CouchSurfing

In August, Patrizia (Pattrizia Schettino, USI PhD student) has been to Oslo for a summer school, did not check in to a hotel, she shared the apartment of an unknown person with two other girls, one German, one Russian, whom she never met before.

This is couch surfing. A network connecting people and places worldwide. Travelers members of the network draw their travel itineraries and ask for offers corresponding to the places they want to see. In some cases, the host is present in the house and might be also a guide and a friend for the traveler. In other cases, such as Patrizia's, one has a home at their disposal for a given period of time.

The homepage of CouchSurfing cites 345,558 couch surfers. And 458,730 positive experiences.