Hacker News Reader

Nice I was loving Couchsurfing until they started aggressively monetising it. Had really great experiences with hosting people! Hope Couchers will revive the great experience of hosting people

View on HN

Couchsurfing isn't aggressively monetized. They've got a very very small annual fee, and once you pay it they never harass you for money. It's far less monetized than other mainstream apps.

Making it impossible for me to even see my own profile or message with people I previously hosted is exactly what I call "aggressive". It's not about the cost, it's about what exactly is being restricted. They literally took content that I created (MY profile) and are asking me to pay for it. A sane monetising approach would be to charge for sending new requests, for example.

100% this. They took away all the (often very personal) reviews that is part of my account, and forced me to pay for access to them.

I second this!

Every month I get an email from Paypal that I automatically paid 1,99 euros to Couchsurfing. I love that email!

Had some great experiences with CS and I'm happy to pay them for these couple of times a year I host somebody.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com