The sentencing of a 10-year jail term for Abdelali Nachet, a Moroccan national convicted for raping and threatening to murder a Hong Kong resident in a British court brings fresh anxiety on whether perfect strangers should trust each other in the name of travel.

Nachet and the 29-year old woman met through the hospitality site CouchSurfing, a social platform established in 2004 where members offer couches, or their beds, to travelers for free. Previous to meeting Nachet at his pad at Leeds, England, the woman had already traveled in Europe and stayed in strangers’ places, arranged through CouchSurfing, with no incident.

After a drink in a local bar, prosecutor Simon Phillips reported that Nachet brought the woman back to his residence and raped her. The woman tried to escape but tripped in the hallway, with Nachet catching up with her, saying: “If you try to run away I will kill you and after that I will kill myself.”

Though no other case of similar scale had been reported in the past, questions arise on whether it is about time CouchSurfing should implement stricter precautionary measures to protect its members from crime or abuse. It also brings out the issue of whether it is okay to yield peace of mind and safety for free accommodation.

Safety

Since its inception, CouchSurfing has instituted measures to protect its “surfers, hosts, and community,” which are more strict compared to those of other social networking sites. Foremost is the network of users who vouch for each other through friend links, references and testimonials. “Essentially, it's a trust circle that has trickled down from member to member to help ensure the safety of the members,” says the Couchsurfing website.

Another is the “voluntary verification process” where a member can demonstrate the accuracy of his identity and address information by paying a minimal amount to the site. In this process, he needs to provide a credit card number from where the fee will be charged. CouchSurfing will then send a code to the billing address which the member will have to input.

CouchSurfing.org

A cursory research in the Internet shows that bloggers who have tried couchsurfing generally view their experience as positive. Marco Ferrarese in his website says: “The fact someone decided to create a container where the whole world might be considered as a ‘scene’ totally improved the way you can access travel. I’ve been staying with so many people, of both gender, and never experienced trouble, whatsoever.”

Writing for the Telegraph, Daniel Thomas—who “couchsurfed” in Paris, Germany, Hungary, Romania—gives the site a good feedback. “I have enjoyed the hospitality of total strangers without any serious setbacks, and learnt much along the way,” he says.

Why they won’t couchsurf

Not everyone is comfortable with the idea of sleeping in someone else’s couch or inviting a stranger, sometimes from another country, to stay in his place. Aside from the potential hazards to safety, a big issue for them concerns hygiene. “Not only are strangers best avoided at all costs but strangers from other countries may bring with them weevils or communicable diseases for which we have no cure,” says blogger of twentymajor.com.

Tom Casady, Chief of Police of Lincoln Nebraska, doesn’t see that the site automatically breeds crime, despite the fact that he was able to fish out felons offering their couches to travelers. “I found an interesting guy who specified in his profile ‘no cigarette smoking,’” he writes in his blog. “He's been arrested four times by my officers for smoking or possession of marijuana.”

In his search, he was able to locate a registered sex offender who was a CouchSurfing member. “This particular guy was convicted of a felony count of child enticement, when he tried to romance what he thought was a 13 year old girl, and arranged to meet her to consummate the relationship.”

Isolated incident

The case in Leeds, England is worrying but isolated. Emma Wight from the Yorkshire police said that Nachet “has preyed on the kindness and hospitality of those using the internet to meet new people and explore new places.”

CouchSurfing.org

Threats to the safety of travelers abound, whether they are couchsurfing or not. Based on this year’s records, 1.25 million stays have been organized since 2004. About 99.6 percent of users considered their experiences as positive. Latest statistics show that out of 2,554 real-life introductions in a given day, only two people viewed their experience as negative.

“Couchsurfing is a largely positive experience,” affirms Holly Edward writing for Sofia Echo. “The idea of offering hospitality to a stranger and expecting nothing in return is not a new one, but is certainly one which has fallen out of favour; couchsurfing seeks to reconnect people with the world around them.”