Toward Sustainable Couchsurfing: A Comparative Study on Hosting Motives and Behaviors between the USA and China

Abstract

Couchsurfing has become a global phenomenon, and its sustainable development highly depends on hosts and their behavioral choice. However, there was seldom discussion on hosts’ motives and behaviors. This study aimed to identify the dimensions of motives and behaviors among CS hosts and explored the cultural differences between the US and Chinese hosts from the perspective of altruism. A total of 462 questionnaires (246 Americans and 216 Chinese) were collected from multiple sources. The findings reveal that CS hosts have definite altruistic motivations, namely relaxation and pleasure, socialization, knowledge enhancement, and escape, which are reflected in behaviors through hospitality, close interaction, daily life involvement, and trust establishment. CS should be a win-win situation both to the hosts and surfers in a nonmonetary way. Hosts are heterogeneous groups with significant cross-cultural differences between the US and Chinese samples.

1. Introduction

Sharing a home with a guest has become a global phenomenon and receives more attention these past few years mainly because of Airbnb and Uber in the name of sharing economy. Compared with Airbnb and Uber, which still charge the guest a fee [1,2], Couchsurfing (CS) is really sharing without fee. CS hosts provide tourists with the opportunities of free accommodations while traveling, interaction with local people, exchanging of information, and carrying out of cross-cultural communication [3]. Technological innovations facilitated it via an online platform that is much more convenient and promotes CS, which has rapidly spread from America to emerging countries such as China. Couchsurfing.com (accessed on 10 October 2022), firstly launched in America, is now the biggest platform in the world and claims that, in 2021, it has reached 14 million members in 200,000 cities across the world who offer free accommodation. In China, some tourism online platforms have also imitated Couchsurfing.com (accessed on 10 October 2022) to offer free accommodations services, such as Ascnsfk, Douban, Zhihu, Baidu Tieba, and Qyer.

The rapid development of CS has received academic attention in the past decade [4,5,6,7,8,9,10], but the sustainable development of CS is still uncertain. The key question is that, why do people allow strangers to sleep in their home for free in way of CS? A common but equivocal explanation in early studies is that hosting is likely a way to seek socio-emotional satisfaction [8,10,11]. Some studies even proposed that the hosts and surfers of CS may have similar needs and motivations [10,12]. In any case, there is no doubt that these selfless motive and behavior of CS hosts that benefit third parties’ welfare are a typical altruism [13,14], and even a spontaneous altruism without the logic of hedonic pleasure [15]. A number of studies have already explored the concept of altruism in tourism, normally focusing on volunteer tourists [16], but no study has yet endeavored to connect altruistic motives and behaviors with the hosts.

Altruism was first defined as a motivational state with the ultimate goal of increasing another’s welfare [17]. Now in general usage, more studies encompass both motivation and behavior together to define altruism [18]. The motives and behaviors of surfers were already widely detected and examined, including cost-saving, social interactions [19,20,21,22,23], living as a local to experience life authenticity [24], and even giving back to the local economy [25]. These motives can be classified into utilitarian, hedonic, and social or symbolic [4] and explained as self-development and/or self-renewal [26,27]. Surfers’ motives were not altruistic, but hosts’ motives and behaviors were. The needs of surfers were satisfied by hosts through collaborative tourism experiences [4], but what kind of experience did the host pursue? In fact, the cost of CS hosting is high not only because of a free couch or bed but also because the hosts have to spend their time to receive and accompany the surfers and even share their relatives and friends for a good hosting. The limited current research on CS hosts suggested that there is some difference on motive and behavior across countries. For example, for an American host, social interaction was the key feature of, and reason for, hosting surfers, which creates opportunities for sociable encounters with visitors from across the world [28]. For a Chinese host, making new foreign friends and learning from them and just offering help were detected as the main motives [5]. These early qualitative and exploratory studies above cannot precisely examine the motives and behaviors of CS hosts nor show the difference across countries.

To bridge this research gap, this study conducted an empirical analysis to uncover altruistic motives and behaviors of CS hosts. Specifically, this research focused on two questions: (1) What are the specific motives and behaviors of the CS host? (2) What are the cultural differences on altruism in CS hosting, if any, between Chinese and American hosts? The existing research has overly concerned on the demand side of couch surfers. In fact, the supply side of hosts is quite important for the sustainability of CS and authentic experience provision.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Motives and Behaviors Underlying CS Hosting

The motives of surfers participating in CS have been widely discussed, including cost-saving [19,22,23], appealing social interactions [19,22,23], appealing life- and travel style [19], meeting people [20,21], bonding and social relations [20], and interactions with locals [23]. These motives of couch surfers were believed to be the same as those of Airbnb users [21] and backpackers [29] and can be classified into utilitarian, hedonic, and social or symbolic [4]. These motives and behaviors of surfers were generally explained as self-development, self-enhancement, and/or self-renewal [26,27,29].

Although some studies proposed that the hosts and surfers of CS may have some similar needs [10,12], CS hosts have been hosting without fee and any expected favors in return. Hosts for different rewards will exhibit some kinds of motives and behaviors. Why did they not charge the foreigner a fee? Only a few studies were placed on CS hosting. Duan et al. identified three CS hosts’ motives of meeting and learning from new foreign friends and just offering help [30]. Some studies on P2P will give us enlightenment. Karlsson and Dolnicar identified three motivations of hosts in P2P accommodation, including income, social interactions, and sharing; income is still the main motivation [7]. For nonmonetary motives, some P2P exchange platforms can motivate participation by allowing individuals to monetize their resources, including possessions, skills, and time, and do not rely on money as a primary motivation [28]. However, such an exchange system was less used in CS. Community and reciprocity are still important motives for hosting [31]. This reciprocity in CS hosting was simply considered as building strong personal relationships in an early study [10]. Cheshire and Lampinen argued that CS and Airbnb hosts emphasized more on intrinsic motives such as sense of achievement, social benefits of interacting with guests, commitments associated with one’s identity, and even the gratification of being “a good host” [28]. Therefore, these noneconomic motives seem to be the key for CS hosting.

Research from the perspective of hosts is lacking. These above studies provide some valuable insights into why people host strangers, but they may also suffer from limitations. A few exploratory studies cannot provide us an overview of CS hosts. Some motives identified in these studies are nonspecific. Therefore, a systematic study should be conducted by considering a broad range of motives and behaviors by specifically focusing on CS hosts.

2.2. Altruism of CS Hosting Motives and Behaviors

Altruism is a motivational state with the ultimate goal of increasing another’s welfare [32], and altruistic behavior is thus defined as acts of cognitive or physical helping and sharing that occur outside the bounds of role relationships [33]. Hereby, the selfless motive and behavior of CS hosts that benefit third parties’ welfare is a typical altruism [13,14], which is the unique appeal of CS hosts, distinguished from Airbnb and any other P2P hosts. The benefits of hosting seem to be tiny. Arnould and Rose believed CS hosting as spontaneous altruism even without the logic of hedonic pleasure [15]. Some people who frequently travelled abroad may have more altruistic motives to host foreigners at their home [34]. A number of studies have already explored the concept of altruism in tourism, normally focusing on volunteer tourists [16], but no study has yet endeavored to connect altruistic motives and behaviors with the hosts.

Altruism comprises a multifarious and multidimensional concept, including true altruism [35] and reciprocal altruism [36]. True altruism is a selfless behavior that benefits the welfare of others without any expected favors in return [13]. Reciprocal altruism is a form of symbiosis where actors help one another so that both ultimately benefit [37]. Existing literature on sharing assumed that sharing happens without the involvement of reciprocity [38]; however, we can easily find many indicators that point to the existence of reciprocal claims by CS hosts. For example, the host may want surfers to share their travel experience and life stories, help to do household duties, take care of their pet or child, cook food for the host, and so on [4,7,30]. The surfers were also willing to give something in return to the hosts for the wonderful experience [4]. This reciprocity is usually not an expression of direct or tit-for-tat reciprocity [39] but in a nonmonetary approach according to our investigation. Therefore, self-centered and other related purposes are almost integrated in Couchsurfing [38]. Altruistic hosting includes an aspect of self-interest. For a holistic understanding of the motives and behaviors of CS hosts, we should carefully examine the interaction and hosting process of CS in binary thinking of self vs. others.

Altruism also means a broad family of motives that drive people to help others [14]. Paraskevaidis and Andriotis classified altruistic motivations into three groups: place attachment, self-development motives, and collective benefits [16]. Bucher, Fieseler, and Lutz identified three motives, namely monetary, moral, and social-hedonic motives, in P2P hosting [40]. These early studies argued that CS hosting is believed to be a purposeful behavior even if there is no obvious benefit for the hosts; it may satisfy curiosity, meet religious faith, or build up reputation, which can also be welfare themselves.

However, the specific altruistic motives and behaviors of hosts in hosting are still unclear; some early discussions will give us enlightenment. Some interviews with CS hosts already showed that the sense is lost when the surfer just wants a free bed and has no time to interact with the host. When the hosts are unable to dedicate time to their surfers, CS does not seem to work as an altruism [34]. Therefore, socialization in CS seems to be an inevitable motive of hosts, and the devotion of time, private space, and social relations of hosts in hosting is seen to be obligatory. A more pure and close relation between the host and surfer is also easy to achieve in altruistic hosting. The nonmonetary nature of hosting in CS means that surfers may have less or even no expectations and are less willing to ask for things if the expectations are not met. The hosts have less legal obligations for surfers, and the surfers were to act less as customers such as in Airbnb [28]; instead, they try to build a more private and close relationship, which will contribute to a special experience. These above studies indicated the diversity and complexity of altruistic motives and behaviors in CS hosting. A more precise and quantitative study should be conducted to identify them.

2.3. Altruistic Hosting in Cross-Cultural Contexts

CS always happens in a cross-cultural setting where the interaction refers to the direct, face-to-face encounters between hosts and surfers who are from different cultural groups, speak different languages, and have different values and perceptions of the world [41]. This kind of direct interaction allows travelers to connect with local communities [42] and engage in cross-cultural communication through mutual dialogue between hosts and surfers [2]. Besides the cross-cultural features between hosts and guests, the cultural differences among hosts from different countries should also be underscored. This host–guest interaction will vary based on culture because different cultural groups hold different values [43,44]. These differences will be reflected in motives and behaviors [45] and cross-cultural differences of altruism.

Contemporary cross-cultural studies on altruism were always put into the comparison frameworks of collectivist and individualist cultures, cultural simplicity and complexity, cultural tightness and looseness, and vertical and cultures [18]. The different kinds of collectivism and individualism result in four kinds of societies: VC (vertical collectivist), HC (horizontal collectivist), VI (vertical individualist), and HI (horizontal individualist) [46]. The VC pattern is found in most traditional societies, such as China, where the major value is conformity to the authorities, whereas the VI pattern is found in Western Europe and America, where achievement and competition are the important values. Some pieces of evidence showed that people are more likely to help an in-group than an out-group member, especially in VC culture such as China, whereas people might be more willing to help a foreign stranger than a fellow in VI culture such as America [18]. The Japanese in VI culture hesitates to help a stranger more than do Americans. These above imply that Americans are more willing to host a surfer for free than Chinese.

For some culture, altruism is a moral obligation and not a personal choice. Indian people often feel greater obligations about helping than Americans do, whereas Americans consider reciprocal helping as a personal choice and has underlying motives. Americans regard friendship as having the ability to be superficial and without obligation, whereas Chinese understand friendship in terms of mutual obligations and reciprocation [47]. Collectivist cultures are often based on more fully articulated systems of social obligations to others compared with more individualist cultures [48]. Individualist cultures emphasize autonomy and personal choice and place higher priority on the needs and concerns of the self over those of the group than collectivist cultures do [49]. These cultural differences may drive altruistic behaviors. Do these above mean that American’s altruistic hosting may have more and definite motives? For Chinese hosts, except obligation, individual face is an important concern. Although on the surface many exchanges between people appear to be altruistic, they may be motivated and explained by face relations [50]. Chinese altruism was more of a self-fulfilling act than a social act, with very little familial or social recognition being accorded in the public world. Therefore, are there any special altruistic motives for Chinese hosts in CS? Moreover, in the evolutionary perspective, globalization tends to shift cultures from VC to HI [18]. Would more interactions between different cultures lead to a relatively uniform convergence on altruism, especially for CS?

3. Methodology

3.1. Measurement

The scale was integrated based on previous studies on hosts and host–guest relationships [9,51,52,53,54,55], as well as on participant observations and initial interviews with CS host members on the Internet. Specifically, the initial scale includes two parts: motivation (19 items) and behavior (18 items). The combined scales of Hsu et al. and Jang, Bai, Hu, and Wu on motivation [51,52], and the scale of Reisinger and Turner on interaction behavior were adopted [54]. Since the primary scale was firstly developed offline, a group was established with 17 hosts to examine the applicability of the measurement to CS.

The primary scale was sent to these 17 couch hosts from CS (6), Ascnsfk (1), Douban (4), Zhihu (1), Sina weibo (2), and friends (3). Each was required to highlight the frequent items of their own hosting. The questionnaire design applied translation and back-translation procedures [56]. After independent translation of the English instruments into Chinese by two translators, a panel discussion among four native Chinese speakers was launched to discuss and revise the differences between the two versions of translations. A third person was asked to translate the Chinese survey back into English to ensure the semantic equivalence. Based on the comments and suggestions of these respondents, some items were deleted (such as shopping-related and natural-environment-related motivation items, and behavior items of interaction [54] such as rules of interaction and forms of interaction) in order to make it more in line with the context of both the US and China. Some retained items were combined and improved for clarity and comprehension, such as “should express my emotion (opinion, intention, criticism or compliment) directly”, “should meet and share my friends”, and “share meals and play sport together”. The questionnaire consisted of two parts. In part one, the initial scale of motivation and behavior (

Table 1. Descriptive statistics of initial items.

Initial Items	China (n = 216)		USA (n = 246)		t
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
Motivation (19 items)
I like to learn about foreign culture	4.51	0.771	4.75	0.526	−3.822 ***
I like to broaden my views	4.50	0.795	3.72	0.51	12.438 ***
I like to host like-minded friends	4.48	0.812	4.34	0.897	1.702 *
I like to learn about the trips of couch surfer	4.32	0.947	4.45	0.774	−1.573
I like to meet new people through hosting	4.25	0.918	4.61	0.628	−4.733 ***
I want to enrich my experience of life	4.22	1.018	4.56	0.653	−4.249 ***
I have dreams about hosting people from all over the world	4.13	1.109	4.51	0.916	−4.010 ***
I gain great pleasure from hosting	3.94	1.094	4.33	0.756	−4.400 ***
I want to satisfy my curiosity	3.92	1.122	4.06	0.937	−1.447
I want to discover new sides of myself through couch hosting	3.54	1.216	3.83	1.027	−2.809 ***
I want to experience the joy of relaxation	3.46	1.257	3.50	1.228	−0.285
I want to be excited	3.28	1.203	3.89	1.028	−5.861 ***
I think entertainment in hosting is very important	3.09	1.238	3.45	1.155	−3.262 ***
I want to enjoy exotic food by hosting couch surfers	3.05	1.269	2.72	1.125	3.012 ***
I think hedonic aspects in hosting is very important	3.04	1.25	2.87	1.197	1.431
I want to escape the routine of my life	2.91	1.381	3.44	1.292	−4.306 ***
I want to relieve the pressure of my life	2.90	1.324	2.72	1.271	1.55
I want to ease my feelings of loneliness	2.62	1.338	2.37	1.273	2.060 **
I like to feel privileged through hosting foreign couch surfers	2.42	1.295	3.39	1.263	−8.132 ***
Behavior (18 items)
I acquire surfers’ information on network platform to establish trust	4.01	0.93	4.25	0.793	−2.978 ***
I treat them as friends but not guest	4.00	0.979	3.98	0.908	0.278
I invite couch surfers join my daily activities such as dining and playing sport together	3.96	0.997	4.04	0.875	−0.892
I make them feel as safe as that at home	3.91	0.968	3.50	0.631	5.393 ***
I make more online communication before CS	3.84	1.046	3.20	1.221	6.056 ***
I give adequate explanations of destinations to couch surfers	3.72	0.978	3.70	0.969	0.248
I build trust with couch surfers before CS	3.71	1.04	3.14	1.136	5.559 ***
We keep in touch after couch surfers leave	3.7	1.028	3.71	0.97	−0.083
I let couch surfers to meet my friends	3.68	1.179	4.17	0.975	−4.830 ***
I anticipate tourists’ needs before they arrive	3.63	1.017	3.37	1.087	2.641 ***
I invite couch surfers to join my family’s and friends’ parties	3.53	1.246	4.17	0.979	−6.107 ***
We express our emotion (opinion, intention, criticism or compliment) directly	3.50	1.016	3.45	0.714	0.533
I offer individualized attention to couch surfers	3.47	1.02	3.64	1.055	−1.713 *
I develop close relationship with couch surfers	3.44	0.996	3.74	0.928	−3.396 ***
I exchange gifts with couch surfers	3.16	1.172	2.34	1.094	7.779 ***
We address each other respectfully	2.97	1.091	4.59	0.687	−18.767 ***
Couch surfers should share the household duties	2.96	1.084	2.13	1.088	8.181 ***
We talk about private topics	2.92	1.112	4.05	0.829	−12.264 ***

Note: *** indicates significance at 0.01 level, ** indicates significance at 0.05 level, and * indicates significance at 0.10 level.

) was measured on a five-point Likert-type scale, with ‘‘strongly disagree’’ at the low end and ‘‘strongly agree’’ at the high end. Part two was designed to gather sociodemographic information about the respondents, including gender, age, occupation, educational background, and hosting experience (

Table 2. Profiles of respondents (n = 462).

Attributes	China (216)		USA (246)		All (462)
	n	Percentage	n	Percentage	n	Percentage
Sex
Men	102	47.2%	150	61.0%	252	54.55%
Women	114	52.8%	96	39.0%	210	45.45%
Age
16–23 years	45	20.8%	15	6.1%	60	12.99%
24–27 years	70	32.4%	47	19.1%	117	25.32%
28–31 years	43	19.9%	45	18.3%	88	19.05%
32–45 years	47	21.8%	69	28.0%	116	25.11%
≧46 year	11	5.1%	70	28.5%	81	17.53%
Education
Senior high school or less	13	6.0%	11	4.5%	24	5.19%
Junior college or undergraduate	147	68.1%	130	52.8%	277	59.96%
Graduate or more	56	25.9%	105	42.7%	161	34.85%
Occupation
Civil servants or public officers	25	11.6%	46	18.7%	71	15.37%
Enterprise staffs	83	38.4%	96	39.0%	179	38.74%
Private entrepreneur or freelance	57	26.4%	52	21.1%	109	23.59%
Students	31	14.4%	30	12.2%	61	13.20%
Retiree/jobless/others	20	9.3%	22	8.9%	42	9.09%
Previous couch surfer experience
Yes	145	67.13%	195	79.27%	340	73.59%
No	71	32.87%	51	20.73%	122	26.41%
Acceptable time
Any time	179	82.87%	194	78.86%	373	80.74%
Holiday only	29	13.43%	37	15.04%	66	14.29%
Workday only	8	3.70%	15	6.10%	23	4.98%
Acceptable length of stay per trip
3 days or less	95	43.98%	170	69.11%	265	57.36%
4–7 days	85	39.35%	51	20.73%	136	29.44%
1 week or more	46	21.30%	25	10.16%	61	13.20%
Maximum accommodation
1 person	49	22.69%	34	13.82%	83	17.97%
2 persons	121	56.02%	116	47.15%	237	51.30%
3 or more persons	46	21.30%	96	39.02%	142	30.74%
Cumulative hosting
1–3 persons	72	33.3%	33	13.4%	105	22.73%
4–10 persons	74	34.3%	61	24.8%	135	29.22%
11–20 persons	29	13.4%	60	24.4%	89	19.26%
21–60 persons	25	11.6%	50	20.3%	75	16.23%
61 persons or more	16	7.4%	42	17.1%	58	12.55%

).

3.2. Sampling and Data Collection

Self-administered questionnaire surveys were employed to collect quantitative data from US and Chinese couch hosts between 2016 and 2018. A total of 1000 US community host members in CS; 1000 Chinese community host members in CS; and an additional 200 Chinese host members from Ascnsfk, Douban, and Baidu Tieba were randomly selected, and the questionnaire link was emailed to them via a private message. No any incentive was sent since CS hosts are always ready to help others, and we are also a member. To obtain enough samples from both countries, the surveys lasted until 2018. A total of 480 questionnaires were completed and returned, giving a response rate of 21.82%. Of the 480 returned questionnaires, 18 were deleted due to the omission or similarity of a large proportion of responses and illogical answers, leaving a total of 462 valid samples: 216 from Chinese hosts and 246 from US hosts. The results of the reliability analysis (Cronbach’s alpha) illustrated that the alpha coefficients of motivation and behavior dimensions are 0.832 and 0.891, respectively, which are considered acceptable according to Nunnally [57].

The profiles of the respondents are shown in Table 2. The number of female and male residents was about equal overall. The majority of Chinese respondents are of age 16–27 years (53.2%), whereas the US respondents are of age 32 years and older (56.5%). Only 17.53% respondents overall were older than 46 years. All the respondents from both countries have an education background of junior, college, undergraduate, or more, and the majority of Chinese respondents are undergraduates and postgraduates who just finished their schooling and are at the beginning of their careers. This is similar to Luo and Zhang’s study. Enterprise staffs and private entrepreneurs or freelance are the majority in both countries. American hosts show a higher percentage (79.27%) of previous couch-surfer experience than that of Chinese hosts (67.13%). American hosts accumulatively host more couch surfers than Chinese hosts. Most hosts (80.74%) from both countries can host couch surfers at any time. Most hosts accept three days or less for the length of stay per host, although Chinese hosts have a longer acceptable length of stay than American hosts on average. Most hosts can host two couch surfers at the same time overall; some may have more beds or sofas for hosting. The sample covers couch hosts with different attributes and, thus, is a good indicator of the characteristic of couch hosts in China and the US.

3.3. Data Analysis Process

SPSS software was used to analyze the quantitative data. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted with motivation and behavior items using China and the USA samples, and principal component analysis (PCA) with orthogonal Varimax rotation was used to identify the underlying motivation and behavior dimensions (

Table 3. Results of factor analysis of couch hosts’ motivation and behavior.

Items	China				USA
	Factor Loadings	EV	Variance Explained (Cumulative Variance Explained)	Communalities	Factor Loadings	EV	Variance Explained (Cumulative Variance Explained)	Communalities
Dimensions of motivation
Relaxation and pleasure (Cronbach’s α = 0.877China, 0.724USA)		3.699	21.758% (21.758%)			2.448	13.601% (13.601%)
I think hedonic aspects in hosting is very important	0.843			0.799	0.496			0.410
I think entertainment in hosting is very important	0.812			0.751	0.680			0.531
I want to enjoy exotic food by hosting couch surfers	0.705			0.559	0.711			0.551
I want to experience the joy of relaxation	0.608			0.583	0.475			0.483
I want to be excited	0.650			0.685
I gain great pleasure from hosting	0.610			0.610
I like to feel privileged through hosting foreign couch surfers					0.660			0.587
Socialization (Cronbach’s α = 0.775China, 0.843USA)		2.776	16.327% (38.085%)			3.961	22.003% (35.604%)
I like to learn about the trips of couch surfer	0.777			0.732	0.561			0.412
I like to host like-minded friends	0.769			0.713	0.600			0.432
I like to meet new people through hosting	0.565			0.538	0.632			0.449
I have dreams about hosting people from all over the world	0.615			0.479
I want to enrich my experience of life					0.750			0.630
I want to be excited					0.715			0.609
I want to satisfy my curiosity					0.687			0.545
I gain great pleasure from hosting					0.645			0.585
I want to discover new sides of myself through travel					0.618			0.501
Knowledge enhancement (Cronbach’s α = 0.761China, 0.790USA)		2.523	14.844% (52.928%)			1.816	10.091% (45.695%)
I like to broaden my views	0.795			0.728	0.859			0.805
I like to learn about foreign culture	0.750			0.624	0.857			0.799
I want to satisfy my curiosity	0.704			0.705				0.545
I want to enrich my experience of life	0.581			0.626				0.630
Escape (Cronbach’s α = 0.868China, 0.772USA)		2.509	14.758% (67.686%)			2.185	12.139% (57.834%)
I want to escape the routine of my life	0.852			0.800	0.782			0.714
I want to relieve the pressure of my life	0.816			0.840	0.763			0.725
I want to ease my feelings of loneliness	0.810			0.735	0.793			0.642
Dimensions of behavior
Hospitality (Cronbach’s α = 0.752China, 0.662USA)		2.622	16.387% (16.387%)			1.673	12.873% (12.873%)
I anticipate tourists’ needs before they arrive	0.745			0.650	0.781			0.730
I offer individualized attention to couch surfers	0.717			0.602	0.824			0.728
I make them feel as safe as that at home	0.700			0.562
I give adequate explanations of destinations to couch surfers	0.628			0.497
Close interaction (Cronbach’s α = 0.772China,0.845USA)		2.574	16.086% (32.472%)			3.234	24.875% (37.748%)
We talk about private topics	0.793			0.677	0.803			0.654
I treat them as friends but not guest	0.700			0.630	0.855			0.756
I develop close relationship with couch surfers	0.617			0.618	0.618			0.575
We keep in touch after couch surfers leave	0.593			0.482	0.782			0.663
We express our emotion (opinion, intention, criticism or compliment) directly	0.664			0.528
I let couch surfers to meet my friends					0.538			0.717
I invite couch surfers to join my family’s and friends’ parties					0.561			0.718
Daily life involvement (Cronbach’s α = 0.803China,0.686USA)		2.546	15.914% (48.387%)			2.005	15.421% (53.169%)
I let couch surfers to meet my friends	0.858			0.801	0.618
I invite couch surfers to join my family’s and friends’ parties	0.838			0.769	0.599
I invite couch surfers join my daily activities such as dining and playing sport together	0.635			0.537	0.550			0.549
I exchange gifts with couch surfers	0.568			0.551	0.773			0.635
Couch surfers should share the household duties					0.546			0.506
Trust establishment (Cronbach’s α = 0.728China,0.802USA)		2.161	13.507% (61.893%)			1.806	13.889% (67.058%)
I build trust with couch surfers before CS	0.805			0.764	0.816			0.741
I make more online communication before CS	0.763			0.700	0.843			0.747
I acquire surfers’ information on network platform to establish trust	0.665			0.534

). Independent-samples t-tests were also performed to see if the hosts from the US and China differed in the averages of their motivations and behavior items (Table 1).

4. Results

4.1. Differences of Motivation and Behavior between US and Chinese Hosts

The results shown in Table 1 generally indicate that there are significant differences on motivation and behavior between US and Chinese hosts. The top 5 items of each country have significant differences, which implies that US and Chinese hosts are heterogeneous groups. Specifically, ten items of US hosts have significantly higher scores compared with those of Chinese hosts. The evaluation of US hosts on most items is higher than that of Chinese hosts, which indicates that the US hosts are more purposeful than their Chinese counterparts. US hosts have a higher motive to meet new people (MChina = 4.25, MUS = 4.61, p ≤ 0.01), enrich experience of life (MChina = 4.22, MUS = 4.56, p ≤ 0.01), and gain pleasure (MChina = 3.94, MUS = 4.33, p ≤ 0.01), whereas Chinese hosts have a significantly lower desire to escape routine life (MChina = 2.91, MUS = 3.44, p ≤ 0.01) and establish high social status (MChina = 2.42, MUS = 3.39, p ≤ 0.01). Instead, Chinese hosts have significantly higher intention to broaden views (MChina = 4.50, MUS = 3.72, p ≤ 0.01) and host like-minded friends (MChina = 4.48, MUS = 4.34, p ≤ 0.1). These above indicate that US hosts particularly emphasized socialization and attached more meanings of socialization in hosting.

In terms of behaviors, US hosts would respectfully address surfers (MChina= 2.97, MUS = 4.59, p ≤ 0.01) and acquire information of surfers before (MChina = 4.01, MUS = 4.25, p ≤ 0.01) to carefully select guests. They are more likely to talk about private topics (MChina = 2.92, MUS = 4.05, p ≤ 0.01), develop close relationship with couch surfers (MChina = 3.44, MUS = 3.74, p ≤ 0.01), and even let surfers to join family’s and friends’ parties (MChina = 3.53, MUS = 4.17, p ≤ 0.01) than their Chinese counterparts. By comparison, Chinese hosts care more about hospitality and trust establishment. They try to make surfers feel as safe as when they are at home (MChina = 3.91, MUS = 3.50, p ≤ 0.01) and anticipate tourists’ needs before they arrive (MChina = 3.63, MUS = 3.37, p ≤ 0.01). Before accepting couch surfers, they build trust with surfers (MChina = 3.71, MUS = 3.14, p ≤ 0.01) and make more online communication with surfers (MChina = 3.84, MUS = 3.20, p ≤ 0.01). These above indicate that the behaviors of US hosts are quite practical and life-oriented.

4.2. Dimensions of Motivation between Chinese and US Hosts

This study employed PCA with respect to the agreement ratings of the motivation items between US and Chinese couch-host samples. A KMO (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin-Measure of Sampling Adequacy) measure yielded 0.874 in both samples, which indicates that the data are adequate for PCA. Items with factor loadings below 0.45 and factor Cronbach’s α lower than 0.6 were deleted, including “I like to feel privileged through hosting foreign couch surfers” and “I want to discover new sides of myself through travel” in the Chinese sample, as well as “I have dreams about hosting people from all over the world” in the US sample. The results of the Cronbach’s α reliability test showed a high reliability of four factors ranging from 0.724 to 0.877. The four factors, namely socialization, relaxation and pleasure, escape, and knowledge enhancement, accounted for 67.686% and 57.834% of the total variance in the Chinese and US samples, respectively (Table 3).

Factor 1, named relaxation and pleasure, was loaded with six items in Chinese hosts and five items in US hosts representing hosts’ desire to seek relaxation and entertainment, both physically and psychologically, through couch hosting, which exhibited 21.758% and 13.601% of the variance in the Chinese and US samples, respectively. Chinese hosts regard excitement and pleasure during hosting as relaxation, whereas US hosts underscore the feeling privileged through hosting as a kind of pleasure. Factor 2, named socialization, was loaded with four items in Chinese hosts and eight items in US hosts, which reflected the discrepancy between the cognition of socialization of those Chinese and US hosts. This dimension exhibited 16.327% of variance in motivations of Chines hosts and 22.003% in that of US hosts. Factor 3, named knowledge enhancement, loaded four items in Chinese hosts’ motivation and two items in that of US hosts, which indicated a strong motivation to learn by cross-cultural interaction. Knowledge enhancement was the second important motivation for Chinese hosts but was the least for US hosts. Factor 4, described as escape, has three items loaded in both groups, which means hosts hope to escape everyday routine and relieve the pressures of daily life.

4.3. Dimensions of Behavior between Chinese and US Hosts

The KMO measures were 0.837 and 0.780, respectively, which are “good” for conducting PCA [58]. Items of “Couch surfers should share the household duties” and “we address each other respectfully” for Chinese hosts were also deleted, whereas the items “we address each other respectfully”, “I give adequate explanations of destinations to couch surfers”, “I make them feel as safe as that at home”, and “I acquire surfers’ information on network platform to establish trust” for US hosts were eliminated due to the Cronbach’s α values of this dimension being lower than 0.65 or due to low factor loadings. The Cronbach’s α reliability test for the four factors ranged from 0.662 to 0.845, resulting in the four factors that represented the dimensions of host behaviors accounting for 61.893% and 67.058% of the total variance for Chinese and US hosts, respectively (Table 3). Specifically, the four constructs of interaction behaviors are given as follows.

Factor 1, named hospitality, consists of four items in Chinese hosts and two items in US hosts. Offering individualized attention and anticipating guests’ needs are not necessary but are great experiences for couch surfers, which help the host obtain high levels of satisfaction. Hospitality is one of the most important aspects of hosting behaviors with 16.387% of the total variance among the Chinese sample, whereas this factor only explained 12.873% of the total variance in the US sample. Factor 2, labeled close interaction, comprised five items of the Chinese sample and six items of the US sample that represent the close relationships established during the host–guest interaction. This construct loaded the most variance (24.875%) in the US sample while accounting for only 16.086% of that in the Chinese sample. Both groups considered “close interaction” as talking about private topics, treating surfers as friends, and developing close and long-term relationship. Factor 3, named daily life involvement, contains four items in the Chinese sample and five items in the US sample, including dining and playing sports together, which were also identified in the previous literature [55], as well as exchanging gifts with couch surfers. US hosts considered sharing household duties as an aspect of daily life involvement but with low rating. Factor 4, labeled trust establishment, is important for CS, and building trust is a vital process for both hosts and guests [9,11].

5. Conclusions and Implication

This study represented a pioneering research effort to explore and explain the underlying motives and behaviors of CS hosts. This study indicated that, although there is a nonmonetary nature of relationship between CS hosts and surfers, significant and definite motives and behaviors of hosts were found, which were different from those of surfers. This alleged altruistic hosting is, indeed, a hidden exchange between two parties, which can be mainly considered as reciprocal altruism [36]. The main motives are relaxation and pleasure, socialization, knowledge enhancement, and escape, with more focus on meeting new friends and learning foreign culture and others’ experience through hosting, among all kinds of CS hosts, which are exhibited in behaviors such as hospitality, close interaction, daily life involvement, and trust establishment. US hosts are even more purposeful than their Chinese counterparts. Reciprocity means a lot, according to our investigation, which includes surfers agreeing to take care of the house, pet, or even child; train language; teach knowledge and culture; bring news from outside; and exchange visits. In most cases, exchange visits would be a white lie since both parties know that the probability of that happening is low. This nonmonetary exchange reflects the egoistic aspect of the CS host and can be partly concluded by each other via the platform before hosting.

In this sense, hosting surfers is not only a help but also a kind of experience. A CS host is not just an accommodation supplier without any expectations but also a tourism and culture experiencer. Relaxation and pleasure and socialization are the most important motives of both the US and Chinese hosts, but they have a different meaning in these two groups. The motive of escape is found in early exploratory studies but is less important in our empirical study. Both groups of CS hosts emphasized the significance of trust establishment of behaviors mainly because of the simultaneous production and consumption in Couchsurfing; hosts and surfers want to know more about each other beforehand.

Altruistic hosting is really a way each party takes what he or she needs. The surfers want a free bed, and the hosts obtain some nonmonetary benefits. Since the hosts have to spend their time to receive surfers, act as tour guides, and even share their relatives and friends for a good hosting, the cost is high, and their gain from hosting should be equal in this nonmonetary exchange. It should be a win-win situation in CS [38]. CS was thus considered as collaborative tourism between the host and surfer [4]. However, when the equality of nonmonetary exchange in CS cannot be achieved, the hosts obtained less or even nothing from what they wanted through hosting, or they found that they offered much more than what they received, they will turn to other ways of hosting next time, such as Airbnb. For example, some hosts considered their surfers to be autonomous tourists without their intervention, but eventually, they must guide them through the entire trip and even pay for transportation and tickets. Some other hosts found that the language and cultural barrier, and even quite different ways of life, made any deep-lying interaction difficult; they obtained no pleasure but to do hand out only [34]. In this formulation, altruism is a derivative of egotism.

Early empirical studies already found that Americans were more altruistic than Chinese, which suggests that US hosts are more willing to host a stranger than Chinese hosts. Our empirical study also provided new evidence for that. In comparison with Chinese hosts, US hosts have more experience in CS, have accumulatively hosted more surfers, and are more purposeful in all motives [59]. This study also confirmed that CS hosts are not a homogeneous group as recognized in early studies. Significant cross-cultural differences on motives and behaviors were identified between the US and Chinese host samples, but less correlated with the contrast between collectivist vs. individualist, cultural tightness vs. cultural looseness, and vertical vs. horizontal cultures of altruism. These differences were more connected to the personal values of altruism, which decides the way of life and how one gets along with people.

US hosts particularly emphasized socialization and attached more meanings of socialization in hosting. They are more purposeful, open, active, and hospitable than their Chinese counterparts. They tended to conduct close social interaction with surfers, hoping to enrich their life and escape their daily routine. They have deeper interactions with surfers than Chinese hosts, such as talking about private topics and developing close relationship with couch surfers. The motives and behaviors of US hosts are quite practical and life-oriented. US hosts attached more meanings of socialization than their Chinese counterparts and classified seeking excitement, satisfying curiosity, enriching lifestyle, and even discovering themselves as important parts of socialization. If they want something from the surfer or provide anything, they would tell the surfer beforehand. US hosts are more egotistical that they will also learn about surfers and build trust beforehand, not for better satisfaction of the needs of the surfers but for confirming that the surfers will bring about what they need [59]. Their motives and behaviors are claimed before or normally in an American style, which can be easy to know or understand.

By contrast, Chinese hosts are more implicit, shyer, and less active to make face-to-face interaction and carefully show their hospitality. Chinese hosts are a more complicated group, and the introverted characteristic of the Chinese hosts is part of their culture. Chinese hosts prefer to provide more individualized attention to couch surfers, such as anticipating tourists’ needs and making surfers feel at home. They treat surfers similar to guests temporarily staying at their home but are less likely to see them as friends who are a part of their social circles. They hope to learn foreign languages through close and intense oral interactions with surfers, but they avoid private topics or introducing surfers to their families and other social circles. They want something from surfers but do not inform them beforehand and hide their real motives behind to keep face. Chinese hosts want more affective needs and quite emphasize relaxation and pleasure in hosting. Meanwhile, knowledge enhancement is the second important motivation for Chinese hosts but the least for US hosts. According to our interviews with some Chinese hosts, learning foreign culture and language (many Chinese hosts regarded hosting as a chance to practice speaking in English) is one of their motivations.

In terms of managerial practice, the ability to understand and deal with cultural differences is critical for seeking CS across countries. The opening and transparence of information about both the hosts and surfers should be emphasized, especially for Chinese hosts who always implicitly express their motives and behaviors and easily incur conflict between hosts and surfers. The CS platform and destination management organizations (DMOs) should carefully consider verified dimensions [60]. Moreover, in China, a person’s degree of embeddedness in a social network conveys information regarding the instrumental aspects of trustworthiness [61]. Thus, reputation and high frequency of participating in CS are important in establishing trust between Chinese hosts and surfers.