I was always a little hesitant to use couchsurfing.com, but when I found out about airbnb.com, which is pretty much the same thing, only you pay…. and you can rent entire apartments too… well this moved it all into the realm of a business transaction which was something I was willing to try.
I stayed with these guys, who basically rent out their rooms sometimes, presumably to pay their inflated NYC rent for the rather large apartment in a fantastic location.
Pretty much everyone who lives in NYC who I told about this scheme considered the possibility of doing the same for themselves.
