Couchsurfing
I love the concept of the Couchsurfing system and signed up as a host when I lived in Scotland.
The two folks who did come to stay (separately) put me right off the idea of having randoms staying in my house and I gave it all up.

First chap was a NewZealander who was backpacking alone through Europe and wanted to stop for a few nights. Nice enough chap with a few interesting stories, but fuck me, he stank. Serious, overpowering, nasty, sickly sweet B.O. that made my eyes water. I started off trying to ignore it, but that was impossible, so I moved on to subtle hints, telling him he was welcome to have a shower if he wanted, which fell on deaf ears. Eventually I could not stand the stench any longer so told him straight that he smelled bad and really, really needed to shower. He took a serious huff and left the next morning. The flat stank for about a week after he left, despite me hosing the place with Glade and Febreeze.


The next one really took the piss though. Two Irish girls wanted to stay for 2 nights. I had a sofabed that they were happy to share and all seemed well. Once settled, we were having a drink and talking when I got a phone call from work's security centre. I was on call-out that evening in case of emergencies and some junkie had seemingly panned in the shop windows and helped himself to the stock. I was pretty wary about leaving two strangers alone in my flat, but they seemed ok....besides, I had little choice. I told them I would probably be a good few hours and off I went.
I returned home about 1am and as I parked my car, asked myself what unsociable cunt would be playing pumping dance music at this late hour...then noticed it was coming from my own flat. In the door, I found about a dozen people there just getting into the swing of a house party. From what I gathered, these two dippy cows had got bored so went out to the pub (how did they get back in as I never gave them a key? must have left the fucking door open!) got pissed and invited a load of people back to mine for a party.
It took a lot of hassle to get everyone out, but fortunately, things had not gone far before my return so damage and mess was minimal. The two girls were too pissed to make any sense so I left things till the next morning. I was up early enough, but found that they had left some time before I got up. No apology, no effort to clean up.....nothing. Ignorant fuckers.
(dave likes cheese, Thu 6 Jan 2011, 20:53, 2 replies)

Huh
My housemate was into it so we gave it a go...ended up with an utterly charming Danish girl called Sofie who was the perfect guest. You were really unlucky there.
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Thu 6 Jan 2011, 21:17, closed)

I first heard about couchsurfing a couple of weeks ago.
My first thought was fuck that. Who in their right mind would invite complete strangers to stay at their house? I've stayed at a few people's houses while backpacking, and had a few backpackers stay at mine, but they've all been people I've met in bars or at work first which seems the only sensible option to me.
( The Awful Puppy Bakery is still bored, Fri 7 Jan 2011, 8:32, closed)