Alright, last time I shared my secret of when to send a Couchsurfing request. Now, when’s the worst time? To be really honest with you, I haven’t had much experience failing to find a host. But there was this one time I really had trouble getting a host in a big city, Melbourne in Australia.
There were 3 of us (mom, dad and me), and I started sending out requests 1 month before my arrival date until 1 week before my arrival date. And I kept getting messages like this,
Hey _______, great fun fact and thank you for your detailed couch request, and it is lovely to hear your plans for Melbourne.
It’s Summer in Melbourne and I am getting at least 3 requests each day. My calendar is unfortunately full for the dates you’d like to stay. It would be cool to meet up whilst you’re here, as an amazing person like yourself,
So, I was late in sending out requests??? How is that possible? I sent out my requests 1 month before my arrival time, wasn’t that good enough??? What???
And really, it wasn’t just one person who said that, so many hosts.
Right, I get it, it’s summer, but I also went to Jerusalem and London in summer, and in fact, it was during the Olympics in London.
As confused as I was, I concluded that it all depends on luck and not hard work, and maybe God didn’t want me to find a host in Melbourne?
So we booked a room on airbnb (which did not turn out great… it was all about money, and the place was half as good as couchsurfing hosts’ homes). The night I booked it with a ‘strict’ owner (it was the cheapest deal in Melbourne…), the next morning I got up and saw a confirmation in my couchsurfing inbox. That was 5 days before my stay.
Gary xxxxxx has accepted your CouchRequest!
What what what? But why????????? I spent like a month sending requests, and when I gave up, I got a confirmation? In the end I didn’t go, mainly because I already booked airbnb and it doesn’t give refund under ‘strict cancellation policy’ (but it does give some refund of the 2nd or 3rd night I forgot). I regretted it though, couchsurfing would have still been cooler than airbnb.
So statistically, I can still say I’ve never failed to find a host.
I guess the worst time would be from 1 week till 1 month for a popular city in SUMMER. In the case of last minute, well, I don’t have much to share at the moment. Often because I like to stick to plans.
So since my experience tells me that it’s either sending last minute request or send them out at least 1 month, trust me, that’s why I started sending out couch requests 3 months before my stay in Copenhagen. I guess I learned from my experience well! Haha!
Traveling Mega
