Man allegedly rapes woman after meeting on CouchSurfing.com

Does your renter's or homeowner's insurance cover rental activity?

The CS community is pretty big, and according to the stats page (http://www.couchsurfing.org/statistics.html), there have been over 1.3 million positive traveling experiences. Your argument seems to be projecting one negative anecdote against that entire dataset. Criminality rates in pretty much any city are far beyond 1/1.3M, so do you also feel we should restrain from all social contact?

If anything, i actually see CS in general as a perfect example that generalized fears of insecurity are typically misplaced, and that while it's useful to take precautions, you are only really punishing yourself by not being more open to all the different cultures and perspectives available for free at your doorstep.

I can't anymore, because my apartment is too small, but this time last year, I lived in a house with 4 other couchsurfers. We hosted people ALL THE TIME. I think over the 4 months that we hosted, we hosted 40 or so people. One weekend we hosted TWELVE people at once (there was an event on). Personally, I've NEVER had any problems and don't personally know anyone whos ever had problems. By now, I've met HUNDREDS of couchsurfers and have never heard of any personal bad experiences. Since we were all working too, often we weren't even at home. Often we gave people a key and let them come and go as they pleased and then hung out with them in the evenings. Not once did this cause problems. Never had anything stolen or broken, never had issues with privacy either (generally, people are quite considerate, if you want time alone).

Of course, I DONT have tens of thousands of dollars of tools and I don't have any firearms (besides airsoft guns) and I rarely have more than €100 in cash at home. I DO have computers though and laptops. I imagine the laptops would be the biggest target. But.. if I worry about something valuable, I lock it away.

Obviously there are risks and if you host someone or surf someone else's couch, you must be aware of the risks. Personally, I'm willing to take that risk - for me, the benefits are worth it. I've made tons of friends through couchsurfing and I find couchsurfers to be generally more open minded than others. I guess you have to be to share your home with strangers.

Couchsurfing is also not actually about free accommodation either. Its about a cultural exchange. About meeting people, making friends, learning something new. In this respect, I have found it to work exceptionally well.

Its sad when you hear of stories like this, though. It reminds you that there are bad people out there - and a site with as many members as couchsurfing is obviously going to have a few of these. I certainly hope theres not many, but I guess you never know for sure. I guess you need to be careful...

When you look for a host, you would normally read their profile and look a their pictures to try and get an idea on the kind of person they may be. You check if they're verified and how many people vouched for them. Low numbers and not being verified may be enough reason to choose someone else, especially if traveling alone, though personally, everyone has to start somewhere, so if Im in a group, I don't care so much. People can meet couchsurfers for drinks or at events anyway as a way to "break in". Finally, I'd check the comments people left. Most people who read comments take negative comments pretty seriously, though obviously some people don't bother.

Over all, I think this works pretty well. The biggest danger would be to people who are using couchsurfing purely to get free accommodation, since they're unlikely to put as much effort into checking people out beforehand. Personally, I don't bother, unless I'm being hosted or they're hosting me - if its for a meeting or a drink, then I'll see what they're like when I meet them.

Obviously this system leaves plenty of room for problems.. Sadly its not too hard to misrepresent yourself. It seems extremely rare though, luckily.

Personally, I've never had ANY problems of any kind and ave not met any couchsurfers who have had any either. It does work - usually.

There are two possible angles to their motivation to mention this:

- this happened in Britain, but it involved two foreigners, it has nothing to do with 'us'

- Moroccans are all the same, here is the proof

It is interesting to note that some newspapers carefully elided this fact but published the rest of the story unchanged.

Whether or not he is muslim is cause for debate, nowhere does it say so. But hey, when you're inciting racial hatred facts are just so inconvenient.