Posted on Monday, June 29th, 2015 by Will Hagle
Horizon is an iPhone app that helps you find places to stay, with people you trust.
There are now plenty of ways to travel cheaply or for free. No longer are travelers forced to find hotels or hostels in foreign destinations. You can pay for an apartment using Air bnb, crash on a couch for free using Couchsurfing, or find one of the many other valuable hospitality services. Horizon is an app that combines the cost of Couchsurfing (read: free) with the comfort of familiarity. While Couchsurfing grew into the large site it is today by fostering a supportive community of likeminded individuals, Horizon was built on the understanding that people would much rather stay with those that they trust.
Horizon displays mutual friends and groups that are connected to you in order to help you find places to stay in cities around the world. The app (which also has an accompanying web app for those without an iPhone) uses your Facebook profile information in order to build a network of other users who are somehow connected to you.
Every Horizon user has a profile which displays their picture, location and a short bit of information. It also displays how many Facebook groups or friends you share. You can contact people to ask for a place to stay on your next trip. The site also asks that you donate to charity in lieu of a gift for your host. The app is still in its earliest stages, so there’s not a huge community of users available yet. The idea is strong enough, however, that this could grow into as large of a community as Couchsurfing, with a crucial extra bit of trustworthiness.
