Great article….2018! First timers, want couples and single people only, Europe ,Asia,central and South America,AUSSI,..what site to pick?. We live in Nelson, b.c. Canada …house exchange.
I have narrow it down to Home Link or Love Home Swap…help!! We can only budget for one.any other imput welcome. Thanks, Lynn
Hi Lynn, I will say HomeLink has tremendously positive reviews by members while LoveHomeSwap gets a lot of negative reviews. If you’re just looking for simultaneous swaps (and not points based systems), I’d start with HomeLink.
I am the Brand Manager for TransferTravel .com – a peer-to-peer marketplace that allows people to buy and sell unwanted travel plans that they can no longer use, I think this is something that you be interested in!
It would be great if we could discuss more about your blog and the company I work for.
hi I have a small house in San Jose Costa Rica very secure, I would like to exchange with someone, I like to travel, my house comes with a part time maid, is in a place call Tibas, San Jose, Costa Rica I can sent photos. Thanks
I don’t read many blogs but I really enjoy yours! Thank you.
Can you share info about how often your own home(s) are swapped out and how that fits into your own (presumably) traveling lifestyle? Can you talk about how much work it is to administrate and manage home swaps from the homeowner’s perspective? Thanks!
I can’t thank you enough for the work you go to to gather information and share it with us. I’m one person who really appreciates it!!!!
We haven’t done house swapping yet and so your information is going to be really helpful to us.
I wanted to share what we have done though. For the past two years we have been free house/pet sitters. We are signed up with Trusted Housesitters and Mind my House and Nomador is another big one. It has been a great experience for us. Win/win situation. We get free adventure and housing and they get free responsible person to watch house/pets.
Just thought you might like to know about this option as well.
Thanks Susan, i’m so glad this website is helpful to you. And I appreciate you sharing the information about the pet sitting and house sitting networks you’ve used. I double checked and I do have all three of those in my master spreadsheet of peer to peer travel services. Hopefully your recommendation of those will be helpful for others looking to get involved in house/pet sitting.
Hello
I would like to report peer to peer company in Seoul, South Korea.
There are many tours 300+, and 300+ tour guide, whose name is Tourmate.
I believe it is a unique company in Seoul in terms of local tour with Koreans, not professional guides.
Hi, Dawn. Since you say you are updating your spreadsheet about home exchanges, I wanted to let you know that I have had no success with Guest to Guest. I joined about a month ago, paying the $25 for a “verified” listing. We are going from the US to Europe and Australia this fall. I have spent hours sending out requests to receive only the stock response “your plans to do not fit with our program,” whatever that means. Or no response at all. It does seem that most of the listings are for hosting visitors, i.e., the owner/renter is in the home while you are there. That is not at all what we expected. I think the site (and you) should make this more prominent in their promotional content. We are experienced travelers and have often found house/pet sitting opportunities to be our best way to experience slow travel. It doesn’t always fit, but has been fun so far. We are not giving up on Guest to Guest yet, but just wanted you to know our experience to date.
Hi Deborah, thanks for the feedback on your Guest to Guest experience. I need to look at this more closely while updating my review. (I don’t have anything to do with that site so I can’t influence their promotional content.) I’ve actually had the opposite experience from you on that site: I find most people are only looking to host guests when they aren’t home so it’s interesting that you’re seeing the opposite.
It’s definitely not easy to find a swap if you have specific destinations and dates set, regardless of the network you are using. This is why I belong to three networks: between them I can generally find what I want but it usually takes a lot of inquiries being rejected or going unanswered before I get a match. And I can’t predict which network will work best for each trip. Hopefully with enough requests you’ll some good lodging options for your Europe and Australia trip!
Deborah, You should give Geenee a try – it’s free and tbh it looks oudated and a lot of offers are unresponsive. That being said I think I’ve sent out only 15 invites in total (I joined Nov 2016); and since then I have been succesfull with planning on exchanging with lovely people from London, Seville and Berlin this summer.
I am wondering if you have studies about the future of sharing economy, specially transportation. Do you know anyone who has researched the value and revenue of future shared economy in transport?
I look after marketing here at Camplify and I noticed your mention of us in one of your posts. Thanks for that!
I just thought I’d give you a quick update on our progress since your last mention was about us still being in pre-beta back in 2015.
We’re now well above 10,000 members and we are approaching 1500 RV listings for hire, making us the largest RV sharing community in Australia. We are also moving into some international markets in the coming months which we are really excited about!
It would be great if you could update that post with this progress in mind when you get a chance. Feel free to email me if you would like us to share some of your content on our social channels in return.
Your approach to travel and your personal experiences with locals, comfort, sightseeing, food and drink are my kind of fun. I’m not rich. So I’ve been very pleased to have to recalibrate my international travel cost estimates. Prior to following your Share Traveler postings I assumed $10,000 to $20,000 to go places and do things like you do. You’re obviously doing these things for a fraction of that, maybe even 1/10 of my former estimates. Write on. If possible, I’d like to see your total cost of each trip.
It seems likely that there will be environmental impacts related to the sharing economy. Publicized favorable impact reports could drive faster acceptance of sharing. Have you found any credible information about impact outlooks?
Good point. I wrote about a Salon article on ridesharing that touched on environmental impacts a while back (here’s my post), but I haven’t seen anything comprehensive on this. I’ll keep my eyes open for it though, agreed it’s a good angle.
Hello, I must admit I DO NOT UNDERSTAND YOUR SITE – I am not a swapper but a room renter for cash so perhaps I should not be on the Mytwinplace site??? I get requests but am not really interested in traveling at the same time to these people’s places nor destinations? How does this work – Points for what ? exchange anywhere in the world???
Hi Domingo, you are right that if you are just looking to rent out your property, home exchange is not for you. I have an overview of various lodging options for travelers, including renting. And if you want to read about doing home exchanges using points, this post is a good starting place. You can travel anywhere in the world using home exchange, but first you’ll need to take a bit of time to understand how it work and figure out which website(s) to join that fit your needs and interests.
Hi Dawn,
My name is Grant Cohen and I am the Co-Founder/COO of a new peer to peer home/apartment service. We will be launching within the next month.
I would like to tell you more about it! How can I email you directly?
The email address above (at the top of this contact post) still works just fine. 🙂
Great article….2018! First timers, want couples and single people only, Europe ,Asia,central and South America,AUSSI,..what site to pick?. We live in Nelson, b.c. Canada …house exchange.
I have narrow it down to Home Link or Love Home Swap…help!! We can only budget for one.any other imput welcome. Thanks, Lynn
Hi Lynn, I will say HomeLink has tremendously positive reviews by members while LoveHomeSwap gets a lot of negative reviews. If you’re just looking for simultaneous swaps (and not points based systems), I’d start with HomeLink.
Dawn, Riders Share is updated.
More than 400 bikes now, and still the only ones to operate with insurance in the US (and therefore, legally).
Thanks for your article! Would appreciate it if you update the logo to our new blue one 😀
Hey Dawn,
I am the Brand Manager for TransferTravel .com – a peer-to-peer marketplace that allows people to buy and sell unwanted travel plans that they can no longer use, I think this is something that you be interested in!
It would be great if we could discuss more about your blog and the company I work for.
Kindest regards,
Jenna
Hi Jenna, a few weeks ago I responded to you via email. Check your inbox! thanks.
hi I have a small house in San Jose Costa Rica very secure, I would like to exchange with someone, I like to travel, my house comes with a part time maid, is in a place call Tibas, San Jose, Costa Rica I can sent photos. Thanks
Hi Giselle, this website is meant to help you figure out which home exchange network to join, we don’t facilitate house swaps. Please take a look around in the home exchange section (https://sharetraveler.com/category/lodging/home-exchange/) and make use of my spreadsheet of all the existing networks (https://sharetraveler.com/home-exchange/house-swapping-sortable-tables/). Hopefully all that material will help you find the right swap network for your needs.
Updating so I receive email notification of responses.
Hi Dawn!
I don’t read many blogs but I really enjoy yours! Thank you.
Can you share info about how often your own home(s) are swapped out and how that fits into your own (presumably) traveling lifestyle? Can you talk about how much work it is to administrate and manage home swaps from the homeowner’s perspective? Thanks!
Hi Michele, thanks for the questions. I’ll make that the topic of a future post!
Dawn,
I can’t thank you enough for the work you go to to gather information and share it with us. I’m one person who really appreciates it!!!!
We haven’t done house swapping yet and so your information is going to be really helpful to us.
I wanted to share what we have done though. For the past two years we have been free house/pet sitters. We are signed up with Trusted Housesitters and Mind my House and Nomador is another big one. It has been a great experience for us. Win/win situation. We get free adventure and housing and they get free responsible person to watch house/pets.
Just thought you might like to know about this option as well.
Thanks Susan, i’m so glad this website is helpful to you. And I appreciate you sharing the information about the pet sitting and house sitting networks you’ve used. I double checked and I do have all three of those in my master spreadsheet of peer to peer travel services. Hopefully your recommendation of those will be helpful for others looking to get involved in house/pet sitting.
Hello
I would like to report peer to peer company in Seoul, South Korea.
There are many tours 300+, and 300+ tour guide, whose name is Tourmate.
I believe it is a unique company in Seoul in terms of local tour with Koreans, not professional guides.
It would be great to update that information
https://sharetraveler.com/peer-to-peer-activities-many-new-options/
forgot to leave a website. http://www.tourmatekorea.kr
Hi, Dawn. Since you say you are updating your spreadsheet about home exchanges, I wanted to let you know that I have had no success with Guest to Guest. I joined about a month ago, paying the $25 for a “verified” listing. We are going from the US to Europe and Australia this fall. I have spent hours sending out requests to receive only the stock response “your plans to do not fit with our program,” whatever that means. Or no response at all. It does seem that most of the listings are for hosting visitors, i.e., the owner/renter is in the home while you are there. That is not at all what we expected. I think the site (and you) should make this more prominent in their promotional content. We are experienced travelers and have often found house/pet sitting opportunities to be our best way to experience slow travel. It doesn’t always fit, but has been fun so far. We are not giving up on Guest to Guest yet, but just wanted you to know our experience to date.
Thanks!
Deborah
Hi Deborah, thanks for the feedback on your Guest to Guest experience. I need to look at this more closely while updating my review. (I don’t have anything to do with that site so I can’t influence their promotional content.) I’ve actually had the opposite experience from you on that site: I find most people are only looking to host guests when they aren’t home so it’s interesting that you’re seeing the opposite.
It’s definitely not easy to find a swap if you have specific destinations and dates set, regardless of the network you are using. This is why I belong to three networks: between them I can generally find what I want but it usually takes a lot of inquiries being rejected or going unanswered before I get a match. And I can’t predict which network will work best for each trip. Hopefully with enough requests you’ll some good lodging options for your Europe and Australia trip!
Happy travels!
Deborah, You should give Geenee a try – it’s free and tbh it looks oudated and a lot of offers are unresponsive. That being said I think I’ve sent out only 15 invites in total (I joined Nov 2016); and since then I have been succesfull with planning on exchanging with lovely people from London, Seville and Berlin this summer.
Best,
M.
Hello
I am wondering if you have studies about the future of sharing economy, specially transportation. Do you know anyone who has researched the value and revenue of future shared economy in transport?
Thanks!, your blog is pretty cool.
Hi Ulrich, I have not done studies like this and I’m not aware of anyone who has. Let me know if you find anything, this would be interesting.
Hey Dawn,
Great blog!
I look after marketing here at Camplify and I noticed your mention of us in one of your posts. Thanks for that!
I just thought I’d give you a quick update on our progress since your last mention was about us still being in pre-beta back in 2015.
We’re now well above 10,000 members and we are approaching 1500 RV listings for hire, making us the largest RV sharing community in Australia. We are also moving into some international markets in the coming months which we are really excited about!
It would be great if you could update that post with this progress in mind when you get a chance. Feel free to email me if you would like us to share some of your content on our social channels in return.
Thank you and congrats again on your great blog!
Dave 🙂
Thanks Dave! I sent you an email via Camplify’s contact form. I’d like to do something more in depth on RV sharing.
Your approach to travel and your personal experiences with locals, comfort, sightseeing, food and drink are my kind of fun. I’m not rich. So I’ve been very pleased to have to recalibrate my international travel cost estimates. Prior to following your Share Traveler postings I assumed $10,000 to $20,000 to go places and do things like you do. You’re obviously doing these things for a fraction of that, maybe even 1/10 of my former estimates. Write on. If possible, I’d like to see your total cost of each trip.
Love this site! Very helpful. Hope to be using some of these tips soon!
Thanks Carina!
It seems likely that there will be environmental impacts related to the sharing economy. Publicized favorable impact reports could drive faster acceptance of sharing. Have you found any credible information about impact outlooks?
Good point. I wrote about a Salon article on ridesharing that touched on environmental impacts a while back (here’s my post), but I haven’t seen anything comprehensive on this. I’ll keep my eyes open for it though, agreed it’s a good angle.
Hello, I must admit I DO NOT UNDERSTAND YOUR SITE – I am not a swapper but a room renter for cash so perhaps I should not be on the Mytwinplace site??? I get requests but am not really interested in traveling at the same time to these people’s places nor destinations? How does this work – Points for what ? exchange anywhere in the world???
Hi Domingo, you are right that if you are just looking to rent out your property, home exchange is not for you. I have an overview of various lodging options for travelers, including renting. And if you want to read about doing home exchanges using points, this post is a good starting place. You can travel anywhere in the world using home exchange, but first you’ll need to take a bit of time to understand how it work and figure out which website(s) to join that fit your needs and interests.