Getting Started

During the pandemic, many people see are considering short-term rentals and/or home exchange as a safer way to travel. But which is best? Here’s an updated version of our earlier post that explains how how they differ.

Our traveling life started late:  once our kids were on their own, we moved from the dark, sprawling home they’d grown up in to a compact, sunny home overlooking a marsh where snowy egrets stalked their breakfast. We loved it, but we were restless.  We wanted to travel! We had the time…but we didn’t have much money. To afford the kind of traveling we wanted to do, we decided swap or rent out our sunny new home. 

This post originally ran in 2017.  With the pandemic, many people see home exchange as a safer way to travel, so we thought it was worth another look.

The apartment in a landmarked building overlooking Amsterdam’s Vondelpark was filled with light, and the music library was to die for.  We’d been to Amsterdam before, but a week in a cramped hotel room in a tourist area hadn’t given us much sense of the city.  Now we were “living like locals”!

We chatted with neighbors, shopped at the market down the block, became pals with the owner of the café at the corner, hopped on and off streetcars as if it were no big thing. All this cost little more than airfare: We were doing a home exchange. While we were enjoying the benefits of home exchange in a new city, our exchange partners were living happily in our suburban Bay Area home.

When you set out to rent your home to travelers, one of your first steps will be to list your home on a short-term rental site.  Airbnb or VRBO might immediately come to mind—after all, everyone seems to know about them. But those sites are not the only good places to advertise your home, and they’re not the best sites for everyone. Learning about the key features—and drawbacks—of those and other sites can help you decide where to list your home for short-term rent. [Read more…] about Where to List Your Home for Short-Term Rent

Have questions about home exchange? You’ve come to the right place! We’ve compiled answers to 14 common questions about home exchange from the best experts in the field – experienced home swappers. You can never know too much, so we’ve included a few links to more detailed information.