CouchSurfing Zones

Hello and welcome to CouchSurfing Zones

Project announcements

Want to establish a CouchSurfing Zone? Please contact B.!

A working group has been set up. Contact B. if you want to know more about the project or would like to be involved in some way.

Developments are on the way!

Please note that the description below of CS Zone profiles (and how to set them up) is temporary only. We are currently working on a special type of profile for CS Zones. It will "look" like a profile but "feel" a little like a group. Once the profile type is online, we will be shifting all current CS Zones to the new profile type, debugging - and once we do that, project launch will not be far off!

Other ideas

The project might expand to include a more general approach to CS places. Stay tuned...

CouchSurfing Zone locations

- Australia

• Perth, WA
• Melbourne, Vic

- Ecuador

• Guayaquil

- Hungary

• Budapest

- The Netherlands

• Amsterdam (Am*dam Meetup Team)

- Portugal

• Porto

- Thailand

• Pai

- UK

• Oxford

- USA

• New York City, NY
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

What is a CouchSurfing Zone?

The basic idea of a CouchSurfing Zone is anywhere where it is possible for CSers to meet and hang out. Most of the time, this will probably be a cafe, bar or restaurant - but there's no reason somewhere quite different can't be a CouchSurfing Zone!

At the most informal level, a CouchSurfing Zone is simply a place which might be used for CS meet-ups, with maybe a usual corner or specific table that you can aim to meet in.

For those CouchSurfing Zones which are slightly more organised you will most likely also find the address of the CouchSurfing Zone of the city/town you are visiting on the City Ambassadors' profiles as well as in the City Wikis. You can also take a look at the list of CouchSurfing Zones at the top of this Wiki.

Irrespective of whether the CouchSurfing Zone is formal or informal, if there are regular meeting times (eg 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of each month between 6pm and 9pm), these will be posted as well, so any travellers or new CSers know they can just show up and be welcome.

When you arrive at the venue, look for the CouchSurfing sign displayed at the meet-ups. It might be on a wall or just folded over like a Reserved sign on a table making it easy for newbies and travellers to spot the group.

How to find a CouchSurfing Zone

You have arrived at the CouchSurfing Zone Wiki page most likely through curiously trawling the CS Wiki. Hopefully some of you have have been redirected from Ambassador pages and City Wiki pages as well.

The ideal way to search for a CouchSurfing Zone however is to use the CouchSearch! tool in Advanced mode and type CouchSurfing Zone in the "name" field. NB: This is a temporary solution, and we hope to be able to allow you to simply refine your search to search CouchSurfing Zones only based on a category, regardless of the name on the profile! You will then be able to see all the CouchSurfing Zones in the CS Project. The "profile" information of these CouchSurfing Zones is maintained by the CouchSurfing Zone Manager so the dates, times, places and venue info should be fairly trustworthy. Keep in mind you can always use the email tool to contact the CouchSurfing Zone Manager to confirm.

Setting up a CouchSurfing Zone

Important note for CS Zone Managers: please note that your CS Zone should not be a member of any groups, should not have any friend links and should not leave any references. Rather, it should be made clear IN TEXT that you are the CS Zone Manager (there should also be a link to your profile), and you can link to the CS Zone from your own profile. You can also include a link to the relevant city group (or any other relevant groups) from the CS Zone profile, and arrange for links to the CS Zone profile in the group "details" section. This is a temporary measure - when the new CS Zone profile type is created, there will be automatic ways to show the connections between the CS Zone profile and your profile and between the CS Zone profile and the relevant groups.

Communicate with the owner or manager of your intended CouchSurfing Zone so that CS info and/or city info can be left in a specific place; it is probably even worth asking for discounts during regular meeting times.

To determine the venue it would be best to have a collective input by other Ambassadors in that city so that there is accord on the location and meeting times. It is critical that when a CouchSurfing Zone is started someone is allocated the task of creating the CouchSurfing Zone Profile and, once created, placing a link to it here on the CouchSurfing Zone Wiki (in the list of CouchSurfing Zones above] [Note that the password for this profile should then be made available to the other CouchSurfing Zone Managers (in case you get hit by a bus or mad yak). A street-level photo of the venue is a good idea.

In setting up a CouchSurfing Zone profile keep in mind that a wealth of local info can also be added so that someone coming to your City/town for the fist time might be able to use the CouchSurfing Zone profile as a one stop shop that will help with alternate accommodations, local cheap eateries, public transport tips and tricks or even the location of the best places to hitchhike out of town.

To start a new CouchSurfing Zone Profile:

• Username = couchsurfingzoneyourcity

NB: it is important that the username is ALL lowercase and ALL one word, as this will allow a simple URL as well as the encoded URL, ie www.couchsurfing.com/people/couchsurfingzoneyourcity

• First Name = CouchSurfing Zone
• Last Name = yourcity
• email address = CouchSurfing Zones need their own unique email addresses so create one in gmail or yahoo
• password = (whatever) (make sure you tell the other Managers in your group this password)
• gender = several people

....then complete the application with your language and location details - it is that easy !

As you begin to complete your profile you could:

• under General: add to the Website url the address of this Wiki page being /wiki/CouchSurfing_Zones
• under Location: add the address of the venue
• under Languages: the known languages of local members

A couple of other things you can do once the profile has been set up:

• Make a CouchSurfing Zone business card
• Print a CouchSurfing Zone sticker to put in the venue's window

Once the venue is selected CS city members are encouraged to hang out in CouchSurfing Zones from time to time so that if any travellers or newbies (or simply interested people ;) ) turn up, there's a "human face" of CS right there!

As a traveller, when I know I am going to city X, I can search for CouchSurfing Zones in city X, and wander along to see if I bump into any CSers, or even just pick up some interesting info. You could also promote the CouchSurfing Zone elsewhere using CS Posters or the CS Zone sticker.

Keep in mind that these are rough guidelines only and CSers are encouraged to do whatever they choose to if they wish to establish CouchSurfing Zones of their own, with or without profiles and with or without links (or info) being displayed of your venue on this page.

An Important Note: Should you create a CouchSurfing Zone profile and find that, for one reason or another, that you need to abandon the CouchSurfing Zone later on, please remove the CouchSurfing Zone Profile from the CouchSurfing site and remove the link to your now defunct CouchSurfing Zone from the list above.

Please give us feedback! If you set up a CouchSurfing Zone, please contact us and let us know what you did, how it worked, how popular it is, anything else you think might be helpful. Particularly, please let us know if there was anything you think we should be telling other people who want to set up a CouchSurfing Zone. Of course, we would love it even more if you joined the working group, but even if you don't want to do this, we really need the feedback!

Either come and post in the working group (once we set it up!), edit this wiki, or just email B. or another member of the team.

The CouchSurfing Zone Team