Savvy Income Sources: Vacation Swaps

This is the second of a four-part series about how people can leverage their homes to earn extra money. This series is an extension of a piece I wrote for Get Rich Slowly about generating income from your home or apartment. Be sure to read the first installment, about Vacation Rentals.

Today, we’ll cover Savvy Income Source #2: Vacation Swaps

It may sound like something out of a cliched 1970s movie, but vacation swaps, unlike paisley shirts, haven’t gone out of fashion. The idea is simple, and it’s been around for decades. Let’s say your dream is to visit Paris. Somewhere halfway across the globe is a Parisian with similar dreams of visiting the US. If you two could simply switch homes for a week or two, both your dreams could be fulfilled, and for little more than the cost of airfare.

This family has a home on Australia's Bondi Beach. I'll bet they're ready to swap their spot in the sun for a taste of city life.

The hard part in this scenario is finding that match-made-in-heaven Parisian. Several companies, seeing an opportunity, have sprung up to facilitate these matches. It requires an adventuresome spirit, communication skills, and a willingness to forge an entirely trust-based relationship with a stranger, but the potential rewards are rich. You can travel the world, stay in places as nice as your own home, and not spend a dime on lodging. So while you’re technically not earning extra money, you’re avoiding hefty lodging costs–either way, it’s savvy in my book!

My Experience. My family has been doing vacation swaps since my sister and I were kids. Each season, the vacation exchange company we used would mail us a huge book of listings, and my sister and I would pour through it, circling everywhere our little hearts dreamed of going. Then our parents would read each listing and find a realistic match (i.e., a family living in a castle in Bordeaux was not going to be happy to trade with a regular house in the suburbs).

We’d fax letters back and forth with our foreign family match, getting to know each other and cover all the little details. We had many successful European vacations using house swaps. One summer, we were able to stay in a beautiful 4-bedroom apartment in Paris for a month, something that would’ve been prohibitively expensive had we needed to rely on hotels.

The only bad experience we had was one exchange we did with a family in Europe. We were planning to use each other’s cars (as is common with these swaps). Little did we know, their car had a manual transmission, and my parents couldn’t drive stick. It was an unpleasant surprise, and we ended up having to rent a car with an automatic transmission for the month we were in Europe, which was quite expensive. We should’ve done a little research, which would have told us that almost all cars in Europe have manual transmissions. At the same time, the European homeowners might have mentioned that before we’d arrived. Lesson learned.

Suggestions for a successful swap:

• Avoid “lop-sided” exchanges; it’s best to exchange with people who are offering housing similar to yours. That way, no one feels disappointed and everyone has adequate accommodation. If you’re a family of 4, look for a similar family to swap with. If you’re a single person, try to swap with another single person.
• Communication is everything. If there’s a loud bar across the street, disclose that. If it’s hard to find parking, mention that. If there is anything at all that might surprise a visitor, tell them up front. People can often accept less-than-perfect conditions, but they need to know what to expect.
• Trust your gut. You should get along with your swap-mates and have an easy time communicating. If you don’t, that’s a warning sign–don’t just assume it’s a language or cultural barrier. Good vibes shine through no matter in what part of the world they originate. Even though you may never lay eyes on these people, it’s important to have a good relationship with them. It keeps everyone on their best behavior, and it’ll be easier to smooth over any bumps in the road.
• Ensure everyone has emergency contact numbers. Both parties should have the numbers of local contacts should questions or problems arise.
• Check your insurance. Be sure your car and home are adequately covered for guests. Also, consider travel insurance in case anything goes wrong with the exchange on your end.

This Parisian apartment is available for a swap with someone from New York or LA.

Advanced tips:

• Be flexible. When you post your listing, you can indicate several cities, countries or regions you’d consider swapping with. You can list specific dates, or simply seasons when you’d like to travel. The more flexible you are, the greater your chance of a successful match.
• Swap credits. This is for the more experienced vacation swappers or those who have more than one property to offer. Sometimes, people with a second home will allow swappers to stay there, but won’t do a simultaneous exchange. Instead, they’ll get an “IOU” from the swapper. Then, they can use this IOU at a later date (at the discretion of the swapper, of course), or they can exchange it with another swapper as a credit. This is for advanced swappers, and only happens when all parties are in agreement. Confused yet? Here’s an illustration: A couple in Los Angeles has a vacation home in Palm Springs. They welcome a couple from Tokyo into their Palm Springs home, but don’t travel to Tokyo. Instead, they’ve got an IOU for a week-long stay in Tokyo that they can use later on. Let’s say that a month later, this Los Angeles couple decides they want to go to Sydney. They find a gorgeous home they’d love to stay in, but the Sydney couple who owns it isn’t interested in swapping for Palm Springs. They are, however, interested in Tokyo. So the Los Angeles couple passes their Tokyo credit to the Sydney couple, who goes to Tokyo while the Los Angeles couple goes to Sydney. The swapping credit acts as a form of currency, and everyone gets what they want.

Resources:

• My family has been using Intervac since before the Internet was a thing, with great results ($99/yearyear)
• HomeExchange has also worked well, though the search feature isn’t quite as robust as Intervac’s ($119/year, billed in monthly installments; $48 for 3 months)
• Both sites charge a membership fee to list your property and contact other homes, but you can browse listings for free

This sort of vacationing is not for everyone. But for people with a taste for adventure and who aren’t squeamish about sharing their home with others, it can be quite fun. Before diving in, be sure to read up on the details of swapping so there are no surprises. Now that I’m getting settled in San Francisco, I’ll probably list our home on one of the exchange sites and see who wants to swap with us. It’s an adventure just seeing who is attracted to your home.

Do you have experience with vacation swaps? Is it something you would consider doing?