One, two of the six people currently registered on the site live in the locations they cite - they aren't travellers at all. Seems like that would undermine the USP of the site and confuse travellers. Looking at Paul's picture, his use of the wink emoji, and the fact he's bragging about his job (inadvertently or not), make it look like he's using the site to meet women. That could be a big problem.
Second and relatedly, you need to a way to stop abuse. Up-voting and moderation will be needed in some form. But also some basic safety guidelines, i.e., always meet in groups and in public places.
I agree on using the website to pickup girls is wrong ( and probably not effective ), but not being a traveler doesn't sounds bad, when I travel somewhere having a local show me the place would be nice, maybe just having a different profile for "locals" would help.
Agreed, my best airbnb hosts have been former couch-surfers who had traveled a lot but then settled down with a few spare bedrooms to offer up to the next generation of vagabonds.
I'll share my trick for young men on here now that I'm long retired from that dance, a women's expectations increase when she thinks you are hitting on her. Turning a friendly outing into a date if the chemistry lines up is easier than starting as a date from go. Women get approached by men from about 13 onward and you have to be careful to not trip their masterful bs detectors, fastest way to do that is to not be a bullshitter in the first place but I think most young men don't have the self esteem to do that.
To be fair, the whole hookup thing hasn’t worked too badly for couchsurfing. Perhaps it’s just inevitable that people will use these sites to get laid?
People have been using social things to get laid since the beginning of humanity. Nothing wrong with that. But a site full of low quality thirsty profiles isn't going to appeal to a large group of people.
Couchsurfing went from being widely used and respected by travellers everywhere to being almost completely dead and forgotten. How did anything work out well for that site?
Have a checkmark indicating whether interested in romantic relationships.
Suggest tourists have touristy photos: the photos already on this site are endearingly adventuresome.
Indicate preferred languages.
I like the meetup interests idea.
Confession: I come from a large enough extended family that I usually already know people in the cities I visit.
One, two of the six people currently registered on the site live in the locations they cite - they aren't travellers at all. Seems like that would undermine the USP of the site and confuse travellers. Looking at Paul's picture, his use of the wink emoji, and the fact he's bragging about his job (inadvertently or not), make it look like he's using the site to meet women. That could be a big problem.
Second and relatedly, you need to a way to stop abuse. Up-voting and moderation will be needed in some form. But also some basic safety guidelines, i.e., always meet in groups and in public places.