Do you wish you could travel more? Take your family to see new places and have wonderful new experiences? Financial restrictions might be preventing this dream from coming to fruition. It’s not just the accommodation costs that can be prohibitive, but the flights, transfers and even petrol if you’re staying closer to home. All these costs add up and can mean that holidays become a once a year event. How awesome would it be to increase the number of holidays you could take without breaking the bank?
If you’re anything like me you’re a bit picky about where you stay and you don’t want to do ‘budget’ to reduce these accommodation costs. So how about somewhere with zero accommodation costs? The answer to your travel prayers is here and it’s called HomeExchange.
In 1992 HomeExchange was founded in California. In the early days it was a simply a printed catalog of the available properties which was mailed to members quarterly. It took until 1994 for Home Exchange to be taken online. Allowing the portfolio of listings to be available to a wider, globe-spanning market of enthusiasts keen to explore the world.
HomeExchange was acquired by Guest to Guest in 2017, the two join together to become the world’s undisputed leader of the home swapping market with more than 400,000 homes in their collective inventory.
So how does it work?
Direct Exchange
Travellers can directly swap their homes with each without exchanging any money. After you’ve listed your home and stated what sort of holiday you are hoping to have, you can start sending out enquiries. It is up to you to make contact with others and to secure your swap
Balloon Exchange
In addition to the popular reciprocal exchanges, a new flexible option has been added. The complimentary Balloon Exchange program allows members to use one Balloon to stay in any other members’ home without having to let the other family stay in their home in return. You can earn a Balloon by hosting another member in a one-way exchange (letting someone stay in your house without requesting to stay in theirs).
Sounds awesome, but is it safe?
Your yearly membership gives you unlimited access to home listings and swaps anywhere in the world. Members can exchange as many times as they wish, without any additional fees. If you don’t do an exchange in your first year of Membership, you get a second year free. The yearly membership is roughly $150, depending on which country you’re in.
I will warn you that searching through the listings can be addictive. There are so many wonderful houses available and it’s so exciting to have destinations open up to you which might not have been possible before.
We are super excited that on Saturday we are heading off to Amsterdam to try out HomeExchange ourselves. I’ll be sharing our trip over on Instagram Stories so pop over and follow me there so you can see what we get up to.
Disclosure: We’ve been given a balloon pass free of charge to try out the service. All other expenses are at our own costs.