Home Exchange Network Reviews

Stay 4 Free review

Stay 4 Free

Review date: September 2020

stay4free.com

Founded in 1997

Two week free trial

$144/yr

Run out of Austin, Texas, there is no information on the owners of this network

English only

~ 1400 listings

I’m not sure if this network is still active. I don’t see any updates to the website since my last review two years ago, the membership has dropped significantly, and the webpage has some serious bugs. The google maps integration is broken and I can’t get the search function to work at all. I suspect this network is winding down operations.

Searching: There is no map based search, the only search functionality is in a search box where you enter location key words. And this isn’t working right now. There are a few advanced options for narrowing down the search results. But no option to search on people who want to stay where you live. Search results give a decent overview of the matching listings.

Listings: Each individual listing has all the relevant details easily organized for viewing. There is no calendar of availability.

This site offers the following variations on house swapping:

  • simultaneous or non-simultaneous house swap – this is the traditional model where two parties swap houses for an agreed upon set of dates. Non-simultaneous works best with second homes, but is also useful for people going on vacation and leaving their home empty. In this case each party picks different dates for the swap.

Site design: Stay 4 Free has a decent design but is lacking in search functionality.

Additional features: If you belong to another home exchange network you can get a significant discount on membership but sending them the link to your listing. They have an internal messaging system as well as a “ping” option to indicate interest without sending a message.

If you’re trying to figure out which house swap network to join, check out all my reviews of all the major home exchange networks.