Abstract
The present article describes the results of research on online identity construction during the participation in the hospitality social networks. Specifi cally the user references are analy-sed to understand patterns that form the image of a member. CouchSurfi ng service (couch-surfi ng.org) allows users to leave short texts where the experience of hosting/being hosted by a CS member is described, is an evaluation of the CS members of each other’s personal traits, skills and common experience. Therefore references can become a good instrument for portraying a CouchSurfi ng member and understanding his or her particular traits. Refe-rences form an important part of a user’s virtual identity in the network. Using a sample of references of Spanish CouchSurfi ng users, the research established main characteristics of the references, which are the openness, readiness to share ideas and experiences and trustworthi-ness. These concepts illustrate the typical traits associated with a user of the network and also shed light on the activities common during offl ine CS meetings
Highlights
Hospitality social networks are the Internet social network services (SNS) used to arrange free accommodation during travel
The analysis of the references sample of Spanish CouchSurfing members revealed the tendency of users to concentrate on social traits when writing a reference for the other couchsurfing.org member
Respectfulness and the respect of the implicit CS mission and values are a popular topics included in the references
Summary
Hospitality social networks are the Internet social network services (SNS) used to arrange free accommodation during travel. In 2004, a year before Facebook, couchsurfing.org became the first hospitality service to exhibit all three defining properties of an SNS It had user-created profiles, Transgression visible connections between users and a way to interact through these connections. In the following years CouchSurfing steadily grew in popularity, attracting large amounts of media attention in the process. It has reached 4 000 000 users in 2012 and has become a truly global phenomenon (by comparison, the largest still existing offline hospitality exchange, the Friendship Force International has only 18 000 members). Most notable works include study of online familiarity by Paula Bialski (2012), management of trust within hospitality SNS by Lada A. Adamic, Debra Lauterbach and Chun-Yuen Te (2011), and the research on interpersonal trust in CouchSurfing by Le Dieu Tran (2009)
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