Home exchange sites offer the opportunity to trade your own home with someone else for a vacation period. It’s a one-to-one deal and you save money by avoiding accommodation costs, although you may have to pay membership fees. Hospitality clubs are a little different. They’re usually non-profit organizations that may not charge membership fees but provide bare bones information without photos. They generally allow you to make arrangements to stay as a guest in someone else’s home and vice-versa, and qualifications for membership vary according to the organization. If you’re considering seeing the world this way, we’ve rounded up 5 sites that run the gamut…
HomeExchange.com: One of the largest international databases of home exchange services, this site charges about $100 for a one-year membership, plus another $50 for any additional homes you wish to list. As a member, you can list your own apartment and find a place to stay in 127 countries worldwide.
Intervac International Home Exchange: Intervac offers home exchange residences in just over 50 countries, and a one-year international membership is $95. You can list up to 3 homes without added fees (as opposed to just one on Home Exchange).
Home Link: Home Link offers membership in their home exchange service for $100 a year. Listings for any additional homes are $15, and you can browse listings in 72 countries. It’s been around since 1953.
Hospitality Club: Hospitality Club is a volunteer-run organization that offers free membership for people who want to stay as guests at homes in other countries. You don’t have to list your own home, but you do have to follow the organization’s membership rules. Listings generally don’t show photos – basic accommodation information is provided within a member’s profile.
Servas International: An international NGO, Servas provides the opportunity to host travelers or find a host for two or more nights in over 100 countries. It was founded in 1949 with the mission of promoting tolerance and peace. There’s an application fee and security screening process that takes a minimum of 4 weeks.
For first-hand reviews of Home Exchange and Home Link, see this post.
Photo: Barcelona Apartment from Habitat (another great accommodation site)
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We successfully planned a whole trip, 3.5 months long to 4 countries doing apartment swaps. We used craigslist for the whole trip, and swapped our condo in Williamsburg, Brooklyn for 2.5 weeks in Dublin with a view of the River Liffey; 4 weeks in Berlin; 3.5 weeks in Amsterdam and 5 weeks in Barcelona. We did visit some friends in Paris and stayed in a hotel there for 3 or 4 nights. We are a professional couple and we traveled with our then 1 year old.
The best swaps were with other couples (Dublin, Barcelona); the woman from Berlin was looking to move to NYC, she had a nice, large apt. in a decent neighborhood in Berlin. The young artist from Amsterdam did not turn out to be such a good match, (his apt. was not in the best neighborhood, it was safe, but far from everything, and not very comfortable for a family with a young child) although we suspected as much before we made the arrangements. We ended up paying for a flat in Amsterdam and chalked it up as a lesson for us to follow our instincts when making swap arrangements. The rest of the trip went so well, we continue to recommend it to anyone who lives in a highly visited city.
We have not swapped since then as we have moved to North Carolina and there is not much demand for swaps here, tho there should be, it's a great place to visit, especially for families. We've been getting on many national lists as most livable city (USA TODAY, Money Magazine, foodiest small town - Gourmet Magazine, etc.)
We are members of homeexchange.com and are very pleased with the service.
It is ideal for families with children, who would go insane if they stayed in a small hotel room together for a week; this way they can stay at a home where another family lives, and have access to toys, swingsets, etc.
I must say though, we get a fair amount of offers, and it is rare that we can make good on any of them; often the travel dates don't coincide with ours. Most Europeans, for example, want to travel in August, but for North Americans, August is one of the most expensive months to go abroad.
Also on the down side, you have to spend a lot of time writing refusal letters, which sounds minor, but it can be a drag to come home from work and think, "Right, I've really got to write to that person from Barcelona..."
I traveled as a guest with Servas International last year, and it was wonderful. I've signed up to be a host this year, and am in contact with my first guests, who are coming from Italy in August. I highly recommend it as a way to see the world from a different perspective and to build bridges to peace and international understanding.