CouchSurfing Reviews

2.6

39% would recommend to a friend

(39 total reviews)

Patrick Dugan

38% approve of CEO

37% positive business outlook

CouchSurfing has an employee rating of 2.6 out of 5 stars, based on 39 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The CouchSurfing employee rating is 30% below average for employers within the Management and consulting industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

39 reviews
5.0
21 Oct 2025

A Fun, Mission-Driven Company

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Couchsurfing has a global team full of smart, genuinely nice people. Everyone I work with has always treated me with respect and kindness. Some of the older reviews were written during a time when the company was changing hands. I’m sorry some people left on bad terms, but those experiences do not reflect the company I've known for many years. This is actually a really cool place to work. Everyone here is genuinely focused on making the platform better. The community is passionate, the mission is unique, and it’s rewarding to know your work directly impacts people around the world.

Cons

It’s a small company, so we all wear a lot of hats. That can make things busy at times, and you need to be flexible with changing priorities. It can be stressful if you’re not self-motivated or used to managing multiple responsibilities. If you enjoy variety, being hands-on, and tackling multiple challenges, you will probably thrive here.

1.0
2 Dec 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

None. Just navigate on the couchsurfing website itself and you'll see it is dead

Cons

Just read all the reviews here. They are true. If you are still skeptical just make an account in the website, try to check forums and groups. There's no activity anymore. Search around the web you'll see the consensus is that it's a dead product. Why? Because it was never a product first of all. CEO bought the website, with a clear goal of making profit out of it but he failed to understand that the backbone of the website was never the money. It was its altruism. He is so blinded by greedy he can' even see he's trying to squeeze money out of a rock.

5.0
29 Jan 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Nothing gets more bad reviews than a clean sweep of a team of developers who are highly paid yet don't complete projects on time, take off work mid-week to pick up their new BMW despite a project that is trailing a month behind, and spend their time creating conspiracy theories about their boss. I'm confident the CEO has better things to do with his time than spy on us through our Nest cams, installed to provide safety for the employees -- considering we are located in the Mission District. Check out the website MissionLocal.org if you'd prefer to have the cameras removed. I have been at CouchSurfing over 2 years, and the management team has met my expectations for a small tech company. They aren't looking to micro-manage, and they want to see employees who can manage a lot of work and who aren't averse to self-directed learning. The management is willing to take risks based on the team's input, if the input is there. The CEO, Patrick, has plenty of experience working for successful tech companies. To the other reviewers' point that he has a finance background, I think they can understand that in this game, time is money and the management team would obviously expect those they compensate to keep that fact in the forefront of their project management. The recent series of reviews are too similarly written to be taken seriously. Show up for work with ingenuity and this is a great place to work. Working for CouchSurfing is a unique opportunity and it provides me with chances to advance my skillset.

Cons

If you want a job where you go to work and are handed a to-do list, this isn't the job for you. If you want your value as an employee to be determined exclusively by something other than the work you are paid to produce, then this isn't the place for you.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 39 Reviews

Glassdoor has 45 CouchSurfing reviews submitted anonymously by CouchSurfing employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if CouchSurfing is right for you.