'Couchsurfing' Travel Takes Off on Web.
By Stan Choe
(AP) Jim Stone, center, is photographed with traveling companion Noemie
Cliche, left, from Montreal, and...
Full Image
NEW YORK (AP) - Jim Stone, a 29-year-old from west Texas, has been
traveling nonstop since March of 2004.
Sometimes in a pickup truck and other times on a motorcycle, he's
trekked through much of the United States, Australia, New Zealand and
Europe. But he's slept in a hotel just one night over that stretch of
nearly 1,000.
That's because Stone is part of a growing network of people online
who've gone a step beyond hotels, hostels and even apartment swapping in
their travel planning: They sleep on each others' couches.
A number of Web sites have sprung up to help pair travelers searching
for a place to crash and hosts with a spare couch. Sites like
hospitalityclub.org, couchsurfing.com, globalfreeloaders.com and
place2stay.net are often free, serving only as middlemen and offering
tips on how to find successful matches.
The sites aren't moneymakers. They're largely the creations of
20-somethings bitten with wanderlust and the hope to help bridge
together people from different cultures. They often depend on volunteer
administrators to help manage the Web operations.
Among the biggest is hospitalityclub.org, a site founded in 2000 by Veit
Kuehne, who was then a 22-year-old business student. Kuehne wanted to
use the Internet's reach to help foster the ideas of a group called
Servas, an international peace organization that encourages cultural
exchanges through travel.
The site grew to 1,300 members by 2002, 100,000 members by January 2006
and 200,000 by September.
more...
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20061107/D8L8FQOO0.html
_______________________________________________
NetBehaviour mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
