CouchSurfing is a hospitality exchange service by which users can request free short-term homestays or interact with other people who are interested in travel.

It uses a subscription business model, and while hosts are not allowed to charge for lodging, members in some countries must pay a fee to access the platform.

[9] Collectives took place in Montreal, Vienna, New Zealand, Rotterdam, Costa Rica, Samara, Alaska, Istanbul, and Thailand.

[7] In August 2011, a private for-profit Delaware C corporation, also called Couchsurfing International, Inc., which was formed on 3 May 2011,[4][16][17] raised $7.6 million in a first-round financing led by Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network and acquired the assets of the New Hampshire company.

[26] Tony Espinoza, previously vice president and general manager of social-network games at MTV, was CEO from April 2012 to October 2013.

[7][19] Under his leadership, driven by an aggressive advertising campaign, membership doubled; however, new users were less interested in hosting other travelers and in the "pay it forward" spirit of other members.

[7] Casey Fenton was removed from the board of directors due to differences with management and has since no longer been involved in the day-to-day operations of the company.

[31] In May 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the company switched to a subscription business model requiring users in some countries to pay a fee to access the platform.