Memoirs of a CouchSurfer

Our writer, Tau Jonty Braun, travels the United States without spending a penny on accommodation.

Last week I woke up in San Jose, California. Above a door to my right, bright red wooden letters spelled out the word "CANADA." It took my brain a few seconds to remember where I was.

I have been on the road for 11 months. I have traveled from Fort Lauderdale, FL to Northern Vermont; across the Midwest, into the Southwest and currently I am on the West Coast. I have stayed in hotels only a handful of times on this cross-country adventure. For the rest of the time, I have traveled across the United States using the website CouchSurfing.org to find free accommodation. This means that every few days I wake up in a new city in a complete stranger's house. In San Jose, the married couple who hosted me turned out to be originally from New Brunswick which, according to them, is in Canada. Hence the sign.

According to their website, "CouchSurfing is a worldwide network for making connections between travelers and the local communities they visit." Put simply, CouchSurfing.org offers you the opportunity of staying with a local resident rather than at a hotel or hostel when traveling. Like Facebook or LinkedIn, there is no fee to be part of the community and there is no monetary or work exchange between the couch-surfing guest and the host. It's free! And in these tough economic times, the word "free" should be accompanied by a heavenly choir singing "Hallelujah".

Traveling this way has given me the opportunity to explore giant cities like New York as well as tiny rural towns like Wilmore, Kansas (with a population of less than 100 people). I attended Wilmore's monthly live entertainment event called "Saturday Night Live" and was treated like a celebrity. Plus, I gave the residents of Wilmore living proof that vegetarians actually exist.

My hosts have ranged from college students, farmers and artists, to writers, yogis, teachers and soldiers. I've even bunked with a retired senator who imposed the following rules: "Eat, sleep and wait to eat again" -- fantastic instructions for a weekend spent sailing at his lake house.

Of course there are real house rules from time to time. The earliest wake up call to leave a host's apartment was 5:30am. My host was a full-time soldier serving with the National Guard. Her early morning routine included a boot camp style workout everyday to keep "fighting fit." Seeing her uniform hanging in her house was an important reminder of the many brave men and women who serve this country.

Couch surfing gives you a glimpse into other people lives. You hear about things that bring them joy or cause them to lose sleep at night. You see the products they buy, the things they do, and sometimes you get to meet some of their friends and neighbors. It's an anthropologist's dream. It is also a great way to discover books you haven't read, movies you haven't seen, music you haven't heard yet and places you should visit.

It may be a common experience with newbie couch surfers, but after the first few times that I couch surfed, I just could not stop talking about it. I just found the idea that somebody would invite me into their home to stay with them without knowing me to be, frankly, unbelievable. There is something quaint and refreshing about it. In a world filled with bad news, tragedies and horror stories, there is something profoundly exciting about experiencing first hand that there are people out there that genuinely have an interest in being generous and hospitable to strangers.

I once arrived at a gorgeous house in Asheville, N.C., only to find that my host had left a note: "I won't be home until later this evening, but make yourself at home and if you feel like, come and join me and my friends for a drink at the bar down the street." I entered her house a little suspiciously, and was happily greeted by soft ambient lighting, classical music playing from her Mac, and tea and coffee left out on the counter for me with a second note: "Help yourself to anything in the kitchen." Another host apologized that he wasn't able to host at his house due to him working the night shift at a hotel. Instead he put me up in a luxurious hotel room. In fact, I rarely sleep on a couch. In the past year, I have slept in guest rooms, a church, a loft above a tool shed, a yoga studio, an enclosed front porch, a double-wide trailer, an RV, an attic and a barn. At the risk of sounding manic, couch surfing has restored my faith in humanity.

Of course not everyone is as taken with it. One of the standard questions I get asked is: How do you know that you aren't staying with an axe murderer? The short answer: I don't. However, CouchSurfing.org does have security systems in place like member verification and references from others on their profiles to help ease these concerns. After you've been active and done a bit of surfing or hosting, you can also get vouched for by others that have built up credibility or are actively involved in the CouchSurfing community.

Couch surfing is laid back, but that doesn't mean that there isn't a certain amount of etiquette to adhere to. Try to give your host adequate notice when requesting a stay, a week or two in advance seems to be the norm. If you are a host, respond to requests promptly and be understanding. Sometimes travel plans change and your guests may need a place to stay urgently or arrive much later than they originally anticipated. The website allows for a fair amount of variables when searching for a host. Increase your range by looking for a host that shows, "Maybe, Yes, or Definitely" to couch availability and look for the percentage of requests that a host has replied to. If you are short on time, limit messages sent to hosts that don't reply to requests frequently. As a host or a surfer, take the time to fill out your profile in detail. Some CouchSurfing hosts are really snotty about this, and understandably so -- it's part of what keeps the community safe. As a surfer, try to arrive at your host's house during daylight hours and have a back up plan if the accommodation doesn't work out.

Next time you;re longing for a quick get-away or if you're ready to take some time off to discover the world, consider this site. If you like meeting new people, have some extra space, and are looking to increase your karma, host a surfer.

And if you want to confuse them, hang a sign above your couch that reads, "CANADA".