There is wide variability in the pricing models and costs of home exchange networks. I thought it would be interesting to compare them. In this post I’ll compare base level price information for all existing house swap companies.
I don’t advocating using price as the only criteria for selecting a network. Many that are free have only a handful of members. And some that are super expensive are targeting a niche population of high end properties. Definitely take price into account. But first decide which type of home swap network will work for you. If you’re just getting started, check out this post for all the basics on home exchange including some guides to selecting the right network for your travel needs.
There are 22 entirely free networks:
- GuesttoGuest
- Geenee
- Sw:tch
- SwitcHome
- LDS Home Exchange
- Fractional Exchange
- Trampolinn
- Stay with Family
- World Schooler Exchange
- SwapnFly
- Airline House Exchange
- Trocky
- IWB
- Alloggi Vacanze
- Exchange2Home
- Flats and Friends
- Private Home Swapp
- Home Exchange 24
- Home Swap Holidays
- Obmem Domami
- Premium Home Swap
- Room 4 Exchange
- Tweedewoningruil
Most paid networks just have an annual fee. I’ve standardized these to $USD for ease of comparison:
| Network | Base price (in USD) |
| My Holiday Home Exchange | $1/yr |
| Intervac | $100/yr |
| Travel Home Exchange | $100/yr |
| Behomm | $118/yr first year, $235/yr |
| Home Trade | $119/yr |
| Stay4Free | $144/yr |
| HomeExchange | $150/yr |
| IVHE | $159/yr |
| Atrium Holiday Homes | $19/yr |
| Teachers Travel Web | $20/yr |
| Christian Home Exchange | $22.45/yr |
| LoveHomeSwap | $240/yr |
| Home Schooler’s Home Exchange Neighborhood | $29.95/yr |
| Knoc | $29/yr |
| Matching Homes | $36/yr |
| International Home Exchange network | $39.95/yr |
| BeLocal Exchange | $39/yr |
| Sabbatical Homes | $39/yr academics, $56 non-academics |
| Exclusive Exchanges | $399/yr |
| Green Theme International | $40/yr |
| House Swap Holidays | $48/yr |
| Waldorf Home Exchange | $50/3yrs |
| Kiwi House Swap | $50/yr |
| Snow Swappers | $54/yr |
| Exchange de maison | $56/yr |
| ExchangeZones | $58/yr |
| Home base Holidays | $59/yr |
| Invented City | $59/yr |
| House Swap South Africa | $62/yr |
| Home Around the World | $63/yr |
| Aussie House Swap | $67/yr |
| Home Exchange 50Plus | $68/yr |
| Guardian Home Exchange | $69/yr |
| Your Home for Mine | $70/yr |
| Profvac | $75/yr |
| Home for Swap | $87/yr |
| HomeLink | $95/yr |
| HomeforExchange | $96/yr |
A few networks charge per swap, or per swap week, or per swap day (also standardized to $USD):
| Swap Nights | $10/night for exchange |
| U-Exchange | $14/swap |
| Echanges Bovilé | $302/swap |
| Dom Za Dom | $7/swap |
| Exchange Holiday Homes | $138/week for exchange |
| Third Home | $395-$995/week for exchange |
And then there are two with complicated pricing models totally different from everyone else:
| The Vacation Exchange Network | first year free, $79.95/yr; $250/exchange, $500/indirect exchange week ($250 credit for week of indirect exchange) |
| Trade to Travel | 20% of market rental rate per swap |
Some networks also have higher tier pricing available. This includes some of the free ones. You can pay for a “premium membership”. Benefits offered for higher tiers vary by network but generally to include having your home featured in searches, listing of multiple homes, and a higher level of support from the network.
Before you decide which networks to join, take a look at other features like membership size, geographic focus and special features of the networks. You can find these details in my spreadsheet comparing all home exchange networks.
I found your blog post to be EXTREMELY helpful and enlightening.
Note that I’ve performed some light editing and am more than happy to share it with you so that your summaries will be (a shade) easier to decipher.
The reason for sharing is that I’ve always found it quite considerate of an author to provide a link to a .pdf file that presents the info for quick filing.
Actually, I’d love to have a conversation with you to give you my first impressions of all the house-swap info out there. Confusing, if not exasperating.
How could your generous explanation be more helpful?
Well, one way is classifying … in which some house-swap services might fall into more than one or into several classifications.
For example:
FREE subscription
High Fees
Geography by Continent and by Cross-Continent
Quality (REAL) Happy User Ratings?
Number of Subscribers
etc.
You’re the pro. Looking forward to your feedback, as well.
Thanks BJ, good feedback. I agree the site and the info I present isn’t that well organized at this point. I’d be happy to chat. Reach out privately to me via email. Find my contact info on the contact page.
I have to agree about the fee basis of G2G. The insurance is something we would not have used over 50 exchanges nor the use of the deposit system on which they take a fee. In fact if one does a number of exchanges in the year they would come out as the most expensive unless you really do cause damage. I guess it depends on your risk assessment and also what your normal travel insurance covers.
So-called “free” sites can end up costing more than an annual subscription. Guesttoguest, for example, charges a deposit fee and/or insurance, depending on the exchanger’s preference. In practice, this can come to $30 or more per exchange.
Good point Evelyn. Everyone should take this into account. And also consider what you get for your fee/expense. Do you want insurance? If so maybe paying the GuesttoGuest fee is a good value, but maybe other sites include it in their membership fee so that it works out to be cheaper that way.