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Comment by namdnay | Hacker News Reader

I had some really good experiences on couchsurfing (hosting and surfing) about 10 years ago, then I moved to a very touristic part of the world, and started getting 90% of requests from couples who were basically looking to get free accommodation for their holidays. I accepted the first 3 times, and each time they would arrive in the evening, unpack, drive to a restaurant they had already booked, come back to sleep and then leave first thing in the morning.

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A key technique to avoid those situations was the "poisoned pill": buried in your profile there is some keyword they must include in their request.

With that (which I copied once I was reading a full descriptive profile) you get a great filter. I have done a good share of CS, both as host and guest, over the last ~10 years, having either good or amazing experiences.

Ah very clever!

That’s a “brown M&M”, not a “poison pill”.

Yeah phrasing it that way -- poison pill -- is a good way to make people feel uneasy when you're staying with them.

It would explain why they kept going out to restaurants instead of eating anything at the house...

> ading a full descriptive profile) you get a great filter. I have done a good

can you explain? what keywords do you have to put to avoid this?

It's a way to check if someone read your entire profile, so you can filter out people who are just looking for a free place to stay. For example, you could hide the word "pineapple" two paragraphs in and ask that people mention it in their first message to you.

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