Review date: July 2016
Founded in 2012
Free to sign up, pay 9.99€/night
Owned by two Spanish men committed to collaborative consumption
Languages: English, French, Spanish
5181 listings (they claim 35,000 destinations but I can’t see any basis for this claim)
Listings by region:
- North America: 1497
- Europe: 1994
- South America: 305
- Africa: 881
- Australia + New Zealand: 67
- Asia: 447
This site offers a points-based exchange system with some unique innovations. I wrote a complete review of their model last year so I won’t repeat all of that here.
Searching: All searches start with a fill-in-the-blank for location. There is a map that then displays results alongside thumbnails for the individual listings with information on reviews, member verification status, and points “cost” for the homes. There are just a few filter options for size of home, kids, smoking and pets. Because this network focuses on points-based exchanges there is no way to search for interest in a simultaneous swap to your location.
Listings: The listings returned by searches include pictures and description along with a list of amenities and a few details on the size of the home. There is no way to tell which homes have availability for your desired dates, and since this is not a simultaneous swap setup, that seems important. You must send an inquiry to people to ask about availability. The overview does quickly tell you who you are in discussions with.
This site offers the following variations on house swapping:
- points-based swaps – earn points for letting others stay in your home while you are away, and then redeem those points to stay in any of the other homes in the network
Site design: Overall nice modern site design.
Additional features: Active blog and other social media. They have an email service within the site for contacting other members. They also include insurance on all exchanges as a part of the fee you pay to do an exchange.