House swapping is believed to have developed in the 1950s, but rose to prominence in the 1970s as more people got involved and considered it to be a viable vacation option. Some estimates indicate that 15-20% of travelers are participating in some form of house swapping. Summer is traditionally the peak season for house swapping, due to families traveling during summer vacations and house swapping allows families to try out a location for a short period of time.
-Wikipedia
I've always liked the idea of saving a bit of money by doing a holiday home exchange, but my home would need some serious cleaning before I would want to offer it in a home exchange. The idea that someone would travel across the world and spend a couple of weeks camped out among my odds and ends while I was camped out among there's is kind of interesting.
It is fun to read some of the listings for vacation exchanges, a lot of people seem to want to travel to Sydney or New York, so I guess if you have a home in Sydney or New York then you'll do good on the whole home exchange front. But I also found people in London that wanted to home swap with people in New Mexico and just the USA. There are a lot of home exchanges for California as well.
A quick searches find that there are worldwide exchanges and property swaps seem possible to just about anywhere you'd want to go. Paris seems to be a hot vacation home exchange site, though the people in Paris seem to want home exchanges with people in Italy or California. There seem to be a few adventurous types who do house exchanges and want to go anywhere at any time. Must be nice to have that kind of freedom. I tend to feel a bit trapped myself at the moment.
Of course, it would be different if I had a vacation home swap, if I had that extra house by the lake or in the country. If I had enough money for a vacation home, would I still be interested in the whole house swap thing? Sure, if I had enough money, it would just mean that I could do all the holiday home exchanges I wanted and see more of the world.
4 comments:
I hope you do decide to try a home exchange - many more people are catching the home swapping bug as it's a great way to save money and also have a lot more space and conveniences than if you stay in a hotel.
Home Base Holidays has been operating a home exchange service since 1985 and, since we're based in London, there is a huge choice of attractive offers in the city - new ones every day! I hope you will take time to browse through some of the listings and visit our blog for more information about home exchange.
Cheers
The preparation of your home is both a minus and plus. Yes you should clean, tidy, and fix that leaky faucet for your guests. And this takes time and effort. But on the positive side, you come back to a "new" place!
London is a very desirable destination. Any of the world cities are in high demand. Paris listings abound on most home exchange sites such as ours, 1st Home Exchange. The concept is very well promoted within the French media and when you have five or more weeks of holidays per year, you just simply can't afford to always stay in hotel.
People swap for different reasons - not only for holidays. No matter where your home is located, if you put some effort into it and are open to your destination, you can find a swap.
At 1st Home Exchange not only do we have listings in 130 countries but visitors can also find numerous articles, tips, and videos to help arrange a swap.
My wife and I just got back from a home exchange over Easter and would highly recommend it - it worked perfectly!
We exchanged our home for a lovely waterfront home with stunning sea views and it was very successful for my wife and I plus the people who looked after our place. This is the free home exchange website that we used.
There are also a good selection for those who are looking for a home exchange in London which look pretty tempting.
Anyway whichever site you choose you should definitely give it a go! I can't recommend a home exchange highly enough! :-)
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