You’re Still Paying for Travel Accommodation?
Imagine being able to travel whenever you want, for as long as you want. By swapping your home, this can become a reality. Home swapping is essentially trading homes with a person or family for a set amount time, anywhere in the world (think “The Holiday”, if you’ve seen the movie). It allows you to cut all accommodation costs, so you truly can travel whenever and wherever. Plus, home swapping gains you tons of benefits you probably never thought of. Check it out!
1. With online platforms, it’s easy to home swap
With the ability to communicate with strangers worldwide, home swapping has never been easier. Although some exchanges are initiated through mutual friends or Facebook, there are websites that have tons of eager travelers listing their homes and ready to swap.
For example, CasaVersa is a free home swapping platform that allows you to find other swappers who’d like to travel during the same dates. All you have to do is sign up, describe your home, pick feasible dates and voilà; free accommodation. They also have a Facebook group where exchanges are constantly arranged. Since this revolutionary way of traveling is rapidly increasing in popularity, travelers are able to find swapportunities just about anywhere in the world.
2. Fight climate change while saving money
Home swapping is not only the cheapest type of accommodation, but also the most sustainable. Typically, when vacationers leave the country, they tend to leave their homes vacant. As a result, tons of light, water and energy resources are wasted while owners are gone for days or weeks on end.
Although home rental platforms, like Airbnb or VRBO, are a step in the right direction as far as saving resources, travelers still abandon their homes while away on vacation. With home swapping, you know each of your homes are being safely watched over and resources are being conserved. As global warming increases, any effort vacationers can do to resist climate change makes a difference.
3. Help promote a sharing economy
Nowadays, individualistic cultures tend to be very capitalistic and greedy about material possessions and money. We could all benefit from being more generous and kindhearted with our belongings. In addition to trading homes, swappers often agree to also exchange cars, membership passes, as well as restaurant and activity recommendations.
According to The People Who Share, sharing existing resources empowers citizens from countries world-wide, both economically and socially. It also helps to reduce inequality and poverty by making traveling more accessible. With the use of home swapping platforms, travelers are able to easily connect and share possessions.
4. Travel like a local every where you go
Often times when people go on vacation, they tend to stick to touristic itineraries that don’t truly encompass the depths of a culture or country. Too often travelers fall into traps of staying in detached hotels and eating in inauthentic restaurants. Some vacationers hardly even interact with local communities.
Although this may be ideal to some vacationers, there are ways to genuinely learn more about a destination. Staying in a local’s home allows you to experience the way a culture lives, eats, commutes, relaxes, etc.. Instead of gaining a surface-level understanding, swappers are able to make their travel experience much more real and valuable.
5. Vacation as often as you’d like, for as long as you’d like
Finally, with home swapping you are able to free yourself from any financial limitations. Those who swap end up saving bundles of dollars on accommodation, allowing them to splurge on other travel expenses such as transportation, activities, food, etc..
The average cost of lodging for a family of four on a week-long vacation abroad is around $4,000. With these savings, you can book more trips, venture to far-off destinations and even extend your vacations by days or weeks; a win-win for both travelers and tourism!
Still unsure about lending your home to a stranger? Check out what these frequent swappers have to say about home swapping myths and fears.
