Review date: September 2020
Year founded: 2002
Free
Run by a non-profit
English, French, German, Italian, Spanish
Listings: 2,562
Members are primarily in France (2,175 of the 2,562 listings).
Switchome is committed to remaining free to members. To learn more about the history and focus of this network, check out my interview of the Switchome administrator. They also run a facebook group for members.
Searching: Filtering your search by geography is easy on Switchome, and they show the number of members in each place so you can quickly see the probability of finding a swap even before you select a country/region/city. They have also included the key filters like home size, as well as a reverse search so you can find people looking to visit your home country/city.
Listings: The listings returned by the search include a nice display of basic information about the home and the swappers, a map of the location, a calendar of availability, and a free form description.
This site offers the following variations on house swapping:
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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: The website is responsive and easy to use.
Additional features: There is an email function within the website to contact potential swap partner.
If you’re trying to figure out which Home Exchange network to join, check out my reviews of all the major house swap networks.