---
title: "How much to charge or pay for couch surfing?"
url: https://perrotta.dev/2025/02/how-much-to-charge-or-pay-for-couch-surfing/
last_updated: 2025-09-05
---


First of all, you should _arguably_ not charge:

- good or close friends
- apartment swapping[^1]
- reciprocal couch surfing

If you determine that charging is appropriate, even if only symbolically,
[Splitwise](https://splitwise.com) has a ["Guest
Calculator"](https://secure.splitwise.com/calculators/guest):

- What is the rent for your apartment?
- How often do you pay rent? (weekly / fortnightly / monthly)
- How many people normally live in the apartment?
- How many nights is the guest staying?

Example simulation:

- $1000 / month
- 1 person
- 4 nights

...yields ~$53. Splitwise
[suggests](https://blog.splitwise.com/2011/08/25/how-much-to-charge-a-couch-crasher/)
a gift instead of a cash payment.

> The standards of courtesy and hospitality vary wildly from subculture to
> subculture, locale to locale, person to person. What you offer your friends is
> your own business, but in this article we use survey data to explore what
> baseline you ought to expect as a guest or host
>
> [...]
>
> Most people feel that letting someone crash on a couch for a few nights lies
> well within the boundaries of good old fashioned hospitality. After that,
> things get less clear.
>
> [...]
>
> After five nights, 45 percent would already be expecting some form of payment,
> so to be safe, you may want to offer sooner if you are the guest

[^1]: Unless, perhaps, if they are significantly different.