Pros & Cons of Couchsurfing for Lifestyle Business Entrepreneurs
DESCRIPTION
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SUMMARY
Couchsurfing is a free option for on-a-budget travelers who would like to experience a culture in a more natural, home setting that is provided by the graciousness of their Couchsurfing host. Many off-the-beaten-path travelers opt for Couchsurfing for its authentic experience and a chance to make new friends. But how does Couchsurfing fare for the location-independent entrepreneur, or digital nomad, working on the go? These travelers aren't just on a vacation, they're trying to balance work/life while being on the road. Is Couchsurfing a good option for this demographic?
In this video, you'll discover:
• The pros and cons of using Couchsurfing
• How the value of free affects your Couchsurfing experience
• The process it takes to secure a Couchsurfing host
TRANSCRIPT
00:15 Hi, this is Lorna Li, host of Entrepreneurs for a Change. And we're talking about lifestyle business design. Now, the topic of the day is whether or not couchsurfing.com is a good option for you to find accommodation in foreign countries during long-term business travel. Now, there's a lot of pros and cons to couchsurfing.com. It's a great service that connects avid travellers with hosts, in their locales, that love to meet people from other countries. But one of the advantages as well as disadvantages is the fact that it's a free service.
00:53 So, it's great because you don't get to pay for your accommodation, since the hosts just love to receive visitors from overseas. But at the same time because it's free, there isn't a lot of accountability. So, it requires sending a lot of messages to hosts who are listed on couchsurfing.com for the locale that you are visiting. And it might take a number of messages sent before you even get one reply. And sometimes it's a lot of co-ordination as well, and the host might even no-show, because really they're just doing this for you as favor out of the passion of meeting someone from another country, but they're really not getting paid for it.
01:33 An advantage of using couchsurfing.com is if you do score accommodation - and sometimes it's actually more than just a couch, it might actually be a free room - you will have a location that most likely has dedicated Internet for you to use, as well as a table - either the dining room table, or maybe another desk for you to work from, which is great if you are working and travelling at the same time.
01:59 Another advantage of couchsurfing.com is that it's a relatively safe place for you stash your belongings, especially if you're travelling with a laptop or external hard drive with valuable data. It's more risky to keep these things in a hotel room, let alone a hostel where there is a lot of low-budget travelers and people basically coming in and out.
02:24 Let's see, another advantage of going with couchsurfing.com is you will be connected with someone that will have a great interest in pointing you out to different areas of, different tourist attractions, or just helping you get oriented to the locale that you are in, in a much more personable way, than if you were staying at a hotel or a hostel. You might actually even get access to the hosts' friends, so then you have an instant social circle as well. So, there are a lot of advantages to using couchsurfing.com.
03:04 Some of the notable disadvantages are, it's really not a good service for long-term fixed travel. So, if you want a place for, let's say a month, well, a lot of these hosts are really gonna be open to having guests over for a short period of time. So, being able to couchsurf on someone's couch for a month is kind of a lot to ask. And another thing too, is that some of these hosts really might not be open to you being home - which is in their home - most of the day because they are expecting most of their guests to be out sightseeing and doing fun things, and not working from their laptop in their dining room table.
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Lorna Li
Internet Marketing for Changemakers
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Related Search Terms:
Couchsurfing
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Digital Nomad
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Entrepreneur
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Long-term fixed travel
Travel accommodation