Balitang America Travels: Couchsurfing

If you are a traveler like me, making new friends from other cultures and experiencing new places from a local's perspective are two of the best things that can happen on a trip. In my "Travels" segment that aired April 6th on Balitang America, I talked about how to connect with people at your destination who share these views -- and you can do this before your trip instead of leaving it up to chance that you will randomly meet someone there.

There are many online communities whose mission is to help bring travelers and locals together. Locals can often help with things like logistics, recommend restaurants not found in the tourist guides, and sometimes they even like to take visitors around to the sights and hidden hot spots.

Websites like CouchSurfing.org, GlobalFreeloaders.com and HospitalityClub.org take this concept a step further by connecting travelers with hosts who are willing to let you crash at their pad for free on a couch or spare bed. As a guest, you are expected to be friendly, courteous and encouraged, but not required, to play host to them if they ever visit your area.

In my interview with Susanna Zaraysky, author of Travel Happy, Budget Low and a veteran couchsurfer, she explained how these websites have allowed travelers and hosts to make successful connections. All travelers and hosts create profiles (identities can be verified through an optional credit card transaction). Naturally, people seek out hosts with whom others have had good experiences with. Furthermore, hosts and surfers are free to turn down a connection request and are also encouraged to rate each other.

"Someone stays at your house and they're a good guest, then you write them a good recommendation," Susanna explained. "The same way if someone is a bad guest or host, you can give them a poor recommendation."

Susanna introduced me to a group of her friends whom she met through the CouchSurfing.org network. Hearing their tales about either hosting or surfing in places like Beijing, Berlin, Costa Rica, Chicago and Las Vegas, was fascinating. They all had good experiences and funny stories. So, I'm looking forward to giving couchsurfing a try on my next big trip!

Travels is a weekly TV segment written and produced by Christi Morales. It airs every Monday during Balitang America's (News in America) 5:30pm PST newcast on ABS-CBN Global's The Filipino Channel (TFC). Balitang America can also be seen on KTSF Channel 26 at 6:45pm PST in the San Francisco Bay Area.