Recommendation for house swap website?

[Wigeon]

Has anyone done a house swap between England and Europe? Considering it for this summer, have googled house swap websites but not sure which might be good, so any recommendations welcome!

Also any top tips!

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I’ve used homeexchange.com for a couple of years. It gives you the option of reciprocal swaps - going to each other’s houses at the same time, or at different times. There is also a points system - like Airbnb but with points instead of money. Your property is allocated a certain number of Guest Points based on number of rooms, where it is, etc. You can adjust the number of Points up or down if you want.

I usually use Points, but last year I did a non-reciprocal swap and stayed in an amazing place in Spain for a week. The owner of that property had stayed at my place a couple of months earlier.

It’s great! I’ve just arranged a 15 day holiday split between 2 Canary Islands and my accommodation is costing me nothing! Well, there is an annual fee for Home Exchange, which is about £125. But you make massive savings.

As I live in tied accommodation for work, I swap my own home, which is classed as a second home on the site, so that does make it easier to build up Points.

I’m about to do my third swap on Lanzarote. It’s the man’s primary (own) home. While I’m there, he’ll be staying at another exchange property.

I can thoroughly recommend it - it’s a great way to see the world. If you’re interested in the website I’m a member of, drop me a message as I think I can send you an invitation which either saves money or gives you extra points to use right away.

www.homeexchange.com

Oh, and another way you can travel is to be a pet or house sitter. So far, I’ve not managed to find a house sit in a place I’d like to go, but I’ve used house sitters three times now to look after my cats when I’m away. Similar to Home Exchange - you pay an annual fee which let you find sitters and/or sits. This has saved me a fortune in cattery fees!

www.trustedhousesitters.com

Link didn’t work.

www.homeexchange.com

I give up! Link worked in preview!

You also asked for tips.

Mine would be:

Read reviews. Someone asked to stay at my place, but when I read the reviews a few people mentioned she had left their place dirty and that her place wasn’t as clean as expected. So I politely declined to host her!

Look at photographs: It maybe seems strange, but I think if the host’s taste in decor is similar to yours, then it’s likely to be a good fit. Also be aware that sometime photos don’t represent a home very well. I’m about to go back for a third visit to the same place and that guy’s photos really are terrible - they don’t do his flat justice at all! But that’s reflected in the reviews.

Communicate: Ask questions, get to know the people you’re swapping with, and the area.

Be open to the unexpected: I had a wonderful week in Spain last year in a place I would never have thought of, but I accepted a request and decided to take the option of an actual exchange rather than Points.

Be flexible: You might be really lucky and get a swap for your ideal time and place, but you might not so it helps not to have too rigid an idea of what you’re looking for.

Enjoy the experience!

Thanks so much, that’s really useful! Good to know the home exchange website has worked for you.

Thinking it might be a bit harder to get someone to swap with us initially, because we won’t yet have any reviews, but maybe I can just have a great description and good photos! We can only do reciprocal, because we only have one home.

Is there any way of making sure people don’t pull out? Especially with foreign swaps, you’d have paid for travel at some point. Or is it just fear of a bad review that stops people doing that?

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No advice but I'm really interested in doing this as well.

@isthisit83 - after a bit lore research I signed up to Guardian House Swap and sent a load of messages to people in various European countries who we would potentially be interested in doing a swap with. Probably sent at least 20 messages. Quite a few didn’t reply, some replies saying no sorry, and just in the last couple of days I’ve had replies from two separate people in Holland saying they might be interested. Keeping fingers crossed!

I had one person in England contact me asking if we’d like an exchange with her, and so we’ve arranged a long weekend swap in the summer holidays, so that’s exciting. Although really hoping that we can also sort out a swap in Europe!

I’ve also had one person in Thailand contact me, as they’ve got a relative getting married near us - their house looked lovely but it’s far too £££ for our family of 4 to get to Thailand this year.

I used guardian house exchange a few years ago and it worked very. I may sign up again this year. My swap was to London from France. Good luck

@Wigeon interesting. Why did you go with the guardian house swap in the end? I haven't done much research, but we bought a second home last year and I think it would be easy for us to do swaps for that house. Despite a second home.... we don't have much cash going spare so would love to be able to go somewhere nice in the summer holidays in particular. I'd happily swap with someone in the UK tbh but Europe would also be amazing!

Ah, that’s really good to know, it’s a bit of a leap into the unknown!

Well, it wasn’t massively scientific why I signed up to that site, but the reasons were:

Some of the other sites have a system of “points” where you can do all kind of variation on the direct exchange, eg you stay in House A but they stay in House B (not your house, some else’s house), and you both earn “points” which you can spend on another swap. Since we only have one house, we can only do straight, simultaneous swaps, and the points stuff just sounded too complicated. The Guardian one is basically just a list of listings and you contact the owners and take it from there. You can still definitely do non-simultaneous swaps if you arrange it with the owners, but I think it would be hard to do swaps where there is a chain as it were.

Some of the other sites seemed huge (loads and loads of listings), and although the Guardian one has plenty of listings, it didn’t seem too overwhelming.

I think I saw it recommended somewhere, maybe by searching past threads on here? Although I was surprised that there don’t seem to be many Mumsnetters who’ve done swaps (or at least, who’ve posted threads about them). Seems like a good way to have a cheap holiday, which I would have thought more people were interested in. Maybe more people are wary about letting strangers in their home, it does take a bit of a leap of faith.

Lastly, I reckoned that Guardian readers are decent types and will be trust worthy! That’s obviously slightly ridiculous because anyone can sign up to the site and I’m sure there are some dodgy Guardian readers. But still…

I went with them because like you say I found the site easy and also I particularly wanted a swap in London or Wales and it seemed at the time to have more listings in these areas. Our stay was very successful and would definitely do it again.

@Wigeon Did you get anywhere arranging a swap for summer? I'm on a free trial with the Guardian site at the moment and so far have only heard back from one person I've messaged (a no!) Wondering whether it's worth paying up and keep trying.
Also can I ask, what is the general consensus on how house proud to put? I put that we are house proud (which we are, sometimes....certainly we would be if visiting someone else's house) but do you think that's off-putting to people wanting to visit my house? I also didn't realise how many listings would say No small children, which rules us out.

We've managed to arrange a long weekend within England (we're in England too), which is great (that person contacted us), but so far no joy on a European swap for our main summer holiday. We've probably sent around 20 messages to people in about four different European countries (we're not fussy!) and I think we've heard back from about a third of them, most saying no, sorry, and a couple saying yes maybe, but I just messaged them both again yesterday and haven't yet heard back. Also had one person contact us about a swap to Thailand (as we live near somewhere she wants to go to) but that's too far for us!

Are you in England? Where are you looking to swap to?

I put "somewhere in between" for the "how house proud are you" - I have to say I'd be a bit worried about swapping with someone who said they were houseproud, in case we left a little bit of dust behind and they got annoyed! It's a tricky one, because obviously you want someone who won't trash your house. I think the whole thing is just an exercise in trust though.

I noticed this thread had appeared again. I seem to be the only regular home swapper who’s posted on it!

As I mentioned up-thread I have a second home which I can swap, and as the OP says that’s easier to manage with a points based system. I’m currently on a home exchange in Lanzarote - 3rd time here in the same flat using points I’ve gained from hosting. I came here from a 6 night points exchange in Fuerteventura which did cost me some money as the host, who lives in Portugal, runs it as commercial holiday let so I paid £45 cleaning fee. The flat was spotless, so was happy to pay it.

If you have pets then Trusted Housesitters is another useful website. My cats are currently in my second home being looked after by a house sitter - annual fee of about £100 and then no more to pay. The sitter gets somewhere to stay and pets to care for and cuddle, pets get to stay in their home environment, and it saves a fortune in cattery or kennels fees!

I absolutely love home exchange. At the heart of it is mutual trust as the OP says, and it’s a wonderful way of both giving and receiving hospitality as well as saving money and being able to travel.

I’m glad you’ve made a start, OP, and hope all goes well. It can take a bit of patience but I’m sure you’ll find the right swap!

@Albless I was actually wondering how it would work with cleaning. So can you charge a cleaning fee then? I have an Airbnb property that I was thinking of putting on home exchange but wondered if I'd be out of pocket with the cleaning....

Yes, I would say that’s pretty common for properties which are usually let out for money. Home Exchange website discourages the payment of cleaning fees in advance - I suppose there must have been problems with that in the past, maybe if the exchange is then cancelled. So either cash or transfer to be paid on arrival.

However, it’s been my experience that guests have always left the place very clean.

Cleaning fees do put some people off, though. This is the second time I’ve paid but I appreciated that my host had new guests arriving the day I left, and that they weren’t there to check or do anything themselves. I also take the view that I am really paying for the cleaning that happened before I arrive and that I benefit from.

My other experience of cleaning fees was less positive though. It was in the UK, a holiday flat which was also on Booking.com. I paid £50 cleaning fee and long story short - the flat wasn’t clean at all, the host seemed to want me to deal with the cleaner, the second attempt at cleaning was also very half-hearted and still crumbs and obvious grubbiness. I decided just to let it go as was on holiday and didn’t want to have to meet or supervise cleaners. When the host came to review my stay she gave me 3 out 5 for politeness! And I was kind and gave her 4 out of 5 for cleanliness! I realise now how much that still rankles!

Moral of the story - if you ask for a cleaning fee, make sure your cleaner cleans! And don’t take it out on your guest if they don’t! 3 out of 5 for politeness! Cheek!

I should have said, I’m on a Facebook group for my exchange site, which why I know that cleaning fees can put some people off. But most people understand that for some hosts it’s the only practical way of ensuring their places are ready for guests.

@Albless That does sound cheeky! And very annoying! I wouldn't be rude if my cleaners did a poor job, I'd be embarrassed and apologetic. Tbh, I live around the corner from my Airbnb which I'd potentially exchange but a cleaner is still the only practical solution as otherwise it'd be me doing all the cleaning and laundry and I don't have time to do that for my house and the another one 😆 In fact, even if I was exchanging for a non holiday let, I'd rather pay a cleaner than have a dirty house. But I guess I understand the advantage of the home exchange is that money doesn't change hands/it's a free experience. Whats the advantage of being in the home exchange Facebook group?

@Wigeon we are in England too, south east. I will PM you my listing, maybe we can agree a swap?!! I have had another reply to say maybe another year, so I think it really is a numbers game - keep messaging and hope someone comes through. We were trying to find somewhere for the easter hols but maybe that's too last minute now.

I don’t use the FB group much, tbh. A lot of people use it as a way of promoting their property, especially if they are looking for particular dates or destinations. It’s also handy if you’re new and having trouble with the website - which filters to use, etc. There’s also a bit of squabbling, mainly from those who don’t like the points system and preferred the “old days” when you spent a year writing to each other to set up a direct swap!

The company moderate the group so they also use it to provide information or get feedback.

Basically, a bit like a village FB group - sometimes informative, sometimes amusing and sometimes you just back away slowly from an argument!

Just to update to say we’ve arranged a swap to the Netherlands this summer, along with a long weekend in England! 🎉 And really weirdly, the husband of our Dutch swappers works in the same industry as me.

Also just had someone in Somerset ask if we’d be interested in swapping this summer, which in theory we would, but now sorted!

Woo hoo!

Glad you’ve got exchanges organised and hope you have a fab time!

We have just organised a house swap on Home Exchange for the summer but struggling with the insurance side of things. Does anyone know which house insurers are happy for us to purchase a 'bolt on' insurance cover top up for the period we are away (e.g. with Pikl or Home Protect)? We are in the process of renewing our normal house insurance and when we mention that we will be getting a bolt on from another provider to cover the house swap, they have said they simply cannot continue with the quote. Any tips would be really appreciated! 😃