Home
swapping, like wife swapping, is something that most normal people just won’t do.
But I certainly can see the rewards of leaving mine behind and taking advantage of another while traveling
abroad—another home, that is.
With the advent of the internet, home swapping is rapidly becoming a great way to arrange top-notch
accommodations. No more overpriced hotels, cheap and grungy youth hostels, or sleeping on a friend’s
couch. If you own your own home, it is now extraordinarily easily to arrange a swap with someone from Paris, for
example, who is willing to let you live in their home, while they live in yours. In other words, quid pro quo
accommodations. And, it’s completely free.
A recent LA Times article
discusses the advantages of such a system and addresses the potential worries of turning your keys over to a
complete stranger. The good news is that home-swappers interviewed experienced little to no problems
whatsoever. Indeed, it seems that most returned home to find goodies waiting in their fridge.
The article also includes a rather extensive list of online services which specialize in home-swapping, such as www.homelink-usa.org which has 14,000 listings around the world.
Of course, your vacation time and destination has to match up with the person whose home you’re briefly
moving into, and the levels of accommodation have to be somewhat similar; sorry, but it’s rather unlikely that
anyone in London will want to swap their centrally located flat for your 1 bedroom studio in Troy, Ohio.