Home swapping is long considered a cheap exploit, but now it has a high-end spin with pricey accommodations that are significantly less expensive than resorts and apartment rentals.
Amy Froelich and her partner Marla have been Airbnb, Inc. hosts since 2015. They started in Iowa City, Iowa, and continued on to Madison, Wisconsin, where they own a four- bathroom apartment in a beautiful area within walking range of trails and shops. They open their home up for free home transfers through HomeExchange, an online travel tool they discovered three years ago that allows them to use their area for free accommodations abroad, when their house is n’t rented out. ( Also Read | Tourist sales reaches 1 billion- mark in Goa, guests flocking even in rain: Tourism Minister )
” We were just in a house exchange outside of Glasgow, Scotland. This beautiful partners, Claire and Michael, greeted us at the doorway with homemade food that she’d only pulled out of the oven”, says Amy Froelich, speaking to Bloomberg from the UK, a day after her be concluded. The guests were unable to leave on the agreed times, but they did offer to move the pair into a balcony with a master bathroom and en suite bathroom. In trade, they’ll find to be at the Froelichs ‘ house at a future day of their choosing. ” It’s much more than economic benefit”, says Froelich. ” We departed as longtime pals”.
Although it’s not a new idea to offer your house in exchange for a stay at someone else’s position is not new, this oft-forgotten sector of the travel industry is flourishing in the wake of rising prices, the standardization of remote work, and skyrocketing motel costs. Increased stress with short-term accommodations and the enshrined regulations of rental homes in big cities are also contributing to the pattern.
Based on the number of users or household swaps made on their platforms, all four house exchange companies had conversations with reports of dual or triple-digit growth in 2023, compared to the same period last year.
Kindred, an proposal- just membership system founded in 2022 with accessibility to 30, 000 homes in 100 cities, saw house swaps grow by 800 % year- over- year in 2023. The San Francisco- based startup has raised$ 26 million, early investors include Andreessen Horowitz, the same firm that contributed$ 112 million to Airbnb’s Series B funding round in 2011. ( Bloomberg LP, which owns Bloomberg Businessweek, is an investor in Andreessen Horowitz. )
In that Kindred users earn” credits” for hosting other members in their homes, credits can then be redeemed for stays elsewhere, similar to those of pioneers like HomeExchange and Third Home. Kindred’s twist is that it does n’t charge an annual membership fee, it makes money mostly from service fees.
HomeExchange, founded in 1992, experienced a 53 % jump in swaps in 2023, it has more than 170, 000 members in 140 countries. In 2022, it added a premium tier to its standard$ 220 annual membership, for$ 1, 000, HomeExchange Collection opens the door to 5, 000 luxury homes that average$ 2.5 million in value. Think urban penthouses, castles and wilderness retreats.
That move challenges ThirdHome’s competitive advantage as a platform exclusively for luxury homeowners, its 17, 500 vacation homes in 100 countries are worth a minimum of$ 500, 000 and top out in excess of$ 50 million, including yachts. Membership costs$ 295, with service fees for each swap ranging from$ 495 to$ 1, 395 per week. It, too, has grown: Members increased by 41 % and exchanges by 16 % in 2013, compared with 2022.
” We’re growing, we’re hiring people and we’ve been profitable for five years now”, says Wade Shealy, who started ThirdHome in 2010 with a portfolio that consisted of a couple of friends ‘ homes.
Where home swapping struggles is in reputation. Many people view it as an unglamorous choice for travelers on tight budgets who are concerned about property damage. Insiders, however, have realized—and this has propelled the sector’s growth—that the opposite can be true when swapping members are well vetted.
A Human Connection
Since starting to swap her Brooklyn, New York, home in 2022, her family of four has saved tens of thousands of dollars, according to Rachel Lipson. She uses the invitation-only home exchange platform Behomm, which is based in Barcelona and has a €380 ($ 407 ) annual membership fee and focuses on the homes of creative people and design enthusiasts.
” I found it a little overwhelming at first”, says Lipson. How am I going to permit a random person to live in my home? It was difficult to have faith that everything would turn out fine.
The day before her family was scheduled to travel to Los Angeles, Lipson decided to hear it out when she received an initial swap request from a Behomm member located in Marrakesh, Morocco. ” We did FaceTime just so we could talk—and we felt really good about it, so we said yes”, she says. While she was staying at a hotel in Los Angeles, the family stayed at her home. On spring break the following year, Lipson’s family stayed at that member’s house in Marrakesh.
So far, Lipson’s family has swapped homes with members in 16 destinations, including Paris, Montreal, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, Cancun, Mexico, and Reykjavik, Iceland. When preferred dates are n’t available, Lipson looks at hotels and Airbnb. ” Some of these homes, you would n’t find them for rent”, she says. ” And it’s like staying at a friend’s place while they’re out of town. You really get to know people, and that’s an experience that I’ve never had with Airbnb or hotels. It’s really its own thing”.
An Evolving Lodging Scene
If the economy goes down, ThirdHome sees its inventory goes up, says Shealy. ” About half of our members have their vacation homes on short-term rental platforms, and if they’re not renting them out as much, they get more availability to throw it into the system.”
To raise awareness, ThirdHome is now offering a free yearlong membership to people who are buying new vacation homes at, say, Rosewood or St. Regis resorts. Developers claim that the benefit is assisting them in closing more deals. ” We get about 500 new members a month right now, just from our]commercial real estate ] partnerships”, Shealy adds.
Kindred, by contrast, is more concentrated in big cities, it has enjoyed the most significant growth in Los Angeles, New York and London. Justine Palefsky, who co-founded the company in order to facilitate a multicity lifestyle that did n’t require taking out multiple mortgages, says,” I ca n’t say if it’s necessarily because of Airbnb getting pushed out .”
Even if short-term rentals are permitted in some of these markets, Palefsky claims she has seen users gravitate toward Kindred because they’ve grown weary of Airbnb and its rivals. She claims that high prices and a desire to “get value from our homes” without feeding the beast of the vacation rental are compelled consumers to look for alternatives.
Airbnb Inc. denies that its appeal has become diluted. With over 7.7 million listings and over 1.5 billion guest arrivals in almost every nation on earth, we think we offer travelers the option of experiencing local communities in many more locations than any other travel site, while also providing crucial safeguards to help protect their trip, according to a spokesperson.
Weighing the Risks
As do Kindred, ThirdHome and HomeExchange, Behomm’s founder insists that care is taken to ensure that each member is vetted, from verifying identity documents to screening home photos, among other security measures.
Still, home exchanges can be trying. Finding a home swap in your chosen location can be time consuming, and availability is far from guaranteed.
Marla Froelich describes her search for accommodations in Scotland as” I probably spent three hours just sending requests.”
Frequent swappers claim that mistakes can occur quickly, such as putting an electric kettle on a stove or spitting wine on a designer couch. When a guest is tending to a home while a guest is risking serious property damage or bodily harm, swaps are more likely.
A number of home swapping platforms offer host protection, covering up to$ 100, 000 in damages on Kindred to$ 5 million on ThirdHome. Additionally, some homeowner and rental policies include insurance for damage caused by third parties.
Those who manage these complicated situations can find themselves with nearly free stays in some of the world’s most coveted locations.
In September, for instance, the Froelichs will head to Bali, Indonesia. A family from Australia who used HomeExchange to spend a week at their home a year ago offered to swap at their family’s vacation home in Indonesia. ” We told them we could n’t make it]to Bali] for at least another year, and they were like,’ We do n’t care when you come, just tell us. Our driver will take you wherever you want, we’ll set you up with anything.'” That’s more than even most luxury hotels offer.
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The text of this story has n’t been altered since it was published from a wire agency feed. Only the headline has been changed.
