House Swap Network Comparison Table

Below is a table with up-to-date information on active house swap networks. This includes information on the specialty or focus of each network, price, number of listings, and a link to my review if one is available. This information was updated in July 2023.

The count of listings is verified by me when possible, and for a few networks represents an estimate based on multiple searches I ran where I could not find total numbers displayed. I also include a column for “listings claimed” where I see a large discrepancy between the network’s listing claims and my actual listing counts.

I recommend selecting the specialty of interest as the primary filter to browse through these sites. For instance, if you want to look at only swap networks that focus on your country, you can select your country from the Specialty column. Or if you want to see networks that are best for swapping all around the world, select the Category of “general”. Alternately, if you have special interests or needs, browse through the Specialty options to find the best fit for your home exchange needs.

Want more help selecting the best home exchange network to fit your travels? Check out this detailed post. Looking for more specific recommendations? Here’s my latest post on the best home exchange networks.




28 Comments

  • Cost of joining HomeExchange is 220 USD though…they recently increased prices for new members to sign up. Steep increase…

  • Hi Dawn

    That’s brilliant that you have updated the Home Exchange Networks comparison spreadsheet although my network Home Sweet Home Exchange has the wrong amount of members – we now have 1,008 members and the £12.50 joining fee is a special offer for the summer. It is £50.00. Take care Kind regards Jan

    • Hi Michelle, I don’t know of a network that focuses on long term swaps. So I think you just need to look within the networks for the individuals who want to do this. My suggestion is that you focus on the larger networks as those are more likely to have at least some folks looking to exchange longer term.

  • Hi Dawn

    I see you have just updated the spreadsheet for home exchanges – just to let you know we now have 250 homes listed on our site Home Sweet Home Exchange. Many thanks.
    Looking forward to your next post.

    Kindest regards
    Jan

    • Thanks for keeping me up to date Jan. In general I update the table just once or twice a year. It’s a snapshot in time looking at all of the home exchange networks. I think it’s more comparable that way. But definitely keep me up to day if you have any big surges in membership as that would merit an off cycle update for sure.

      • Hi Dawn
        We trust you are well.
        Just to let you know we now have 805 Members on our ‘Home Sweet Home Exchange’ site. We have only 195 FREE Lifetime Memberships left now which is very exciting.
        Take care and Kind regards Jan 🙂

  • Is there any way to download this spreadsheet so we can use it without being on the website?

    thanks, Kerry

  • Thanks, this is very helpful and I wish I had seen it a week ago before signing up for a paid account on HomeExchange. I’m surprised how small the home sharing community is: the total number of house swappers worldwide on all of these sites combined – assuming no repeats across sites – seems to be about 319,000. For comparison, a google search told me that Airbnb has 4 million listings.

  • Dawnzerly,

    Love your blog! I have a few questions regarding your spread sheet that I would like to ask you. If you could kindly email me at the below address, that would be great.

    Best,
    Grant

    • Hi Grant, I’d be happy to email you but no email address showed up in your message! on my Contact page you can find my email address if you want to reach out directly.

    • Sorry it’s not working for you Amanda, my tech skills in this area are limited. But it does work on my iPhone 7, though I admit the functionality leaves a lot to be desired. If you know of a better technical solution that would encompass my current functionality and work better with mobile please do let me know.

  • Dawnzerly,
    Thanks for putting this together. I am looking for a home swap (mostly interested in the US as when I travel oversees, I’m usually moving around a lot), and one that I can have the option to earn “points” as it seems difficult to get something set up for an exact swap. I’ve looked around and am I right that the only big ones that seem to allow that type of system are GuesttoGuest, Home Exchange and LoveHome Swap? I couldn’t find much about the “balloon system” for Home Exchange, but it seems like you earn 1 balloon and spend 1 balloon regardless of how many nights. So, you could potentially only earn 1 balloon if someone stays at your place for 2 weeks, but still have to spend 1 balloon even if you are only staying for 1 week – is that how you interpret it? Also, I’m trying to enter some specific places to travel (to make sure there are options for the places I want to go) on GuesttoGuest, but can’t find where it will let me do that – do I have to become a member first?
    Thanks,
    Sheri

    • One more thing: GuesttoGuest says it’s free to become a member, costs to do the verification process, but then it says there is a fee that is 3.5% of the deposit and they just keep that before returning your deposit, but it never says what the deposit is – any ideas?

      • Hi Sheri,

        Good questions! Let me try to answer all of them in one response.

        You are right about the main 3 points-based swap sites. There are a few more, but they are smaller and/or more focused on specific populations. Here’s my full list of points-based home exchange networks.

        HomeExchange.com’s balloon system is as you described. Here’s some more info on it.

        Testing locations on Guest to Guest: I never noticed this before but you’re right, you have to join to run a search. But since joining is free I suppose you could do this with no risk and then just de-activate your membership if you decide it’s not going to work for you. That seems a little silly to me: why not let people do test searches instead of ending up with memberships that are potentially not going to be used? But I guess this drives up membership numbers by incenting people to join.

        That Guest to Guest deposit fee only comes into play when you do an exchange. You won’t have to pay anything until you agree to stay at someone’s home. Hosts have the option of requiring guests to put down a deposit in case something is broken, stolen, etc. They also have the option of requiring guests to purchase insurance. The deposit comes back to you, minus the processing fee. And the insurance also has a small fee which depends on the amount the host wants insured. Hosts can opt not to require either, and I always ask my hosts who want some sort of insurance to select only one and not both, as it seems like an unnecessary extra fee to require this redundancy. So far my hosts have always agreed with me. There’s more information about this in my review of Guest to Guest and here’s some specific detail on their insurance offerings.

        Hope that covered all of your questions!

  • Hi dawnzerly,

    What an informative spreadsheet & research, you have gone to an enormous amount of trouble. I have been a member of HomeExchange & Homelink for several years searching for a home exchange in Cape Town or the Garden Route, South Africa in exchange with my home in Hawkes Bay , New Zealand, Sadly I can never find one, most South Africans are seeking Europe or New York.
    I gets lots of offers from the States & Canada & I have had 2 fabulous simultaneous exchanges in Alameda, Ca & Washington DC.
    I get a lot of requests for simultaneous exchanges with the UK for our summer (Jan-March) in exchange for a UK winter! Not very appealing & despite suggesting an exchange in Autumn or Spring, no takers.
    Anyway I live in hope. Thanks for the articles

    • Hi Ann, thanks for the comment! It’s definitely a challenge to find the exact exchange you want. Especially when you live on a continent that has a different seasonal calendar from most of the places you might visit. My fingers are crossed for you to get something to South Africa, Cape Town is an amazing city. I wonder if there are other exchange networks with more members there? You might want to search around to see if there are better options for this aspirational trip.

  • hello, I am trying to find website I joined in 2009 and listed my home
    for vacation swaps, but did not log in for a long time and now can not find it anywhere. I can recall exact name but it was something like GLOBAL VACATION HOME EXCHANGE, out of CANADA. The front page had all continents and countries and that was a starting point of search. Did maybe any other website buy thins one? Does anyone recognize it by my description? Please let me know I am curious. It had luxurious house all around the world and words “4home”
    on later pages search. Thanks Olivia

  • Thank you very much. First thing I thought when I read about home exchange was “which sites are credible”? Thank you again.

  • Thank you so much for this listings comparison table, must have been a lot of work. I really appreciate your blog as I was exactly wondering and searching on which home exchange site is most suitable for me.

Leave a Comment