen szálláshelytípust preferálnak utazásaikon. Egy 2017-ben és 2018-ban felvett online kérdőíves kutatás keretében 175 fő töltötte ki a kérdőívet. A nem reprezentatív felmérés eredményei szignifikáns különbségeket tártak fel a csoportok között. A hotelt preferálók mutatták a legalacsonyabb szintű bizalmat a helyi közösségek és a más nemzetiségű vendégek vagy vendéglátók iránt, míg
a couchsurfing-et, a hostelt és az Airbnb-t preferálók voltak a legnyitottabbak irántuk.

Kulcsszavak:
interperszonális bizalom, közösségi gazdaság, couchsurfing (CS), fogyasztók,
szálláshelytípus

Abstract
While considering that it is difficult to fit the business model of the sharing economy in the framework of ordinary market logic, the aim of this study is to examine how various consumer segments relate to new, trust-based sharing opportunities. The significance of
interpersonal and online trust, the motivation for participation in the sharing economy, as well as the reasons behind the growing appreciation of trust-based accommodation are presented in a synthesis of related academic literature. The objective of this empirical
research is to explore whether there are differences in the degree of trust, depending on which types of accommodations are preferred by consumers while travelling. A total of 175 persons participated in the online survey that was conducted in 2017 to 2018. The results of
the non-representative survey revealed significant differences among the groups of consumers.
Those preferring hotel accommodations demonstrated the lowest level of trust with regard to local communities and foreign guests or hosts. In contrast, those choosing couchsurfing, hostel or Airbnb accommodations were the most open towards them.

Keywords:
interpersonal trust, sharing economy, couchsurfing (CS), consumers, accommodation type

Researchers and academics from every time period always turned a great interest to analysing touristic motivation. The subject is rather broad and complicated and the nature of the tourism product makes it even harder to explore. Tourists are very heterogeneous and researchers suggest several typologies of tourists. Each type of tourist is motivated and influenced by various inner and outer factors and thus, travel motives of each tourist group should be studied separately. For this study, Couchsurfers are chosen as the main group of interest to the researcher. The purpose of this study is to analyse the main travel motives of the members of this community. In order to obtain a broader and more detailed overview of the selected group and a better analysis of its travel motives, mixed methods research is applied. The combination of interviews and questionnaires provides an extensive amount of data for investigation. The results show that there are a lot of factors and elements that influence the travel motives of Couchsurfers.

Hospitality exchange (HospEx) networks – online platforms facilitating the connection between a traveler and a local resident – embody many of the cyber-utopian promises intrinsic to the Web as it started out 25 years ago. Such sites have often been conceptualized as a new and daring trend in a booming ‘sharing industry’ and have been researched for topics such as trust, reputation, and online identities. Yet, a more critical look uncovers that crucial issues of ownership, power, digital labour, and organizational structures have often been left out.
To fill this gap, this thesis investigates upon the antagonistic struggle between the commons and processes of commodification in the light of critical theory and political economy. The research shows that examples with characteristics of both concepts are manifested in the niche social networking space of HospEx platforms. The biggest of those platforms, Couchsurfing.org, changed its organizational orientation from a non-profit, commons-based project towards a for-profit company in 2011 – an instance of commodification. An analysis of both quantitative and qualitative community data shows that the transformation consequently concerns a member on multiple levels. The structural change of ownership results in a loss of transparency and privacy, an alteration of the platform’s integrity, a sacrifice of the ‘uniqueness’ of the community, and a differing relationship between the user and the platform.
To shed light on an antagonistic force and suggest an alternative, community-based governance approach, the work further explores the specifics of a platform guided by the logic of the commons. Interviews with volunteers of the non-commercial, non-profit HospEx platform BeWelcome.org helped to deepen an understanding of how a digital commons can be sustained and what challenges they face. The thesis concludes that the developments observed on Couchsurfing are not an exception but rather characteristic and part of a broader trend manifested in all areas of digital media, and indeed modern society in general: commodification processes frequently jeopardize the commons and incorporate them into the logic of capital.

Grâce à l’avènement du Web 2.0, nombre d’internautes ont pu changer leur rapport à la mobilité, notamment leurs manières de voyager. L’émergence de réseaux d’hospitalité, dont le plus connu est Couchsurfing, atteste des réinterprétations du tourisme que permet Internet. Ce réseau, créé en 2004, met en relation des voyageurs avec des hébergeurs d’accord pour les accueillir gratuitement pour quelques jours. Le fonctionnement en ligne ainsi que la gratuité du réseau en font un service populaire, dont le nombre d’inscrits ne cesse d’augmenter. Cette formule de voyage est plébiscitée par ses membres, notamment grâce à l’expérience « alternative » et personnalisée que promeut le réseau. Si les couchsurfeurs sont convaincus du caractère unique et original de leur pratique, nous pouvons nous interroger sur le type d’innovations et de modifications impliquées par le réseau d’hospitalité. En nous basant sur une étude auprès de couchsurfeurs parisiens, nous mettons en lumière la manière dont les rencontres entre les membres modèlent l’expérience touristique des voyageurs. Le présent travail s’attache ainsi à dresser des pistes de compréhension des rencontres touristiques suscitées par les réseaux d’hospitalité en ligne et particulièrement de leur rapport à la familiarité et l’altérité.

Couchsurfing: a type of touristic hospitality in-between familiarity and alterity

With the advent of Web 2.0, a substantial number of internet users changed their relationship to mobility, including the way they travel. The emergence of hospitality networks, and most notably Couchsurfing, demonstrates how the internet has allowed for reinterpretations of tourism. Created in 2004, this network connects travelers with hosts willing to accommodate them free of charge for a few days. The cost-free and online nature of Couchsurfing has contributed to its growing popularity, leading to a steadily increasing number of users. This way of traveling is particularly acclaimed by members because of the “alternative” and personalized experience promoted by the network. If couchsurfers are convinced of the uniqueness and originality of their practice, we may question the type of innovations and modifications implied by hospitality networks. Based on a study among Parisian couchsurfers, we illustrate how encounters between members shape the touristic experience of travelers. Thus, this article focuses on new ways of understanding the touristic encounters generated by online hospitality networks, and especially their relationship to familiarity and alterity.

Hospitality is a sacred obligation that counts among humanity’s oldest customs. Since ancient times, hosts have been called to recognize the divinity of visitors and ensure guests receive food, drink and shelter, asking nothing in return.  Drawing on brass band culture and engaging the public through the medium of alternative community street band performances, HONK! festivals invite musical exploration and celebration for free. Musicians travel at personal expense and, in return for the free public performances they offer, they receive food, drink and shelter from local volunteers. This report explores this unique intersection of modern ethnomusicology and hospitality anthropology, and will describe the organization behind, and experience of, hosting 195 visiting community street band musicians during the inaugural HONK!TX festival. Ultimately, it attempts to answer the question: why do volunteers open their homes to strangers?

Hospitality exchange tourism is a new type of niche tourism, which is highly dependent on the Internet. Through participating in global hospitality exchange networks, such as Couchsurfing, tourists can meet local people who are willing to offer free accommodation, and hosts can also meet people around the world by hosting them. Couchsurfing works as a system of reciprocity, in which hospitality as
well as cultures is exchanged between hosts and surfers. Through hospitality sharing and cross-cultural interactions, a global community with diverse cultures is envisaged in Couchsurfing. Although Couchsurfing is global in its scope, it is locally practiced in different ways by different cultures. The meaning of Couchsurfing is negotiated by surfers and hosts who both participate in it, and the reciprocal system of Couchsurfing seems to be more complicated when different cultures are involved. Based on Taiwanese experiences of Couchsurfing, this study introduces a non-western perspective on Couchsurfing and has a dialogue with prior research about Couchsurfing that has tended to focus on western experiences. Qualitative methods, including participatory observation and qualitative interviews, are adopted in this study to explore how Couchsurfing is practiced in non-western society.

11 Couchsurfing through the Lens of Agential Realism: Intra-Active Constructions of Identity and Challenging the Subject–Object Dualism Michael O'Regan Introduction We imagine that as soon as we are torn out of our habitual path all is over, but it is only the beginning of something new and good.(Leo Tolstoy, 1983, p.

Foi procurando entender como as tecnologias de comunicação contemporâneas atuam em nossos relacionamentos e identidades, que este artigo fez um debate teórico-empírico do Couchsurfing, rede social baseada na cooperação e hospedagem de viajantes em todo o mundo. Ao longo do artigo, discutimos a qualidade dos vínculos criados entre seus membros, por meio do compartilhamento de afinidades; apontamos a negociação das experiências e dos estilos de
vida, além do desapego material como fenômenos típicos da cultura de rede. Para isso, utilizamos de um arcabouço teórico que se estende da questão do papel das mídias, na construção de identidades; a função do consumo como expressões do narcisismo; além da descartabilidade dos nossos sentimentos e da apatia, como fenômenos típicos da pós-modernidade. Após a discussão desses temas, fizemos um confronto crítico das características apresentadas pelos teóricos com o Couchsurfing, a partir de um relato particular de experiência com a rede

La  sociabilité  est  un  concept  central  dans  la  discipline  sociologique.  Son  application  aux  nouvelles  manières  de  constituer  des  liens  sociaux  interroge  la  définition  même  du  concept,  particulièrement  dans  son  rapport  à  l’altérité.  En  suggérant  l’idée  de  la  sociabilité  dite  «  du  passage  »,  nous  proposons  de  mieux  comprendre les tensions entre ressemblance et altérité au cœur des relations sociales entre  inconnus.  Précisément,  cet  article  vise  à  mettre  en  avant  des  illustrations  de  moments  d’ouverture  interculturelle  dans  les  relations  entre  membres  d’un  réseau  d’échange d’hospitalité.

Sociability  is  a  central  concept  in  sociolog y.  Applying  it  to  new  ways  of  creating  social  bounds  questions  the  mere  definition  of  the  concept,  particularly  in  its  relationship with otherness. We suggest using the “passing through” sociability in order to  better  understand  the  tensions  between  likeness  and  otherness  at  the  core  of  social  relationships  between  strangers.  Specifically,  this  paper  aims  to  illustrate  moments  of  intercultural openness between members of a hospitality exchange network.

The spatial design of a home has an affinity to intimacy that might have been overlooked by many practicing architects. In this paper, the subject matter of housing will be discussed with a shifted focus from domestic buildings to the space of home and intimacy that scatters in a city. In recent years, some sociologists (Illouz, 2013 & 1997; Turkle, 2013; Jamieson, 2012) have underlined a social translation of a new spatial home by analysing an intimacy in a city that has been enabled by ICT technologies; business models i.e. Airbnb and Couchsurfing also indicated a new form of dwelling by demonstrating how share-economy can assist this spatial home and, in particular, assist the distribution of it so as to assist a city dweller to find and make home without possessing a house. And yet, neither of these examples of home are designed by architects who might actually know the best about the subject matter - this space of home and intimacy. What if the critical spatial design that an architect can produce isn’t the domestic buildings but the visualisation of this space? What is this critical spatial design of the home to cope with the shifting social needs already seen? Through Jeremy Till’s way of looking at buildings and beyond - the lens of Spatial Agency (2011) - the paper will further speculate these examples of home by architectural-writing this spatial design - this architectural-writing, as Jane Rendell describes in chapter of Essay Collections of Critical Architecture (2007), similarly to art-writing, “the very form of the writing itself is taken to be integral to the way in which a critic positions him/herself… The personal and autobiographical enter the debate, not in order to assert an ego criticism, but as part of an on-going political exploration of subjectivity.”

This article explores how Taiwanese Couchsurfers, by hosting, travelling and meeting up with foreigners, imagine, learn and adapt the concept of cosmopolitanism, and by these means undergo a process of self-transformation. The study is developed along with a series of questions: How do Taiwanese Couchsurfers interact with people from other countries and with other cultures? Through which means, forms and narratives do they perform “their” identity? What do they learn from cross-cultural interactions enabled through Couchsurfing? To respond to these questions, I adopt qualitative interview, including individual and group interview, which also serve to facilitate a study of how these Couchsurfers experienced their interactions with Couchsurfers from other countries, and provide an investigation of forms of self-transformation observed among the sample.

Accommodation is a fundamental part of tourism, and it plays an important role in the tourist experience. The emerging economy and especially the peer-to-peer accommodations (P2P) have shaken up the conventional accommodations sector. While most P2P accommodation studies have focused on the monetary platform, which includes Airbnb, there is little knowledge about the linkages of involvement and behavioral intentions on the non-profit accommodation users. This empirical study applied a multiple-methods approach to investigate the positive impacts of involvement on couchsurfing, such as P2P accommodations on the destination image, familiarity, and the behavioral intentions. The data was collected from 609 travelers who have used couchsurfing while traveling to Turkey from 2016 to 2017. The results revealed that involvement in couchsurfing improved the destination image, familiarity, the E-WoM, and the revisit intention of couchsurfers. This study also discusses the practical implications.

Paula Bialski and Dominik Batorski look into what is known as a hospitality network in an online setting. Individuals use this network as an online space to seek accommodation in the home of another member in the network. In such a virtual community, trust is central, and the question of trustworthiness is made explicit in the design of such a social system.

The increasing pace of globalization which has turned the world into a global village has shed light and importance on intercultural communications. In this global village, for being a good neighbour we need to know our neighbours and understand their cultural differences; and it would be better if we not only focus on the images which media provides us from other countries as these images are most of the time biased and unrealistic. One way which can increase our understanding of other cultures is travelling. Many travellers these days choose alternative tourism for travelling around the globe; in this tourism, the interaction and contact with the native residents of that country would increase. In this paper, I want to study the potential impact of alternative tourism over the mental schema of people who travelled to Iran. To gather data, I used the users of Couch Surfing social network, and did in-depth interviews with some of them who travelled to Iran. Through using Schema Theory and Intimacy Theory, I tried to understand which elements affect the mental schemas of travellers to Iran.

However it is known that sharing has a history as old as the history of mankind, it is stated that the concept of sharing
economy emerges with the internet. With the widespread use of the internet consumers offer their idle capacity to the
use of foreign consumers that they do not recognize. In sharing economy, the platforms which gathers the consumers
who aimed to earn money by their underutilized assets, and the other consumers, wanted to fulfill the need without
having assets, occured. The sharing economy and related practices are increasing and people share their homes,
vehicles, belongings, talents and times with each other. In this study, in the framework of the sharing economy, the
common usage network that serves in the hospitality sector, couchsurfing placed in "hospitality network", In this
study, 59 online participant comments about sharing platforms called “Couchsurfing” were analyzed. The aim of the
research is to identify positive, negative and deficient sides of the couchsurfing, one of the most popular hospitality
sharing platforms in the world, according to platform users. The data obtained about this platform were subjected to
content analysis with MAXQDA 2018 program. As a result of the study, it was seen that user comments were mostly
dissatisfied, complaints content, predominantly home owners' complaints, CS call center and system, registration
approval pricing, guest behavior, cleaning and security complaints.

Highlights • We report results regarding youth couch surfing and homelessness from a national survey. • Youth couch surfing is a common experience, although far more so for young adults than adolescents. • There are notable differences between youth reporting homelessness versus only couch surfing. • Couch surfing encompasses a range of experiences, some of which likely include need for services. • Broader assessments of youths' housing situation beyond point-in-time snapshots should be used. Abstract Youth homelessness is a problem characterized by high levels of vulnerability. The extent to which couch surfing-moving from one temporary housing arrangement to another-is part of youth homelessness is not well understood. Chapin Hall's Voices of Youth Count, a national research initiative, involves a multicomponent approach to studying youth homelessness. This study reports emerging findings regarding couch surfing and homelessness primarily from a national survey of 13,113 adults with youth ages 13-25 in their households or who are themselves ages 18-25. Findings suggest that couch surfing is relatively common, particularly among the older age group. Among households with 13-to 17-year-olds and 18-to 25-year-olds, 4.0% and 20.5%, respectively, reported that any of them had couch surfed in the last 12 months. There are notable social, economic, and educational differences, on average, between youth reporting homelessness and those reporting only couch surfing. However, most youth who report experiencing homelessness also report couch surfing, and these youth who experience both circumstances present high levels of socioeconomic vulnerability. Couch surfing encompasses a range of experiences, some of which likely include need for services. Interviews currently in the field, and expanded analysis of data, will contribute more nuanced policy insights.

The aim of this paper is to examine people's perceptions of home sharing industry through comparing Airbnb and Couchsurfing, using python to crawling twitter's data. We conducted semantic network analysis by using UCINET, which is embedded with NETDRAW, for calculating betweenness centrality and visualizing semantic network based on multidimensional scaling(MDS). And we also used LIWC to analysis public sentimental perceptions. The present study's results show that the characteristics discovered about Airbnb and Couchsurfing in cyberspace have possible future directions in view of word usage frequency, centrality and semantic networks. Moreover, the results show that in sentimental aspects, there are different public trends of emotions on Airbnb and Couchsurfing. Through those results, researchers provide information to understand which sectors should entrepreneurs put more efforts and money.

Especially lately, it is quite apparent that tourists are adopting a slow life style. The couchsurfing (CS) social network creates an environment that is socially, culturally and environmentally interactive and enables travellers from different cultures to come together. This study examines CS's members travel behaviour within the context of slow tourism. The data were gathered through a survey technique, one of the common quantitative research methods, and analyzed with the SPSS 20.0 Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. The results show that the general slow tourism level (=3. 31) of the participants is around 3 points, which is a medium level. When arithmetic average figures regarding the sub-dimensions of slow tourism are analyzed, average points for " slowness " and " emotion " are higher than other aspects, which are =3.31 and =3.26 respectively. It has not been found another study regarding CS's members travel behaviour within the context of slow tourism in the literature. Therefore the results of this study have not been compared with another study results. The entire universe could not be reached because of the number of people constituting the universe is greater than ten thousand and time constraints. Therefore sampling method was used. Although the survey sent to 1700 CS members, 180 questionnaires were collected. In this study participants' slow tourism behaviors according to place living in and to preferred place is studied. However participants' slow tourism behaviors according to the nationality is not studied. In future studies, if participants' slow tourism behaviors according to the nationality will examination, literature would be made an important contribution. In addition, there are millions of CS members all over the world. This study is seen that the general slow tourism (=3,02) values of the CS participants that are approximately 3 points the middle value. Therefore if local governments will focus slow tourism activities in the destination, especially for slowness dimension, it will be effective to attract CS members to the destination. 1. Introduction The fact that the effects of global tendencies on human behavior are expanding more and more is causing some changes in the behavior of tourism event, and is helping to improve the influence of new tendencies on tourism-based consumption. Slow tourism can be regarded as the most effective of the mentioned tendencies that causes changes in tourism based consumption. What is meant by slow tourism, apart from slow movements during tourism activity, can be defined as perceiving those following factors as a part of tourism activity: using products which reflect the local culture, increased communication with local people, paying attention to the sustainability of the resources etc. (Robinson, Heitmann & Dicke, 2011, p. 263). These many effects of slow tourism tendency can trigger some changes in the traditional structure of tourism and set the foundation for fundamental changes in travel and accommodation, which are central elements of tourism. One of the most important examples of these changes is CS due to its high potential of participation. It can be stated that with this application it is possible to compensate for the lack of low levels of communication with local people as a result of traditional accommodation factors. The purpose of the CS platform is to get a better understanding of the destination. In this reason, it aims to meet local people and experience culture of a destination rather than fast consumption. Along with this, it is important to understand the parallel between the tendency for slow tourism and increased demand for couchsurfing (couchsurfing, 01.06.2016), which is expected to reflect a similar philosophy with slow tourism. This study is interesting in examining the behavior of couchsurfing members within the context of slow tourism and analyzing the differences between attributes of the slow tourism and demographic characteristics.

Online hospitality exchange (HospEx) platforms—essentially facilitating the connection between a traveller and a local resident—embody many of the cyber-utopian promises intrinsic to the Web as it started out 25 years ago. This paper investigates upon the antagonistic struggle between the commons and processes of commodification in the light of critical theory of social media for this niche social networking space and introduces two relevant examples. The biggest of those platforms, Couchsurfing.org, changed its organizational orientation from a non-profit, commons-based project towards a for-profit company in 2011—an instance of commodification. An analysis of both quantitative and qualitative community data shows that the transformation consequently concerns members on multiple levels. The structural change of ownership results in a loss of transparency and privacy, an alteration of the platform’s integrity, a sacrifice of the “uniqueness” of the community, and a differing relationship between the user and the platform. To discuss an alternative, community-based governance approach, the paper further explores the specifics of a platform guided by the logic of the commons, the non-commercial and non-profit HospEx platform BeWelcome.org.

CouchSurfing is currently the most popular hospitality exchange network among travellers. As an online/offline community, it presents a curious development in people's engagement on the Internet and in “real life”. As people have become more mobile and flexible in a globalized world, the impact of new technologies on our lives can be felt now more than ever. Especially people who like to be on the move seem to have many more options to choose how they want to travel, what they want to do and whom they want to meet during their stays. The advent of online social networks gave people the possibility to gather around a specific interest and form communities that are both virtual and physical, which in the case of CouchSurfing led to a worldwide phenomena of hosts and surfers who are willing to open their doors to strangers, to meet new people and share their lives with them.
This research aims at exploring CouchSurfers' search in travel, how CouchSurfing can meet these needs and the mechanisms which make the platform so successful among mobile people. Through semi-structured interviews, participant observation and online research, I examine CouchSurfers' motivations for using CouchSurfing during travel and the implications of online social networks for travellers, their sense of trust and belonging to a community.
With this study I hope to contribute to the scarce literature on online/offline communities, especially hospitality exchange networks, and how they affect travellers, social cohesion and identification processes.

Online hospitality networks encourage private individuals to open up their homes for travelers from around the world. Two of the most popular and successful service providers are Airbnb and Couchsurfing, both US-American companies. Airbnb's users can lease or rent short-term lodging from other registered community members, whereas overnight stays arranged via Couchsurfing are explicitly free of charge. Apart from this difference in their terms of service, these two platforms turn private living space into a crucial part of the touristic experience. The private home, however, is a rather intimate kind of space and needs to be seen in contrast to the standardized and impersonal interiors of classic hotel chains or other accommodation facilities. It boasts a deeply personal touch and attracts people who are looking for travel experiences with unique qualities. They value another person's private living space as a means to gain authentic impressions of the visited destination. Although this special setting flags an interesting field of research, neither tourism nor sociological studies have been examining the significance of private dwellings in these global hospitality networks in a sufficient way so far. In my sociological research I focus on the different elements that constitute private living space as an accommodation site for strangers. The selection of my case studies makes it possible to investigate whether monetary exchanges (Airbnb) differ from free encounters (Couchsurfing) in terms of their organizing principles and their inherent logics.

The researcher found that not much research has been conducted on the concept of couchsurfing, especially in a South African context, although some research has been done in the past on related topics such as why Taiwanese people couchsurf (De-Jung’s 2012) and Molz’s (2012) research which focused on couchsurfing as a cultural experience.

This study investigated and compared the experiences of South African couchsurfing.com users and the perceptions of South African non-users. The objectives are twofold. Firstly, to identify what the couchsurfing.com user experiences were and what non-users’ perceptions were. Secondly, to compare couchsurfing.com user experiences with non-user perceptions. Descriptive research was conducted using a snowball sampling design of a sample of 41 respondents that participated in an online questionnaire distributed through Survey Monkey. The online questionnaire was constructed using the RECSA service quality model that comprises of the five most important service quality variables, reliability, availability, comfort, safety and affordability.

The value of the research was to better understand people’s experiences and perceptions of couchsurfing from a South African context and to contribute to the marketing of couchsurfing in a way that will overcome certain perceptions and entice prospective travellers.

Konu Alanı: Turizm faaliyetlerinin internet ağından yararlanılarak yeni bir seyahat ve konaklama anlayışı
ile gerçekleştirilmesidir.
Amacı: Couchsurfing internet ağı, son yıllarda internet ağının ve kullanımının artması ile birlikte özellikle
gençler tarafından farklı ülkelere seyahatleri ekonomik açıdan mümkün kılan ve gidilen ülke kültürünü
yakından tanıma fırsatı sunan internet tabanlı bir yazılımıdır. Araştırmanın amacı, dünya üzerinde 4 milyon
sörfçü sayısına sahip olan bu sistemin ortaya çıkışını, işleyişini ve kullanıcı profilini derinlemesine
inceleyerek turizm açısından değerlendirmektir.
Araştırma Yöntemi: Araştırma tanımlayıcı türde tasarlanmıştır. Bu tür araştırmalarda amaç; “bir örgüt,
birey, grup, durum veya olgunun düzgün bir portresini çizmek, bir konu ile ilgili veri toplamadan önce tüm
hatları ile konunun tanımının yapılmasını sağlamaktır” (Coşkun, vd. 2015:71). Bu kapsamda, veri toplama
yöntemi olarak kaynak taraması yolu tercih edilmiştir. Kaynak tarama, “farklı amaçlarla önceden
gerçekleştirilmiş çalışmaların sonuçları olarak yayınlanmış kaynakların incelenerek yararlanılmasıdır”
(Ural ve Kılıç, 2013:65). Bu doğrultuda konu ile ilgili güvenirliğe sahip her türlü yazılı kaynağa (kitap, tez,
makale, internet, arşiv, resmi kayıt, raporlar vb.) başvurulmuştur.
Bulgular: Gerçekleştirilen detaylı kaynak taraması couchsurfing ağı ile ilgili bilgiler derlenerek bir araya
getirilmiş ve gelecek turizmini nasıl etkileyeceği değerlendirilmiştir. Ayrıca bu ağı en çok kullanan kişilerin
hangi özelliklere sahip oldukları ortaya konarak profilleri hakkında tahminlerde bulunulmuştur.
Sonuç ve Öneriler: Couchsurfing ağı insanlara farklı toplum kültürlerini yakından tanıma olanağını çok
farklı bir tatil deneyimi içerisinde sunmaktadır. Bu bakımdan insanların başka insanlarla paylaşımda
bulunarak iyi ilişkiler kurması, önyargıların önüne geçerek karşılıklı anlayış ortamının gelişmesine katkı
sağlayacaktır. İlerde ise doğrudan bu sistemi kullanan kişilere ulaşılarak bilgi edinilmesi çok daha ayrıntılı
çıkarımlarda bulunmayı sağlayacaktır.
Orjinalliği/Değeri: Couchsurfing sisteminin yeni olmasından dolayı bu alanda yapılmış çalışmalar az
sayıdadır. Uzun vadede düşünüldüğünde ise yeni bir konaklama ve seyahat anlayışını doğurarak alternatif
bir turizm eğiliminin oluşmasında önem teşkil ettiği düşünülmektedir.

This book examines how intimate relationships are built, negotiated and maintained through social media. The study takes a cross-platform approach, analysing three social media platforms of different genres – Badoo, Couchsurfing and Facebook – and exploring two interactive forces that shape the way people communicate through social media: the platforms’ architecture and policies, and actual practises of use. Combining analysis of the political economy of social media with users’ perspectives of their own practises – as well as exploring the tensions between the two – the book provides a detailed picture of intimacy as a complex structure of continuity and change.