Why house swap?

Major holiday expenses such as hotels, restaurant meals and car rentals can be significantly reduced while house swapping.

But it's more than just a cheap holiday. Many enthusiastic swappers can easily afford traditional travel expenses. They choose to house swap because living in someone else's house and neighbourhood is a more authentic travel experience than living in a hotel.

There are other benefits, too. For example, a family living in a tropical location might have a membership to a dive club, or a couple from Amsterdam might lend you their bicycles to roam around on. Neighbours and relatives can point you towards "must see" local attractions as well as good places to eat, drink and be merry.

Case studies

You take the high road ...

Brenda Smith posted her Copacabana home in Australia on www.homelink.org (a chic home-exchange website) with the intention of heading over to Europe.

Brenda found it difficult at first to set up a suitable exchange: "It took almost a year and hundreds of emails to secure our first home-exchange arrangements. My impression is that there are many more antipodeans looking to travel to France, Spain and Italy than vice versa."

Since then, Brenda has got better at picking the best listings to respond to: "When we were setting up our second set of home-exchange arrangements, I adopted a very targeted approach and had two exchanges set up within weeks."

Brenda says that the home comforts of a kitchen and car make house-swapping an attractive option: "We loved being able to cater for ourselves. In France, every day of the week there was a market in one of the towns in the area so we bought fresh produce and came home and cooked up delicious meals accompanied by great local wines."

... and I'll take the low road

Rob Moore and Stephanie Rose decided to house swap while travelling through the US. They listed their small Wanganui apartment on www.mindmyhouse.com. Stephanie says the advert attracted quite a lot of interest quickly: "But applying for houses abroad can be very competitive." Her advice is to be flexible with dates and localities.

Rob and Stephanie are now proudly based in Victor, Montana (population: 900). Stephanie says that Victor is her perfect slice of small town America: "Think ice cream parlours, town squares, cowboy hats and prolific American flags."

Stephanie says that one of the benefits of house swapping is the built-in social networks: "Our neighbours have adopted us and advised us on places to go and things to do ... We've organised to stay with one of their friends when we drive through Washington State."