Forging friendships, establishing cultural exchanges, promoting world peace ... Most hospitality websites insist they offer more than just a free place to stay. All, that is, but the unashamedly named globalfreeloaders.com.
Globalfreeloaders doesn't have the community feel of rival sites, or the same level of membership (just 46,000 to couchsurfing's 570,000). The website's design has also held it back, with member profiles consisting of just a paragraph of text and no pictures. Unless it undergoes a dramatic overhaul, it may go the same way as sites such as the now defunct Travelhoo and Tripup.
Nonetheless, I am determined to give globalfreeloaders a chance. It's not easy to find someone suitable or even someone who will reply, but, after weeks of trying, I finally find my first host: Gustavo, a 20-year-old medical student from Fortaleza.
I had no burning desire to visit Fortaleza - a coastal city described by my guidebook as "a sprawling commercial centre with little touristic appeal" - but I am instantly charmed by Gustavo's enthusiasm. He tells me I am the only person to have contacted him since he registered on the site a year ago, and he seems eager to pull out the stops for my visit.
On Saturday morning, he meets me at the bus station with his brother Victor, who is 22, and takes me to the stylishly decorated apartment they share with their mother, a funky-dressing lawyer with a sideline in interior design. Over the next two days, they take me to a samba gig at the Orbita bar, for "the best crab in town" amid a grove of palm trees on Porto das Dunas beach, and to ride a stomach-churning, 14-storey waterslide (beachpark.com.br).
Admittedly, the waterpark isn't the most authentic experience I've had, but I do have an only-in-Brazil moment when I almost get banned from riding the slides because my bikini shorts aren't skimpy enough. "They might get caught," the female lifeguard tells me in all seriousness.
The ever-polite Gustavo and Victor make me very glad I took a gamble on globalfreeloaders and on Fortaleza. However, when Monday comes around, it's time to bid the boys farewell and head for Jericoacoara, Brazil's most-hyped beach town.
With a curve of expansive beaches, surrounded by giant sand dunes, Jericoacoara's scenery is jaw-dropping. Less than 10 years ago, it was a tiny fishing village without electricity, but word soon spread. Now its main trade is dune-buggy rides, sandboarding and kitesurfing. It even has an Italian-owned resort charging up to £300 a night.
My first contact is Ingrid, a new member of hospitalityclub.org who claims to be one of the Jeri "pioneers". A regular here since the 1980s, she bought land to build a guesthouse seven years ago (jeriathome.com).
Ingrid can't offer free accommodation and so uses hospitalityclub for the same reason she uses Virtual Tourist and Lonely Planet's Thorntree forum: to promote Jeri. She insists she doesn't break site rules to advertise her guesthouse, but will mention it "if someone happens to ask if I know a good place".
I ask Ingrid if she can help me to meet more Jeri locals, so she takes me to the beach, where, just outside one of the town's most expensive bars, we find her favourite barraca, a mobile cart selling beers and cocktails. We pull up some plastic stools and she introduces me to two young capoeira instructors, Nacilio and Wesley.
Both are concerned about how rapid development is affecting the area's natural environment. However, they also talk of the opportunities tourism has brought. "I love being my own boss here," Wesley says. "I would never have been able to travel otherwise." "And I wouldn't have learned to kitesurf," adds Nacilio.
My only disappointment is that I didn't meet Ingrid earlier. The day before, she had taken some French guests on an alternative tour, away from the buggy trips. "We were the only ones on the dunes," she says. "We found a tiny village and some beautiful lakes. It was a real adventure."
My timing is better when meeting my next hospitalityclub contact, 25-year-old Paula, who works at Jeri's most upmarket resort. On the night we meet she's hosting a cocktail evening in the apartment she shares with Roberta, a member of couchsurfing.com. Their house speciality is a vodka-enhanced chocolate milkshake, with a dash of guaraná for energy.
A pick-me-up is certainly something you need for a Brazilian night out. The forró, a typical northeastern dance party that we're warming up for, doesn't get started until 2am.
It's not easy being rhythmically challenged in Brazil, but my first foray into forró isn't nearly as disastrous as my attempts at salsa and samba. However, I'm sure my biggest challenge lies at my next stop: the country's music capital, Salvador.
