Swap your house with a stranger?

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]ravelling without paying for any accommodation? It is possible!

Instead of spending nights in an expensive hotel or rented apartment, here is a new way to travel. Exchange your home! You stay in someone’s house while they stay in yours. Simple as that. This idea was initiated by a Dutch woman, Ans Lammers, who created a website to facilitate the process (www.homeforexchange.com).

Travellers post pictures of their villa, castle, apartment or forest hut: it is called an ‘offer’. They put information about their favourite destination, the dates they are available and details about their family. It costs £37 to post an offer and keep it for a year, and you can do as many exchanges as you want!

Then, it is your turn to research. Want to travel to Paris? More than 905 offers are online. Fancy a trip to San Francisco? Mumbai? Costa Rica or Madagascar? HomeForExchange makes more than 65,000 offers in 150 countries. Even in Coventry! Advanced research will help you find a rare pearl. You can choose the type of property you would like to travel to, the type of features in it (fireplace, air-conditioning, without pets or adapted for children…) You can even choose the number of bathrooms and bedrooms! Finally, send a message to the owner and arrange the trip. Easy.

I have done four home exchanges in the USA and one in the Seychelles. Let me give you two reasons to do it! Firstly, you don’t pay for any accommodation or car rentals. My family and myself we are triplets plus two parents – travelled to Key Largo (Florida). We would have paid £5,200 for two weeks in a hotel, plus the price of the flights, cat-sitter, car rental, food and entertainment there.

Fancy a trip to San Francisco? Mumbai? Costa Rica or Madagascar? HomeForExchange makes more than 65,000 offers in 150 countries. Even in Coventry!

Instead, we exchanged our home with a lovely American couple who owned an amazing four-floored house and loved our cat. Needless to say it was a bargain. Secondly, when you live in a local’s house, you see things differently. You eat in the restaurants they like, drive their car and sleep beds. It is a completely different experience to the typical sightseeing tourist. In the Seychelles, we were in a gorgeous house near the beach but far from the rich and touristy part of the island. We were close to the real experience, saw how locals truly lived, fishing and selling their catch of the day. We also met genuine people, the real inhabitants and not employees forced to smile at tourists.

All in all, home exchange is the best way to travel, and I would not do it any other way now. We are extremely friendly with the couples we have exchanged with I have amazing memories. Nevertheless, there are some disadvantages. Firstly, it is important to plan a trip early if there are many of you travelling. The more of you there are, the earlier you should start to contact property owners. Secondly, do not be fooled by pictures; in New-York, the apartment we exchanged with seemed big and clean but, when we arrived, it was dirty and too small for five people. It did not ruin the trip, but details are important. Don’t hesitate to ask for more pictures!

Lastly, this experience can be stressful: trust is the key word. However, those strangers in your house will take good care of your home in the hope that you will do the same. Home exchanging is all about respect. Give it a try!