From accommadition facilities into shared residences and tourists into guests: The case of CouchSurfing

In today's world, the intensity and diversity of information and communication technologies before, during and after travel has increased. This creates alternatives for the supply of goods and services and information flow, provided by the stakeholders of the modern tourism industry. Hospitality industry is one of the stakeholders created alternatives by individuals, adopting the sharing economy. Within the scope of the study, CouchSurfing, one of the platforms that constitute the accommodation supply of postmodern tourism activities, has been concentrated. In this context, the general characteristics of the platform users, host, surfer and other experiences (meetings, hangouts and exchange of information and experience) were questioned. In accordance with these inquiries, a qualitative research process was followed and in-depth interviews were conducted with eight participants by taking into consideration the three up-criteria (age, gender and reference) and three sub-criteria (host, surfer and personal references). The data were interpreted by descriptive analysis. In conclusion, it was determined that participants used the platform to cultural, economic, personal motivations and to escape from traditional tourist images. Reference, profile layout and the content of the sharing request were essential for choosing the surfer while reference, age, common interests and location of the house for determining the host. First-hand advice and tips about living spaces and surroundings, and guidance were provided by the hosts. In this way, the relations between peers came out of the host-guest context and became permanent. The use of the platform in personal travels brought the participants to feel free and creative and to get more pleasure from their travels. Moreoever the travel habits of the participants changed, travel frequencies increased, and the travel times prolonged