Estimulación con Tubería Flexible

The process of deciding whether to accept or decline a request was quite similar amongst the CouchSurfing members interviewed. Once a request is received, it is usually skimmed to see if it is a generic message that has been copied and pasted or one that looks like some effort has been put into composing it. Then, the potential host goes and looks at the requestor’s profile to obtain more information about the requestor. Common criteria to help determine whether a request should be accepted or rejected include: a profile that contains a lot of information about the CouchSurfer, shared interests, positive references, and the presence of photos. Similar age was also a criterion amongst a few of the members.

Likewise, for the non-members who simulated the task of finding a potential host to make a CouchSurfing request, criteria that they took into consideration were age, gender, shared interests, positive references, and whether or not they were vouched and/or verified. The reasons given by the non-members to support those choices were: people who are of similar age potentially share similar interests or are able to relate to each other more if they are in the same age group. However, one respondent remarked that most of the members seem to be in the 20s age range so it was less important as a search criterion.

Figure

8: The process of CouchSurfing

Figure 9: The process of CouchSurfing - COMMUNICATING

Figure 11: The process of CouchSurfing - REFERENCING

Amongst the female respondents, most of them felt that it was safer to send a request to someone of the same gender. A respondent stated:

Have we been socialized to be afraid of strange men? Perhaps. But I do somehow feel safer with a strange woman.

CS non-member #2 Sharing similar interests was fairly important for most of those interviewed, it was perceived that if they have common interests, they would have something to talk about when they meet in the offline environment.

For example, places travelled was fairly important as an indication of shared interests for the following non-member:

oh yes, i also considered where they had traveled to…because i felt it told me about the places that interested them, and the kinds of experiences they may have had. so sometimes i found myself intrigued by the collection of places travelled, because they were similar to mine, or because they had obviously traveled a lot - i guess that their destinations told me immediately whether we would have common ground.

CS non-member #1 Another important factor to help assess trustworthiness was the amount of information available on a profile. Almost all of the members interviewed stressed the importance of

having a complete profile that has been thoroughly filled out. They seemed to have invested quite a bit of time and effort into building their own profiles and mentioned that one of the criteria for accepting a hosting request is evidence that the requester has thoroughly read their profile before making a request. A few have included specific instructions on what needs to be included in a request and/or a secret word or phrase that has been hidden in their profile that has to be included in the requests to demonstrate that their profile has been read. One of the respondents explained:

In the beginning I was accepting everyone if couch was available. Then I started to get lots of requests and most of them were just copy+paste msgs (it's easy to recognize them), and most likely those ppl don't even read the profiles. That made me sad cause I put lots of effort to make my profile. So, as other ppl do, I put a kind of "password" lost somewhere. To find it ppl really must read my profile hehehe. So, if the password is not mentioned, most likely I don’t accept.

CS member #1 However, for that member, if the special word is not mentioned in a request, it does not mean that the request is rejected outright. On the other hand, if the word is mentioned but the profile is incomplete or there is no evidence of affinity, the request may be declined.

I can accept if the word is not mentioned if the person write a very nice request (which can show some affinity). Or, even if the person wrote the word and their profile is kind incomplete or I feel we don’t have things in common I decline.

CS member #1 Similarly, another member stated:

I have specific instructions in my profile so if it looks like they haven’t read my profile at all i then say no but if their message is really awesome despite them not reading my profile then i sometimes say yes

CS member #2 Hence, in the absence of physical interaction, the way in which the information is presented and sent is vital to getting a positive response. A generic request that looks like it has been copied and pasted and sent to a large number of people is likely going to be denied. Amongst those interviewed for this study, it appears that the amount of information on a profile and the personalization of communication are key aspects that the respondents look for.