Some people abuse it and try and get sex but it’s not the norm. It’s far easier to find sex on one of the many apps designed for that.

Not at all, it's really about meeting people.

Tinder and Grindr are also about "meeting people".

Yes and both are more specific about the type of meets. Grindr even has fields for your sexual preferences.

The number of sexual relationships that start off with the explicit intention of being sexual are vanishingly small. Grindr is an exception because it's aimed at gay men. Most other platforms provide at least a small amount of reasonable doubt. On Tinder you merely select which demographics you are "interested in". There is absolutely no mention of sex or sexual preferences on the app. And Tinder is considered one of the more obvious ones.

If Couchsurfing was truly about meeting people then the profiles wouldn't have gender and age on them. But they do.

Well said. The whole gambit of sex is that you have to suss it out from each other with tact and awareness without either person being explicit about it -- hell, even on a taxi ride to a motel to do the damn act.

That means that it's always potentially on the table any time you have human connection going on, couchsurfing included. Nothing about couchsurfing means this isn't happening or shouldn't be happening. It's just part of life and human connection.

After reading these comments, I do think that the miscommunication here is a lack of shared understanding of what flirting is.

I presume some people's imaginations immediately go to a host making guests uncomfortable by laying unwanted attention on thick, like the stereotype of the guy coming out in a short robe and hiking his leg up on the arm of the couch.

But I would like people who imagine that to know that most flirting lives in the banter area where both people are having a good time.

Not going to lie the idea that some people I interact with think sex is always going to be on the table wigs me out. There’s a wide variety of libidos and sexualities among humans, many of which don’t operate in the manner being expressed above. (Eg. Demisexuality.)

Sure there is. But the vast majority of people have a normal sex drive. Every single person on earth is the result of a man and woman having sex. It's one of the single most important things in life for most people.

I don't genuinely know if it is the vast majority of people consider having a sexual encounter at all times whenever they interact with another human being.

Short answer: no. I usually prefer to host men and I’m straight. Women can be great guests but my girlfriend gets jealous.