If you love traveling and diving into the authentic atmosphere of specific country or place, there are a few sites that come handy.

Couch surfing
Rumor has it that this is the biggest website for couch exchange. People register for free at the website and share some information about their interests, things they like or dislike and what they can offer to the travelers. Members are not obliged to offer couch (accommodation), by selecting Maybe or Coffee you can tell the world that you can’t host someone at this moment but you are open to meet for a drink.

To me CS is the best place for travelers. Its navigation is clear and the sections are easy to access, each member has a page rich in information and even accompanied by dozens of pictures. The best features are the friends and Comments sections where you can read what people say about the person and who else know him/her.

You can contact someone even if you just need advice. My experience with the website has showed me that the community is friendly, reasonably safe and open-minded.

Site gadgets are supported by chat (not very full) and recently launched CSwiki.

Hospitality Club
Another big site for bed-exchange is www.hospitalityclub.org. It is quite similar to couch surfing but according to me, the navigation though it is more messy.

People share same basic information about themselves and their interests. Galleries are smaller, limited to only one member picture. That is important to me because I always care how somebody looks like. There is special section telling you when is the best time to contact the member or what tips s/he has for you.

HC is free but the account approval takes some time. Since it is voluntary based site, the approval period varies. When I registered there it took them about a week to process my registration and by that time I almost forgot them. In addition you can’t browse the pages if your username is not active.

However people there are fun. Better contact someone at least 7 days in advance.

Other places
There are many other websites offering almost the same functions. Global Freeloaders (www.globalfreeloaders.com) and Servas (www.servas.org) are some of them.

While Globalfreeloaders is quite easy to access, register and browse, Servas refines its members with special country interviews and certain rules.

What is your experience with these or similar sites?