Illustration by Drew Shannon
Imagine planning a trip and not having to worry about paying for accommodation. Suddenly, there are a lot more destinations to consider. That’s where home swaps come in.
“If you are middle class and you want to be able to get away from home from time to time, HomeExchange is a good alternative,” says Emmanuel Arnaud, CEO of the home-exchange company seeing surging growth in Canada.
Since last year, 45 per cent more Canadians have listed their dwellings on the company’s website, with about 29,000 Canadian homes spread across all provinces and territories.
Swapping homes with another family, Arnaud adds, “makes it possible to be on a vacation and you don’t have to pay anything else but transportation, the cost of living is often the same.”
Homeowners who use the HomeExchange website, and others such as Intervac and Noad, rely on trust and mutual respect. The only money that changes hands is the membership fee each company requires before booking (this ranges between between $129 to $300 annually). Some homeowners also add a cleaning fee for each swap. Kindred is another, much more curated platform that offers sleek stays around the world, with many in Canada. Kindred homes must be vetted and professionally photographed, and the fees are higher to join.
HomeExchange offers two types of home swaps. After paying the $220 annual fee, users work out what type of swap they want to organize: a traditional reciprocal exchange (travellers stay in each other’s homes at the same time) – or exchanges covered with points. Platform users earn points for signing up and can accrue them by hosting. These points can be offered to “pay” for a home swap, too. The guest point system means families do not need to travel at the same time, and works well for those who can list a second property or summer home on the website.
Arnaud’s platform offers more than 200,000 listings in 155 countries the world. He says home exchanges are a more sustainable way to travel without disrupting local real estate markets in the same way that short-term rental companies have done. “It solves, to some extent, the tension between locals and tourists,” he says.
But more importantly, he sees it as the most budget-friendly way to travel. “The other affordable way,” he said with a grin, “is to stay with the in-laws or parents or friends – but that has a number of drawbacks.”
