Getting Started

My husband and I love swapping homes.  It’s amazing how far our travel budget goes when we don’t have to pay for lodging.  We can get a sense of what it’s like to live in a new place.  Our exchange partners help us find wonderful places to eat, shop, and explore.

But arranging a traditional home swap, where both exchange partners stay in one another’s homes at the same time, isn’t easy.  It’s like putting together a puzzle in which all the pieces need to fit:  location, size of home, and travel schedules.  Sometimes you put in a lot of work only to find that one or another of the pieces just doesn’t fit.

That’s where non-simultaneous home swaps come in.

What a non-simultaneous home swap is

The original idea of a non-simultaneous home swap is simple.  Instead of you and your exchange partner staying in one another’s home at the same time, you stay in your partner’s home while they’re away in return for a promise that they can stay in yours at a future date.

That’s what we did for a 2-week trip to Barcelona.  [Read more…] about Non-Simultaneous Home Swaps: A Quick Guide

Thanks to Lois Sealey at Home Base Holidays for this guest post.

More and more people are discovering the benefits of home exchanging. The majority of swaps are simply to arrange a vacation while enjoying free accommodation in your home from home. However, many our members are using home swapping for more than just vacations. Here are 10 good reasons to arrange a home swap.

1. Work from anywhere in the world.

If you work independently, you don’t have to give up the travel you love.  Digital nomads, freelance workers, and people running online businesses have the freedom to work almost anywhere they have an internet connection. Many such location-independent workers are using home swapping to arrange work/travel swaps worldwide, often arranging longer term (3+ month) exchanges. [Read more…] about Why do a Home Swap? Here are 10 Good Reasons

Do you travel a lot or have a second home that sits empty much of the year? You might be thinking about making a little extra cash by renting out one or both of your homes when you’re not there. How hard can it be?

Having been a short-term rental host for years, I can say with certainty that while it can be rewarding (financially and otherwise), it’s also time-consuming – very time-consuming. On average, I spend several hours a week on tasks related to our two short-term rentals: a house in the Bay Area suburbs that we rent out when we travel and a small condo in San Francisco that we rent to travelers when we’re not using it for ourselves.

Don’t get me wrong.  I like being a short-term rental host. It’s challenging and frustrating, but always interesting, and it’s nice to have the extra income.  But I didn’t realize when we started down this path that I’d be running a business that would require regular attention.

Here are some things I’ve learned over the years about what it’s really like to be a short-term rental host. [Read more…] about What it’s REALLY Like to be a Short-Term Rental Host

Home exchange is a hot topic these days. That’s not surprising. Home exchange makes travel far more affordable than staying in a hotel.

You won’t have any  lodging costs when you swap your home for someone else’s. With a kitchen, you won’t have to eat out all the time. You’ll have more space to spread out, which is especially important if you have kids. Living in a home instead of a hotel takes you beyond the typical tourist experience of a new place.

If the idea of home exchange sounds good to you but you’ve never done one, you probably have lots of questions. These home exchange FAQs will give you some answers.

Dawn Royski of ShareTravler.com, a web site that provides reviews and information about sharing economy travel services, has shared her post on Best Home Exchange Networks: 2017 with us.  Thanks, Dawn!

The number of home exchange websites out there can be overwhelming to someone new to house swapping. When I first got interested in home exchange I spent a few weeks looking at networks, and searching in vain for objective reviews, or at least some overview information comparing the sites. In response to this lack of information, I created my website, which includes a list of all the existing home exchange networks  with relevant comparative information. I’ve also written individual reviews of many of the house swap networks.

As long-time short-term rental hosts, my husband and I have come to expect questions from people we meet who are thinking about doing the same.  I addressed some of the most common questions in Part 1 of these short-term rental FAQs.  This post addresses a few more.