couchsurfing is certainly an opportunity to find a free night's sleep, albeit on someone sofa - the concept of couchsurf was first imagined by casey fenton in 1999 during a travel to iceland when he sent 1,500 e-mails to students from the university of iceland asking if he could stay in any of their homes.

after receiving more than 50 positive answers he started to ask himself if this kind of hospitality could be used to help people travel across the world - this line of thought led him to create the couchsurfing web service in 2004, an organization without lucrative ends.

it stands by the philosophy of 'making the world better, a couch at a time', as officially stated in its website - in practical terms, it allows the registered hosts to lend their couches to travelers searching a place to stay when taking a trip or attending events.