Couchsurfing needs our help!

We love Couchsurfing, but are heartbroken in the absolute lack of communication and transparency that CS management has displayed over the last few years. More than 20 million loyal Couchsurfing members have been locked out of their profiles, pictures, memories and friendships until they pay an immediate forced "contribution." Is ransoming us any way to treat a loyal community filled with so many members who have already contributed much to this shared vision?

This petition has been created solely by members of our community, ambassadors, surfers and hosts that have welcomed 1000s of new friends into their homes. The creators and signatories of this petition have devoted 100,000s of hours to organize and build this community. We all have in common to have seen our lives positively impacted by the largest trust experiment to date, Couchsurfing. How have we come to the point where we're not even sure how true the things being communicated are? Do we even know who owns our "community" ?

We are concerned. Many members are using this social media only to host other people. Do you think these hosts will pay a fee in order to receive travelers at their home for free? What impact do you think this will have on the community in the long run? We suggest to remove this fee until a consensus is reached on a way to monetize the website.

But first and foremost, what our community wants is simple:

TRANSPARENCY

Transparency will help to re-build the TRUST between the Couchsurfing management and its community. The TRUST is at an all-time low, rivaling or exceeding the unexpected 2011 conversion from a non-profit Couchsurfing to a Couchsurfing officially becoming a for-profit corporation. Don't forget, Couchsurfing was not built just on investor funding, it was also built on the efforts of thousands of unpaid volunteers and donors. We haven't forgotten.

There's only one action that our community believes could restore our trust :
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The release of previous and current financial statements, ownership data, key community metrics, and guarantees to maintain this transparency in the future.
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We want these guarantees to be made personally by our CEO Patrick Thomas Dugan. Our best guess is that he (and friends?) quietly bought the company through a shady ‘boutique’ private equity firm named Valencia Street Capital in 2015. It's been now 5 years without any public appearance. Why weren’t we informed of the sale? We have a few questions for him. Therefore we dare to ask, could we have a public interview with the secretive CEO of our own community?

We want this platform to succeed. We want Couchsurfing employees to be paid. We want to support CS. We care about the community. If not, we would have left in 2011, right? But we have doubts. We don't trust you anymore. Listing all of your broken promises and half-truths would be an exhausting task. Is blaming the pandemic for your change of monetization strategy just another one? We need to be sure, and there's only one way, only one demand. We know more about any Wall Street company than we do about our own community.

Are you sure that you really hear us?

TRANSPARENCY.

If not, we will not hesitate to flock towards other hospitality platforms such as BeWelcome or Trustroots, and rebuild our community on a basis of trust.

Prove it. If you want us to TRUST you, and you want us to continue contributing to your community, we need to be able to trust you as much as we do trust the strangers that we welcome into our homes.

So right now my fellow Couchsurfers, we are not asking for you money, we are not asking for your couch, we are simply asking for you to collectively stand with us one more time and give us your signature on this petition. Individually we are insignificant to management; however, together we ARE Couchsurfing! One signature at a time.

#savecouchsurfing