Is the home-swapping trend helping travellers truly ‘live like a local’?

We’ve all watched The Holiday, right? The seminal noughties romcom brought the concept of home-swapping to the mainstream. It left us fantasising about escaping to the plush, sun-soaked Californian home of a movie trailer producer, or the cutesy English cottage owned by a stressed-out society columnist. But how realistic is it? Can you – would you – exchange your home with a stranger? Well, if our social media feeds and a surge of new home-swapping platforms are anything to go by, lots of us are doing it – and it might be easier than you think.

What is home-swapping?

Home-swapping is self-explanatory: you are quite literally letting somebody stay in your home while you stay in theirs. Various online communities have been around to facilitate the trade since the ’90s, including HomeExchange, the platform used by Kate Winslet’s and Cameron Diaz’s characters in The Holiday. But recently, the home swap has been steadily picking up steam again, presenting a sustainable, affordable alternative to short-term holiday lets and offering the opportunity for travellers to truly ‘live like a local’ when they’re abroad.

Alongside the cash-saving benefits, the controversy over short-term holiday lets has something to do with it. From pausing new licences in Athens to a proposed blanket ban in Barcelona, several tourist hotspots are making efforts to halt the proliferation of tourist accommodation to improve the quality of life for local people. Home-swapping could, in theory, present a more community-conscious way to stay.

Fancy a swap? Here’s how to do it

Unless you’ve organised a pet-sitter or sub-letter to look after your home when you’re away, it’ll likely be sitting there empty, right? Enter: home-swapping. While you might be thinking ‘calm down, Cameron Diaz’, we’ve done some digging and found that you don’t actually need an LA mansion or a quaint snow-covered cottage in Surrey to be worthy of swapping your home – it might just be a flexible(ish) schedule and an open mind. 

For some travellers, all you need to get the ball rolling is a nice-looking advert on a Facebook group (some popular ones are Vacation Swap, Family Home Swaps, House Swap Holidays), a time frame, and a plan for exchanging keys. Word-of-mouth also plays a part. Those of us living in big cities like London are used to seeing social media call-outs for subletters while renters jaunt off on holiday, but you might have noticed friends (and friends-of-friends) taking to Instagram stories and Facebook feeds advertising their homes for an apartment swap instead. 

Caitlin, 34, lives in Setúbal, Portugal, and has 13,000 followers on TikTok, where she posts about living abroad. Caitlin says she first considered home-swapping when paying the deposit for her apartment meant she had less cash for travelling around Europe. ‘I found Facebook groups for it. There are platforms out there that are review-based, but [fundamentally] you’re still relying on a stranger.’

Caitlin thinks that getting a feel for her fellow swapper’s personality is the easiest way to see if they’ll be a good fit. ‘Before my Paris swap, I was exchanging with a small family and I video chatted with the dad, just to talk to him and go off of the vibes,’ says Caitlin. ‘That’s what makes me the most comfortable.’ 

For a DIY budget option, Facebook groups are your best bet (if sussing out the ‘vibes’ is all you need). But if you’re a frequent traveller, planning a break to a particularly expensive destination, or prefer the reassurance of some checks and balances, you might want to opt for an official platform. 

Home-swapping platforms

Nowadays, there are more home-swapping platforms than ever to choose from. HomeExchange is the pioneer and has been going since 1992, when teachers in the US who all had the same chunks of time off each year began writing to each other to arrange an exchange. Today it has a staggering 200,000 global subscribers across 145 countries, and each of them pays one annual fee of £180 (or $220). 

So, what are you paying for, exactly? The biggest selling point is that every member has to undergo a thorough verification process. ‘Our team will review proof of identity and proof of address to make sure the person you’re exchanging with is who they say they are,’ says Jessica Poillucci, HomeExchange’s PR manager. 

Once you’re verified, members pay that annual fee and simply start searching – filters for everything including the number of rooms, amenities and pet-friendliness can be used on the website – and when the right space crops up, they message the host and arrange an exchange. It’s only once that exchange has been finalised through the platform that your swappee’s address will be revealed and you can agree on logistical things like arrival times and key collections. 

Other platforms go even further. Kindred, a home-swap site founded in 2022, uses a similar application process, but its most basic offering includes a host kit (guest towels, a set of bedding, a lock box), a pre and post-swap professional clean, and a 24-hour ‘concierge’ service that you can text for help on pretty much whatever you need, from great local coffee spots to events happening nearby (such as gigs or sports matches). Those extra services don’t come cheap, though. Kindred has two main pricing options for its swappers: either a nightly fee on each trip of between $20-30, or an annual fee for their unlimited ‘passport’ scheme which costs $600. 

In other words, it’ll cost you quite a bit more to opt for an official platform rather than just doing it yourself. But for frequent travellers, those fees compared to regular accommodation costs are relatively reasonable. 

The world is your oyster (if you keep an open mind)

It might seem pretty unlikely you’ll find someone in the right destination who happens to be available to swap within the exact same window as you. But a lesser-known perk about the whole process is that you don’t actually have to swap with another person at exactly the same time – in fact, it’s common not to. 

‘I went to Belgrade in Serbia on a non-simultaneous swap,’ says Caitlin, ‘[I was in contact with] a woman who has multiple apartments, so she was staying in another one of her places while I was there, and then she came to stay at mine when I was away somewhere else.’

Plenty of home-swapping platforms have features which help facilitate these ‘non-simultaneous’ swaps, too. ‘We wanted to offer a bit of flexibility, and a few years ago, we implemented a GuestPoint system – it means you can use points to go to one city, and the person who lives there can go somewhere else,’ explains Jessica. ‘[The dates] don’t have to line-up exactly – that’s definitely a common misconception,’ she says. 

But doing a reciprocal swap isn’t as tricky to pin down as it sounds. Sure, if you want to be slap-bang in the centre of Seville on a particular weekend in March and are absolutely not prepared to budge, then booking regular tourist accommodation probably shouldn’t be ruled out. It’s worth noting that many of us don’t have a lot of flexibility over our work and holiday schedules – but if you do, home-swapping is a great way to be open-minded when it comes to travel, in terms of both when and where you go. The potential for inspiration and the chance to explore new places is an enticing bonus to this cheap(er) way of seeing the world.

Home-swapping is a great way to be open-minded when it comes to travel, in terms of both when and where you go

At Kindred, co-founder and CEO Justine Palefsky explains that plenty of home-swappers become much less specific with their searches after completing their first one, and it opens up a (literal) world of new locations. ‘Members join with somewhere in mind they want to go – maybe they’re headed to a wedding or have a specific city – but our app has a matchmaking-based user experience which helps people get inspired. Then, we do see members relaxing their constraints and coming to us with a much more general query.’

‘If [a user] receives an exchange request from someone in an area they’d never considered visiting before, plenty of people are open to exploring the opportunity,’ Jessica agrees. That same flexibility can be seen in home-swapping Facebook groups, with people advertising their home in exchange for requirements as vague as ‘somewhere sunny’ or ‘somewhere in Europe’.

Do you need to own a home?

Plenty of renters advertise their spaces for swaps on social media communities, but surprisingly, you also don’t technically need to be a home-owner to use official platforms. Both Kindred and HomeExchange say renters are welcome to hop on the home-swapping bandwagon, too. 

However, much like sub-letting, it’s safest to get permission from your landlord before you embark on a home-swap, even if it’s for a short period. The majority of tenancy agreements will outline that you need your landlord’s permission before letting somebody else temporarily take over your room or apartment, but even if it doesn’t, it’s better to be safe than sorry (and to get their approval confirmed in writing). 

‘Many landlords will understand that their property is more secure when occupied than left empty for a period. If your landlord agrees then you’re good to go!’ reads the Travel the Home Exchange Way blog, ‘However, it is important before agreeing to an exchange to check that your or your landlord’s home and contents insurance will cover the period when your home swap guests will be staying.’

‘We always say to check with landlords or your homeowners association and make sure you know all the rules for your location,’ says Jessica, ‘but we’ve had renters on the platform who have checked and been granted approval, so it is truly open to anyone.’

If anything, home-swapping offers a bit more peace of mind than sub-letting, as the exchange is mutual. In fact, Jessica said her biggest tip for people considering doing a home-swap is to remember that everyone on the platform is both a guest and a host. 

Meet the swappers

Friends Rosie, 30, based in Stoke Newington in London and Delia, 32, based in Brooklyn in New York have undertaken an apartment swap twice in the last year, both of them keen to minimise the costs of visiting two of the world’s most expensive cities for an extended period of time (each swap was about a month long). When it comes to saving cash, they’re both big advocates. 

‘There’s absolutely no way I would’ve been able to spend a month in New York paying for accommodation: [a home-swap is] the only way to do it,’ says Rosie, ‘I can see it growing, particularly when so many countries are in a cost-of-living crisis.’

There’s absolutely no way I would’ve been able to spend a month in New York paying for accommodation

Delia says home-swapping first occurred to her as she needed a cheaper way to see London. ‘The lower cost makes it so much more possible to stay in places longer,’ says Delia, ‘But I also would never have visited Stoke Newington if I’d just been in a hotel in central somewhere.’

The ‘living like a local’ aspect is something Rosie was grateful for, too. ‘Living in the apartment of an actual New Yorker; having the ability to shop in local supermarkets and use a proper kitchen immerses you in the culture properly,’ she says. ‘If you’re a particular kind of traveller who doesn’t want to feel like a tourist, it can definitely work.’

According to Jessica from HomeExchange, your first home-swap can feel anxiety-inducing, but plenty of users are hooked afterwards. Both Rosie and Delia said they’d consider doing another home-swap with a stranger, if it was through a platform which offered background checks (and the other swappee was a pet-owner). ‘People are looking for alternative ways to travel, and I think there’s a snowball effect [with home-swapping],’ says Jessica. ‘Once you know someone has done it, it makes you feel more comfortable.’

Delia says the first time she home-swapped was a mutual pet-sit with one of her friends, and when Rosie overheard, she was keen to do it too. Subsequently, someone else they know heard about it and now they’re interested, too. ‘When I mention home-swapping, people get so excited.’

The pitfalls of home-swapping

No matter how many times you’ve been through the process, though, there can still be mishaps – swappees are often strangers, after all. After her first experience home-swapping with that family from Paris, Caitlin rated the experience a 10 out of 10 and said she would definitely do it again. A more recent swap with a woman in Belgrade, however, wasn’t so good, as her home was left dirty (and DIY home swaps don’t come with cleaning services, like Airbnb). 

The mishaps aren’t limited to swaps with a stranger – both Rosie and Delia live in buildings with ‘idiosyncrasies’, as Rosie puts it, and throughout the two periods they’ve been staying at each other’s spaces, there have been a few freaked-out phone calls and weird text messages exchanged between them. 

Rosie lives in the basement flat of a London townhouse, and there were some problems with her kitchen when Delia was staying in September 2023. ‘[Rosie’s kitchen is under the stairs and] it’s very Harry Potter-esque, and when it rains heavily, it means the kitchen leaks and becomes kind of musky,’ says Delia, ‘One day I went in, turned on the light and there were about 10 slugs all over the wall.’

Not only had Rosie never experienced this herself, but Delia hadn’t seen a slug before. ‘Roaches, I can handle – it’s New York – but slugs? They’re smooshy, and I didn’t know what to do so I just kept sending Rosie photos, though I was kind of obsessed,’ says Delia. ‘I did actually get really good at catching them on pieces of paper and moving them outside to the wild.’ Rosie has since had parts of her kitchen re-sealed. 

Delia’s apartment in Crown Heights has its quirks too, and Rosie was close to missing her flight home because of one of them. ‘The plumbing in [Delia’s] building is pretty rickety, and sometimes when you flush the toilet there’s a continuous trickle of water into the cistern, and once it looked like it was about to overflow,’ says Rosie. The first time this happened, Delia was able to contact her building’s superintendent on Rosie’s behalf, but not the second time. 

I just began scooping water out of the toilet and throwing it in the bathtub 

With luggage by the door all ready to go, Rosie was stuck between catching her plane and leaving Delia to arrive home to a flooded apartment, or fixing it and potentially missing her flight. ‘I went back into the bathroom and just began scooping and scooping water out of the toilet and throwing it into the bathtub so it wouldn’t overflow!’ she says. ‘Thankfully Delia had landed on time, and when I called I wasn’t expecting her to answer, but she told me how to turn off the water and said she’d sort it when she got back,’ says Rosie. ‘[If I were to home-swap with a stranger] I’d definitely want to ensure they understood all the little oddities about the place.’

Looking ahead with home-swapping

So, is home-swapping a viable alternative to short-term holiday lets? That depends. You’ll need a home you’re willing (and allowed) to swap in the first place, and you’ll need to be flexible and open-minded. The opportunity to save cash is a big draw, and while official platforms offer some budget options, the most affordable way to home swap remains doing so with someone you know – or sussing out a stranger from Facebook and hoping they don’t leave your bathroom in a bad way (we’re looking at you, woman from Belgrade).