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As the cost of holidays continues to skyrocket, increasing numbers of holidaymakers are ditching hotels, apartments and even Airbnbs, and turning to house swaps instead.
“It’s the way Airbnb used to be,” explained Amy Kewell, a house swapper. “You are staying in someone’s home rather than a property they’ve bought as an investment.”
The prospect of saving money, along with a desire for a more authentic travel experience, is part of the appeal.
Ms Kewell and her family of five regularly swap their house in a picturesque Kent village for properties in Canada, Spain and Sardinia. And they aren’t the only ones. One popular site, HomeExchange, has recently surpassed 300,000 members across 155 countries, a 28pc annual increase, while rival Kindred has more than 350,000 global members, having added a further 150,000 in 2025 alone.
If you can stomach strangers staying in your home while you’re in theirs, house swapping presents an opportunity to save thousands. However, as the experts we’ve spoken to suggest, you’ll need to make sure your insurance and mortgage are in order, and you’re prepared should something go wrong.
How does a holiday house swap work?
To list a property on a house-swap platform, you need to provide a description of your home and what facilities are available and upload some photos.
Once a property is listed, potential guests can message about staying, and hosts can decide whether they want to swap their home (there’s no obligation) and on which dates.
If everyone is in agreement, platforms usually offer two options: direct swaps, where you stay in someone’s home while they stay in yours, either simultaneously or at different times, or credit/points-based swaps, where you host a member and build up credits, which you can use towards a stay of your choice anywhere in the world.
How credits are valued differs depending on which platform you use. Some give you one credit for every night’s stay you host, while others attach a value to your property based on location, capacity and amenities.
At no point is any money exchanged between the guest and the host, but guests pay a service fee directly to the house-swapping platform. For some sites, there is also a fee for cleaning, bedding and towels.
How much can you save by home swapping?
If you do it right, there are significant savings to be made.
At the time of writing, an eight-night stay at an Airbnb in Manhattan in November for a family of four costs around £2,500, but using a swap site would make accommodation free. Instead, you may have to pay a membership fee and cleaning fees. These will vary depending on which platform you use, the property you’re staying in, and the length of the swap.
Platform Kindred estimates a five-night stay in New York would cost around £375 in fees, while you could be looking at a £190 annual membership fee plus a £115 cleaning fee with HomeExchange. You may also need to contribute a platform’s points towards your stay.
The main home-swapping sites
HomeExchange
HomeExchange operates in more than 155 countries with an inventory of more than 550,000 homes. Nearly half of its members are families with children, with couples with no children making up 36pc. A HomeExchange membership costs £190 a year and there are optional cleaning fees on top of this.
Kindred
Kindred covers more than 150 cities worldwide, with high concentrations in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and a significant selection in London, Paris, Barcelona, Miami and Mexico City. Its app features 20,000 homes designed to make travel accommodation more accessible to families. Listing a property is free, but service fees vary from around £15-£35 per night, depending on the property and location, and members pay a cleaning fee that Kindred coordinates per trip.
Hemma
Hemma is a new Swedish-founded home-swapping platform, which focuses on listings in 30 major cities and destinations in Europe. Listing a home is free, and members pay a small service fee once a swap or credit stay is confirmed.
Each site has its own method of vetting potential members, but it usually includes identity checks and fraud assessments. For example, Hemma employs a number of screening checks, including validating email addresses and phone numbers, to make sure they’re used and not disposable. Depending on the outcome of these checks, a listing will be classified as either approved, flagged or rejected.
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What if something goes wrong?
HomeExchange says 99.7pc of exchanges take place without incident, but inevitably a small percentage go wrong.
All the major home-swapping sites provide hosts and guests with some form of insurance. Kindred covers hosts up to $100,000 per trip as part of its “damage protection program”, while HomeExchange has cover up to $1m per exchange for accidental or malicious damage. Hemma, meanwhile, has damage protection of up to €50,000 for eligible approved stays.
Sites should also offer some form of cancellation support if a host cancels last minute. For example, HomeExchange will help find replacement accommodation, and if none is available, guests receive up to $120 per night to cover alternative accommodation or non-refundable travel costs. It also offers a compliance guarantee that provides alternative accommodation or financial compensation if the home doesn’t match its description or if it lacks essentials such as electricity and water.
“The liability insurance provided by home swapping companies should generally be viewed as an addition to your own insurance, not a replacement,” said Kara Gammell, home insurance expert at MoneySuperMarket. “While it can offer an additional layer of protection, it typically offers only limited cover and may include time limits for reporting claims.”
Should you tell your insurer before you swap?
Yes, you should. If you fail to inform your provider about your plans to house swap, it may invalidate your policy, and you won’t be covered if something goes wrong.
While insurers can’t stop you from house swapping, they “may pause, limit or extend your cover while you’re away, so it’s important to check with your insurer before agreeing to a swap”, said Ms Gammell.
“Many standard home insurance policies primarily provide protection when the property is occupied by the policyholder or immediate family, and may limit coverage by excluding ‘letting’, ‘temporary occupants’ or ‘unoccupied periods’, which may apply to home swaps – even where no money is exchanged,” she added.
The good news is that if your insurer does limit your insurance policy during a house swap, for example, restricting cover for theft or accidental damage, there is the option of buying additional cover during the period you are away.
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Do you need to get permission from your mortgage lender?
The short answer to this is maybe. House swaps are not automatically permitted under the standard terms of a mortgage. Some mortgages have restrictions on allowing others to occupy a property, so you need to double-check the terms and conditions.
“Every lender has its own policy, so there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. They’ll be able to confirm whether you’re free to proceed, whether any permissions are needed, or if arrangements such as consent to let may apply, depending on your mortgage and the type of house swap you’re planning,” said Sonya Matharu, founder of the Mortgage Atelier.
“I’d encourage homeowners not to be put off from asking. People sometimes worry they’ll get into trouble for raising questions like this, but lenders aren’t there to reprimand you, and they would much rather you be upfront rather than discover an issue afterwards.”
What about swapping pets and cars?
One of the unique elements of house swapping is that, should you wish, you can also swap pets and even cars. Kindred has more than 10,000 members who own pets, and it can be a highlight for many people to look after animals during their visit.
Ms Kewell swaps her chickens, rabbits, cats and, sometimes, her dog when someone stays in her home and has filmed short videos explaining how much to feed them and where the feed is.
“We don’t often leave the dog, but there is one couple who are repeat exchangers who love Monty and will book with us in a heartbeat. They really want a dog but live in an apartment in Greenwich and can’t have one.”
Vehicles can be swapped too, but again, you must contact your car insurer to check the terms of your policy and whether it is covered for other drivers who may not necessarily have a UK driving licence.
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Top tips from home swappers
- Create a warm welcome: “I always take the approach of creating a welcome that you, yourself, would appreciate if travelling to another home,” said Paul Hurrell, a HomeExchange member. “We reserve high-quality boutique hotel bedding and towels specifically for our guests. We also clear space in wardrobes and cupboards for guests to hang clothes.”
- Be contactable: Whether your guests can’t find spare towels or want to know where to go for a drink, give them options to ask you. “Open channels of dialogue, so your guests can always drop you a WhatsApp message during their stay for ideas and recommendations,” said Mr Hurrell. “After all, a HomeExchange is about creating immersive experiences in your ‘neck of the woods’.”
- Share the essentials: You won’t want to be contacted about everything. Some instructions and essential information are a must. “I have a house bible with everything in it, like the Wi-Fi code, where the stopcock is, etc, and we send it to guests over WhatsApp before they come,” said Ms Kewell.
- Mark anything that’s out of bounds: “For anything we don’t want guests to touch, like some of the children’s precious toys, we have little signs that say: ‘privacy, please’ but really it is down to trust,” Ms Kewell added.
- Leave on a good note: Ms Novak suggests doing your best to be a good guest. “Before you check out, leave a thank-you note and/or a small gift as a token of appreciation, and ask whether you could take care of something for them before they return – such as watering their plants.”
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