SOFA SURFING: Hi, we just thought we'd drop by and sleep on your couch.Well, I'll have to check to see if the couch is free. You're not the only ones looking for a cheap crash pad. It seems there is a growing band of professionals who are eschewing expensive hotels and pricey pied-à-terres and opting instead to rent out somebody's sofa for the night.
What, you mean someone else has already thought of it? I thought we were the first to come up with the idea for this money-saving sleepover.Sofa surfing is the latest craze among hard-pressed commuters and people making business trips. With the expense accounts drying up, businesspeople have to look at ways of cutting travel costs, and what better way to save money than by sleeping on someone's couch for a fraction of the cost of a night's stay at a hotel?
What sort of people would want to sleep on someone else's skangy old sofa?According to the Telegraph, many professionals, weary of the constant commute to London, are turning to such websites as crashpadder.com to help them find a cheap place to lay their head during the working week. During the boom times, these professionals could afford to stay in a nice boutique hotel in South Ken, own a little pied-à-terre in Mayfair, or rent an apartment in Chiswick, These days, however, they'd be lucky to be able to afford a bed in the local YMCA, so they're turning to a new and fresh source of accommodation – the many people living in London who don't mind letting out their spare room to a needy businessperson.
How does it work?When you sign up to crashpadder.com, you will find a list of available spare rooms in the area close to your workplace. Students and budget travellers have long known about the joys of sofa surfing – it's cheap, convenient and a chance to meet interesting people – but now everybody's getting on the bandwagon. And more homeowners are seeing the advantage of turning the spare bed or sofa into extra cash. Crashpadder.com has places available all over the world, from Dublin to Dubai, so if it's a nice luxury spare room you want or just an airbed under the stairs, there's a crashpad to suit you.
Well, that sounds great. By the way, I like my eggs over easy and my toast done on one side.Whoa, steady on. Just because they're letting you sleep on the couch doesn't mean you rule the roost. There is an etiquette to crashing on people's couches, so don't go swanning in there like you're staying at the Ritz-Carlton. You should bring a small gift to your hosts such as a bottle of wine – after all, you're a guest at their home. You should mind your manners while you're there and make sure to tidy up after yourself. Don't sit up all night blasting their stereo and playing with their Nintendo Wii, don't scoff all the food in their fridge or use up all their hot water, and don't make a pass at your host's wife or teenage daughter.
How can people be sure they're not ending up with a complete psycho on their sofa?When you get a request to stay on your sofa, you'll get a link to that person's picture and profile, so you can check whether they're the sort of people you'd have on your nice Natuzzi couch or the kind of people you wouldn't even let sleep in the dog-basket. If you have any doubts about the person, you're under no obligation to take them in. However, with more and more professionals and older people ("silver sofa surfers") joining the site, the chances are your guests won't give you too much cause for complaint.
Try at work:The place was a bit shabby, but I found €30 in change behind the sofa.
Try at home:I got the house and my ex-husband now rents the couch off me – what a result.
