With couchsurfing, i've tried both hosting and surfing. Hosting felt like I was managing a free hotel - the guests seemed to have little interest in hanging out or socializing at all. They just stuck to each other. Maybe my mistake was allowing couples instead of individual travellers. I never got a chance to surf, all requests were denied, I get the sense that you basically have to be female and traveling without a partner to succeed in surfing. Context: 29 yr old asian american male, no deformities or anything like that.
With AirBnB, most of the time, it was just a business relationship, but I did form a few friendships which lasted a while.
Of course, anecdotes are not proof - I think it really shows that it is more the luck of the draw than anything else.
With couchsurfing, i've tried both hosting and surfing. Hosting felt like I was managing a free hotel - the guests seemed to have little interest in hanging out or socializing at all. They just stuck to each other. Maybe my mistake was allowing couples instead of individual travellers. I never got a chance to surf, all requests were denied, I get the sense that you basically have to be female and traveling without a partner to succeed in surfing. Context: 29 yr old asian american male, no deformities or anything like that.
With AirBnB, most of the time, it was just a business relationship, but I did form a few friendships which lasted a while.
Of course, anecdotes are not proof - I think it really shows that it is more the luck of the draw than anything else.