Long before the likes of Airbnb and Wimdu got people excited and/or hot under the collar about rental marketplaces, there was enormous buzz surrounding Couchsurfing.
The site was created in 1999 (though some say the proper launch was in 2004) by Casey Fenton (he and Napster’s Sean Parker were the early poster-childs of the disruptive web) and, despite a number of ups and downs, has survived to this day – it just doesn’t get the same level of coverage as other sites, perhaps because the entire project was not-for-profit.
After claiming the company was finished in 2006, Couchsurfing relaunched quickly with a focus of diversity and creating “meaningful connections”, slightly whimsical and utopian in the hard world of business, but raising money, plotting eye-watering growth and hitting the trendy dot-com circuit was never Couchsurfing’s style.
All good things come to an end, however, with Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Ventures investing $7.6 million in the company this week.
Couchsurfing has also changed its company status from non-for-profit to so-called B Corporation, meaning it can act like a normal company but it complies with “comprehensive and transparent social and environmental performance standards, reach higher legal accountability standards, and build business constituency”.
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Gald to see coachsurfers aren’t just lying down and letting airbnb and wimdu have an easy ride over their market share!
The trend in accommodation industry is that of more range, flexibilitu and fun – all in a consumptive, collaborative and trusted network.
Let’s just hope the folks at coachsurfers use some of the money to tart up their stake looking website
I’ve been an active couchsurfer for many years, so I’ve been following the comments on couchsurfing communities. Its been an interesting response. I’m curious to see if many of their current community stick around now that they’ve changed to a for profit and raised money. For many, they feel this is a deviation in their mission and values which could drive the type of people in their membership to change.
Also to be noted that the site looks and feels a lot like Tripping’s new design…interesting.
A very interesting development.
My guess is that there will be considerable “Adult Supervision” given the challenges encountered by Airbnb in balancing rapid growth with a business model that, while highly disruptive, is not yet refined to the point of becoming a main-stream travel option.
With the added complexity of having the hosts cohabit the rental space with the guests, a whole new dimension of complexities arise – particularly in terms of potential liabilities for if a central organization capturing margin on the transactions.
The main question is will the adult supervision be able to successfully and profitably expand the business or will the transition from the .org world to the .com world kill the model?
Like Airbnb, Couch Surfing is a terrific, potentially high value guest experience. A big issue will be how they deal with those low frequency – high severity problems that will arise occur from time to time. Also, will the investors will be satisfied to stay within a niche, or decide to push the envelope and try to turn it into a main-stream lodging option.
Alot of members are unhappy with this move and are angry about a lack of transparency, wasted donations and poor leadership. Since the membership database and willingness to host are the only CS assets, many feel its time to move to a non-profit hospitality exchange site like bewelcome.org