Top 5 house/home swapping web sites: plan your vacation now
Vacations should be an opportunity to relax and let worries melt away, but paying for travel and lodging can create its own kind of stress. These house swapping sites can save you money by connecting you with a network of people willing to trade their house for yours.
The sky is the limit when it comes to the types of agreements available. Some people are looking to permanently swap houses, some are looking for a year or longer commitment, and others just want to trade for a week.
For each of the sites reviewed here I’ll take a look at the countries included, an overview of the types of agreements available, cost for membership, and an overall impression of the quantity of listings available (on sites that provide free listings searches). The sites below are in no particular order.
- Footprint: consists of 27 different countries including Australia, US, China, Spain, Egypt, and Costa Rica
- Typical agreements: vary widely (a week to over a year)
- Cost: membership is $110 per year
- Listing summary: lots of listings with varying flexibility. For example looking in California there are 17 options including some for Berkeley, San Diego and San Francisco.
- Footprint: 276 countries listed from Argentina to Zimbabwe
- Typical agreements: swaps and rentals available here with a wide variety of time slots. Site targets education professionals though no restrictions are apparent on the average user. Search results are easy to browse and filter by criteria like rentals only, Internet availability and pet-friendliness.
- Cost: donations requested
- Listing summary: larger database of listings
- Footprint: 126 countries listed from Africa to Wales
- Typical agreements: brief description for each listing left me wanting to know more about the house prior to indicating any potential interest.
- Cost: £29 per year or £39 for two
- Listing summary: decent number of listings though not nearly as comprehensive as SabbaticalHomes.com
- Footprint: 75 countries listed from Australia to Venezuela
- Typical agreements: it’s obvious Intervac has been in the business for a while (the site claims since 1953). Its site demonstrates a professional polish along with marketing tactics like popular destinations, featured listings and a money back guarantee if you can’t find a house to swap with. Agreements vary widely and it will likely be easy to find a match for your needs.
- Cost: $65 per year in the US, $95 per year for international membership.
- Listing summary: very large database, probably larger than SabbaticalHomes.com. Listings include detailed information, usually images and a map.
- Footprint: 122 countries listed from Australia to Yugoslavia
- Typical agreements: HomeExchange.com also has a polished presence with some marketing tactics like top 10 destinations, “special price” membership and various articles from the media. Listings contain lots of text that can be difficult to digest without any images mixed in. The initial search results page just displays a series of text links. Detailed descriptions contain good information but few visuals.
- Cost: $99.95 per year
- Listing summary: large database, but troubled by an awkward search interface
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March 2nd, 2008
Glad to see this article promoting home exchange, but the author needs to do a bit more research. I have no commercial interest in any home exchange club, BTW.
Just because an exchange clubs’s website offers a list of 276 countries doesn’t mean they have exchange homes listed in those countries. This “footprint” concept is bizarre. What you should look for is how many active listings the club has.
The top 5 swap sites in terms of homes on offers are NOT those listed above. They are HomeExchange.com, Intervac, HomeLink, 1stHomeExchange and HomeForExchange.
No home exchange club offers houses for people to trade permanently as suggested in this article. People are mostly looking for a long weekend to several weeks of vacation exchange.
See my blog for more tips. Again, it is totally non-commercial. HomeExchanger.blogspot.com
September 1st, 2008
hi try this new website far better than those you list as they have social homeswapping ie councill charitys they have renters uk overseas homeowners they have forums all free to agents and small charge to homeowners and tenants and i agree with the last mail these swapping sites have lots of countries but nothing in them try http://www.property-swap-shop.com i did its cool free home swap videos via u tube free photos
the main concept for this new site is to swap peranently and they keep daily stats
September 11th, 2008
There are also some great Free home exchange clubs out there. We like http://www.EasyHomeExchange.com The comunity is great and we have already made one home exchange in Florida. We are now planning our second home exchange.
November 11th, 2008
I strongly recommend http://www.1sthomeexchange.com. They have over 15,000 members in 130 countries. I think this makes them one of the largest home exchange sites.
They offer both a free membership – list your home only – great to simply try out the concept. And a paid listing.
March 18th, 2009
I agree with the ‘house exchange’ user above. There are a huge range of free home exchange websites around that offer exactly the same value as the ones that charge. Why pay money if you don’t need to?! :-)
The one I use is http://YourHomeForMine.com – we are going to swap with a lovely beach house in just a couple of weeks which is so exciting!!! Other free ones are available on a google search
December 16th, 2009
Small Business owners are largely forgotten. Thats why I only focus on them. I have experience several members of my family file bankruptcy due to small business failures. I also I suffered through 2 destroyed businesses due to failure however, in my failings I have learned some of the secrets to success. (Who can say they know it all?)
What I like about small business owners is that they are not afraid to take huge risks and lay it all on the line. But, I agree they do need a lot of help with their marketing. I think having them go the social media and email route is not only the least expensive but its also the most effective. Thanks for the stats!
onlineuniversalwork
March 12th, 2010
Is the a limit on how long your comments can be? Timed out about 5 times when trying to post a 8 line long comment.
November 1st, 2010
I belong to several exchanges because I can’t seem to get the swaps I want from just one.
I just saw this new one, looks good but few listings yet. thetravellingprince.com – I did join it only because I found this coupon code 4F*FRIENDS which gets you $4.95 a year for life.
I think you really have to find an exchange which has plenty of listings for the places you want to visit….that’s why i am in so many.