Ever wanted to run your own home exchange site? Do you have an artistic bent? Montreal-based ArtStudioExchanges.com is for sale (along with its French-language version, TrocAtelier.com). Aimed at artists and art teachers who need somewhere to stay for a vacation or sabbatical, the home-swap site is for sale because the owner–a full-time artist and picture […]

Well, I’m not sure if it’s everything you wanted to know about home swaps, but I’ve done my best to include lots of useful information in my recent article on home exchanging for SlowEurope.com. You’ll find interviews with home exchangers, an annotated list of some of the leading sites with European listings, and more. And […]

Every time the economy hits a roadblock, a whole new generation of media and travelers seems to rediscover home swapping as though it had just been invented. The truth is, though, that this fun and frugal way of seeing the world has been around since the 1950s. Back in the day, swapping clubs published huge […]

My friend Julie Ovenell-Carter writes a great travel blog called These Boots, which is aimed at independent travellers, and she’s running a contest. The prizes? One-year memberships offered by two home exchange organizations, HomeLink International and Intervac. All you have to do to enter is go to the blog post announcing the contest and leave […]

Given the economy, more and more people are considering house swapping as a great way to save money on their next trip. (Of course, “like a local” sorts have been doing it for years, as much to get a taste of local culture as to cut down on expenses.) On your next swap, here are […]

Until very recently, if you Googled “house swapping,” you’d generally uncover sites such as HomeLink and Intervac: organizations that focus on helping vacationers switch homes for a few weeks at a time. Lately, however, I’ve been hearing about more people arranging longer exchanges. Swaps of six months to a year have long been a small […]

Thinking about house swapping? The NYC TV station NY1 recently ran a good two-part report on the topic with lots of solid advice. Part 1 Part 2

Maybe it’s the floundering economy. Perhaps it’s Australians’ famous gregariousness. Whatever the reason, it seems Aussies are getting more interested in house swapping. At least one Down Under swapping organization is seeing a spike in registrations. Homelink Australia, one of the country’s oldest swapping networks, posted a 14-percent rise in registrations in September and is […]

It seems the recent turmoil in the markets has the readers–or at least the editors–of the Wall Street Journal pondering less expensive ways to travel. Case in point: a recent article in the WSJ discussing the pros and cons of house swapping. The bulk of the story is a Q&A with Lois Sealey, who runs […]