AUS CS Friendly Insurance Providers


 * Sorry, online miscommunication, I was in a hurry and missed out on the appropriate emoticon: ;) or :P to say I was joking/not serious about CS being a cult. I however wasn’t joking about neo-tribalism which is both positive and negative like most things in life – a balanced (which yes includes contradictory information) view is necessary

The linked page is satire. Further details are below if interested.

While I’ve now paid my insurance so personally it matters not to me on the bigger scale it does to CouchSurfing as a whole. How so? Some more points:


 * Suppose you’ve had 100 couchsurfer’s over the last year who have been all vouched at least 5 times and have 10s of positive references. A burglar comes in and steals something. Insurance company denies claim when they found out you’re a couchsurfer because you let stranger’s in the house. How would they find out though - isn't that a bit paranoid? Well if the sums of money are large enough then there are plenty of stories of companies searching social networks such as facebook. With the popularity of couchsurfing increasing there bound to find it evenutally and with entrepreneurs providing investigative services it becomes cheaper.

The above is a very hasty scenario which probably isn’t fully valid and over-cautious designed to spark further discussions. While it is sometimes true that bridges are best cross when you come to it perhaps like hash house harrier’s, a social running group, where trails are laid using talcum powder and there was an incident where the authorities thought it was terrorism. Perhaps an appropriate document could be made up for insurance companies to ensure they are fully informed that it’s not really risky if used properly.

Or like my original question which ones are already couchsurfer friendly?

The other point is that there are over 40,000 couchsurfers in Australia. Say 10% are active and local. That’s 4000 people. Now say 30% read this thread – that’s 1200 people. Now if 1200 times 500 average insurance that’s 600,000 which I suppose is relatively small in insurance stakes but still worth influencing. So write your opinion.

I am aware of the parallels between this and Managing risks in rock climbing - that is reduce the major risks first and then the minor risks last.