Want to know about house swapping? Here's how it saved us thousands on holidays

The homes I stayed in in Panama were amazing villas, one had a pool. They were the kind of houses I wouldn’t have been able to afford if I were paying for the accommodation.

A growing number of Irish people are using home exchange platforms like HomeExchange.com.

It’s that dreary time of year, when we all start to daydream about our summer holidays. We’ve all been there - picturing ourselves staying in a beach-side villa in the Caribbean, a top floor loft in Brooklyn, or a city centre apartment in Milan. Then we think of how much that would cost and come down to earth with a bang, and for most of us, we book that campsite in Spain we stayed in last year.

But for a growing number of Irish people using home exchange platforms like HomeExchange.com, these fantasy holidays are becoming reality. Dublin-based Patsy Winters has been home swapping for nine years and has done 45 house exchanges. 

“I've always traveled, and I just got the idea that home swaps might be a cheaper way to travel, and a more interesting way to do it. With home swapping you can connect with people who are kind of similar to yourself, and you can put your house to use when you aren’t using it.” 

For Patsy, holidaying in this way has also opened up the world to her, giving her the opportunity to stay in far-flung destinations. On her very first exchange, she went to Costa Rica. “It was really amazing. The house was close to a little village, which was not very touristy. The house had its own private jungle with trails going through it. It was a great place to explore.

"The neighbour, a local chicken farmer, was so helpful, telling us when the shops opened, where to get a nice coffee, what roads were bad,” says Patsy.

Getting that local insight and staying in the heart of a community is a great way to experience a place.

She’s a seasoned home swapper now, and thinks nothing of jetting off to exotic locations. Last year she spent two weeks in Panama. 

“I was able to do four exchanges in Panama, which meant I was able to travel the whole country doing exchanges. The homes I stayed in while in Panama were amazing villas, one had a pool. They were the kind of houses I wouldn’t have been able to afford if I were paying for the accommodation. As well, I was able to connect with the local hosts there and get great travel tips and recommendations allowing me to explore the country beyond the touristy parts.” 

Patsy also recently spent time in Martinique and Guadaloupe, French regions in the Caribbean. Before receiving a message from a person in Martinique via her HomeExchange profile, Patsy had no idea where Martinique or Guadeloupe were. “The message put those places on the map for me, and made me think ‘I could be the kind of person who holidays in Martinique!’ So two years ago I did what’s called a reciprocal exchange with a French lady who had a house in Martinique.” 

Dublin-based Patsy Winters has been home swapping for nine years and has done 45 house exchanges.

A reciprocal exchange is when two parties exchange homes. This can be at the same time, or at different times. In Patsy’s case, the lady from Martinique stayed in her home in Dublin while Patsy was in the Caribbean. This type of exchange is what the company calls a ‘classic exchange’ and is what most people will be familiar with, but you can also do an exchange using what are called Guest Points.

This is what East Cork man Daniel Whelan does regularly with his partner and young child. Daniel has been doing home exchanges for three years now, and has done 35 exchanges in that time, both hosting and visiting. 

“Everytime you host someone in your house you earn guest points. You also earn points at various milestones like when you first set up your account or if you refer people to the platform. You then use your guest points to ‘buy’ nights in a house,” he explains. The typical cost of a house per night is in the region of 150 to 200 guest points.

Daniel spends half his time in his home in East Cork, and half his time in Valencia, Spain. This arrangement is ideal as it means both houses are free for exchanges for large parts of the year. Patsy too splits her time between two homes, in Dublin and Mayo. But it is also possible for those who use their main residence as their house swap, they simply need to pack away their valuables and any particularly personal items, perhaps in a small spare room, suggests Patsy.

There are over 200,000 homes listed on HomeExchange.com in 155 countries. In Ireland, there are 3,000 properties listed. This isn’t a passing fad, there is a real shift in how people are holidaying. As the cost of accommodation in many countries increases, home exchanges are proving an affordable way to travel, and to visit hotspots like London and New York where centrally located accommodation is out of reach for all but the highest earners. Using home exchanges, you only need to pay for your flights.

Last summer, Daniel and his family spent a month holidaying in the US. 

“We flew from Paris to Miami, and did a home exchange in Coral Gables, Miami for a week. Then we flew to New York, and stayed in an amazing loft in Brooklyn with a view of the Manhattan skyline for another week. After that, we had a two-week stay in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan; the owners were going back to Spain. 

For the entire month-long trip, we only had to pay for one night in a hotel, and the rest was covered through the home exchanges. In total I’d estimate that the accommodation value for that trip would have been around $10,000 if we had booked traditional accommodations like Airbnb. 

As a digital nomad, or someone who can work from anywhere, Daniel uses home swapping to holiday throughout the year. When speaking with him he was in Stansted Airport waiting to board a flight to Athens. "We're going to spend a few days in Athens, and then we're going to go on to Crete. Hopefully. We haven't confirmed a place in Crete yet but we've sent out a bunch of requests. Generally, I find that you do get something, but if not, we'll go somewhere else."

Patsy and Daniel agree that the key to getting the most of home swapping is to be flexible. “Being flexible about where you want to go is important, as you may not always get your first choice destination, especially for popular locations during peak times. Being open to different destinations can also make it easier to find a suitable exchange, and it’s good to be flexible on dates too; sometimes you may need to adjust the length of your stay to match the availability of the host's home,” explains Patsy.

While there is a membership fee to join HomeExchange.com, at $220 (or around €210) per year, it’s affordable, particularly when you consider the savings you can make on accommodation costs. Suddenly those inflated hotel and accommodation costs for big events like concerts and sports events don’t matter so much; Patsy is off to Edinburgh for the Ireland v Scotland Six Nations game, using her guest points to ‘pay’ for the exchange. Sounds like a slam dunk to me (or should that be a try and conversion).