Why couchsurfing events are the best platform for all-India cycle touring?
If you are planning on an all-India cycle tour, you must have already heard of couchsurfing by now. Couchsurfing is an app-based platform where hosts across the country accept travellers as guests. It is a purely service-based platform requiring no money to be paid by the visitor or the host of the platform.
The first question that crops up in the mind of anybody who hasn’t heard of or used Couchsurfing is “why do people host random travellers?”
The answer is simpler than you think it is. There are a large number of people who desire to travel but are caught up in the commitments of life. Hosting travellers, speaking with them and learning from their journey makes them feel as though they are travelling themselves.
Above all, when the host wishes to travel, he can use all the recommendations he would have received from the travellers to approach another host outside of their city.
I am fairly new to this concept myself. Before I head out on my all-India cycle tour, I installed the app to give it a try. The first thing that was up on the app was a Couchsurfers meet-up that was organized by one of the members of the app.
I immediately hit the attend button and attended the event the coming weekend. There was a great deal of learning for me from the experience of meeting a large number of Couchsurfers at the event.
Here is the list of reasons why Couchsurfing events are the best platform for all-India cycle touring.
Events
Apart from hosting travellers at their homes, hosts also get together to meet each other. The event is usually organized by one or a few hosts and the rest of them join the event on the prescribed date.
The event could be anything. From catching up for a drink, a potluck, playing holi, or even a picnic. These events keep happening all the time, organized by multiple hosts who wish to organize one.
Attending these events can help you if you are planning on doing an all-India trip or even travelling for a couple of days to weeks time. Events are the place for building the required network on the platform, learning from the host’s experience, and finally understanding the best way to use the app to our advantage.
The event I happened to attend was a potluck event organized by a well-known figure, Sandesh from the Bangalore couchsurfing club. Everyone got their share of food and started introducing one another and discussing together.
It was a wonderful opportunity for me to meet a lot of like-minded people.
Friends and Referrals
Couchsurfing like some of the other social platforms requires you to have friends who make your profile look genuine. This will allow the host to gauge if you are a genuine traveller.
Attending these meetups will allow you to make some friends, get to know them and also earn a referral in return.
I had the pleasure of meeting a large group of people, roughly around 30. Many of them turned out to be my friends and listening to my story, even invited me home.
More than anything, some of them even wrote referrals for me recommending other hosts to host me during the travel.
Overall it was a wise decision to attend the meetup after all. My profile on Couchsurfing looks more polished and genuine for hosts to gauge my genuinity.
If you are planning to use the app in the future, make sure to attend these events, make friends, and also earn referrals. This will surely help you in the long run.
Building network
Not everyone who came to the event was from Bangalore. Some of them were working in Bangalore and had their homes outside. Many of them asked me to visit their place during the travel if at all it falls in the planned route of travel.
Some of the Couchsurfing members had been on the platform for over 10 years. This allowed me to share my number with them and build networking with the right people.
I immediately got added to a WhatsApp group with over 450+ members. The group already had people from all over the country.
Sandesh asked me to get in touch with him anytime I faced an issue in the journey and that he would make sure that I have a place to stay.
Learning from their experience
Everyone who made it to the event had been to at least one or more such events. It seemed like I was the only noob out there. This, however, provided me with the opportunity to learn from the experienced hosts.
Apart from understanding that referrals are important, I also figured out what sort of travellers the hosts usually look for. Definitely not the ones who come, drop their bags, and head out without interacting with the hosts.
The best way to pay forward the favour we take from the hosts is to spend some time with them. Speak with them about their experiences and share ours in return as well.
Some of the other advice was to keep the place we go clean and tidy. Make sure we spend on our food along with the hosts whenever we find the opportunity to.
Meeting like-minded travellers
There is a possibility that some travellers also attend these events. If you are lucky you will get to meet them and learn from the traveller’s point of view.
In my case, as I intend to travel entire India by cycle, I was hoping to meet a cyclist. I found one better.
I had the pleasure of meeting a hitchhiker who had already covered 14 states in the country hitchhiking and was in the process of covering the entire country.
Parkash Chander Singh who had a YouTube channel to his name, TuChalAkela, was a nomad who has been documenting his journey of hitchhiking for the past entire year. We shared an extended talk on a wide range of topics that will help me in my travel.
If you happen to be a cyclist or a hitchhiker or a biker who intends to travel to India, Couchsurfing is the platform for you. Make sure to attend as many events as possible before you leave on your journey. This will allow you to learn from the best in the business and give you a head start with a better network. Overall, the friends and referrals you earn will make your profile look .ore genuine.
If you are reading this article, you might be interested in either how to build a cycle for an all-India cycle tour or even the luggage you need to carry for an all-India cycle tour. If you are interested in more such articles, head to the homepage and subscribe to the newsletters.
I will be providing more such tips and tricks to help travellers carry out their all-India cycle tour without much hustle.
I am a 31 year young PhD graduate who has decided to travel the length and breadth of India on my cycle, to document the journey of meeting a vast array of people. In my journey, I intend to understand the characteristic features of the people of this nation and categorize them based on their demographics, age, profession, gender, traditions, and cultural differences.