As frequent globetrotters, we are always looking for unique experiences, and creative ways to travel. That’s one of the reasons we got into home exchanges way back in 2011! This was before Airbnb had become as common and popular as it is now, and we loved the idea of staying in houses and apartments rather than hotels. The idea of home exchanging is simple: two parties agree to swap accommodations for a defined length of time, no money is exchanged, and you simply trade residences for a set period. We had some wonderful experiences when we first started, and in recent years we’ve re-visited the method! Keep reading for our review of the house swapping website, HomeExchange.
Home Exchange
This article is a review of the house swapping website called HomeExchange. They are the largest home exchange network online, with hundreds of thousands of properties listed all over the world. We are writing solely based on OUR experience using them.
HomeExchange offers two different payment plans. You can sign up for free, and then choose a membership plan when you’re ready to book an exchange. You can either pay a low fee per-night, or an annual membership that allows for unlimited exchanges. If you sign up for an annual membership and do not complete an exchange during your first year, your second year is free! We started off with an annual membership, and recently renewed at no cost because we didn’t complete any exchanges during our first year.
When we signed up for HomeExchange, we listed our property in Niagara Falls, Ontario. We recently added our Vancouver property, and have been receiving a lot of interest for both simultaneous and non-simultaneous exchanges. HomeExchange has a ‘GuestPoints’ program, where you can earn points when you host and spend them when you stay as a guest. This offers a great, flexible option for travellers!
Our Experience
This past week we did our first swap through HomeExchange. We headed down to Portland, Oregon (one of our favourite US cities) for a 3 night visit! The hosts we connected with offered us a beautiful coach house in a great neighbourhood in East Portland. The suite was entirely private, had a full kitchen, a work space, a comfortable bedroom, and everything we needed for a short stay. We agreed on a non-simultaneous exchange, and we will be hosting the owners in our Vancouver property early next year. They were absolutely lovely people to deal with, and it reminded us why we love the community nature of house swaps. We had such an excellent experience during our first swap using HomeExchange!
Here are all of the things we loved:
-users on the website are active and respond quickly
-booking an exchange was easy and stress free
-there were plenty of properties to choose from in our desired location
Of course, because things went so smoothly during our exchange, we aren’t able to fully review the HomeExchange website’s customer service. We didn’t need to contact a customer service representative for any reason, because nothing went wrong! We have had bad experiences with another home swapping website, so we did look into all of HomeExchange’s policies before booking our exchange.
They state the following policies to their users:
-HomeExchange will handle the mediation between the host and the guest in case of incident or damage
-HomeExchange will compensate you in case of any unforeseen incident or damages as a host or guest
-Customer service is available by email or telephone Monday-Friday from 10am-6pm
-There is a live chat platform where ambassador members can answer questions
-In case of emergency, personalized assistance is available by email and phone 24/7
We are confident that the HomeExchange customer service team is far superior to that of smaller home swapping websites. They appear to have systems in place for dealing with problem guests, incidents, and emergencies, and their platform also has a great review system. We feel good knowing that we would be protected as hosts in the case of a bad experience, and that the website would work to mediate and compensate us (unlike Love Home Swap).
We absolutely recommend HomeExchange as an excellent house swapping website. From what we have experienced, they are the best option out there! Being the largest network, they have far more properties available to choose from compared to other websites. They also have excellent policies in place, and a dedicated customer service team in case problems arise. Click here to join the community!
Have you ever tried a home exchange? Let us know how you liked it in the comments below!
Disclosure: Please note that some of the links in this blog post may be affiliate links. This means that at no additional cost to you, we could make a small commission through your purchase. We only recommend products and services that we truly believe in, and the income generated goes toward creating more content on this website for you to enjoy for free.
2 comments
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