Home swap

As a renter, San Francisco resident Melanie (who asked her last name not be used) figured home swapping wasn’t in the cards for her. The only people she’d read of who’d swapped their home for an inexpensive vacation owned their homes.

But then, a few months later, Melanie found herself curled up in a small studio in Paris’s ninth district, near the large train station and with easy access to all the city’s major attractions. She says she’d do it again.

“For years I wanted to go to Paris, but it always seemed too expensive – especially with an unfavorable euro-dollar exchange. Then one day I found an inexpensive ticket to Paris (about $600) and decided no matter what, I was going to go” and decided to give home swapping a try, she says. “It’s a unique way to connect with people who are different from us and put ourselves in situations that let us see the world through someone else’s eyes. It’s a lot easier to do that when you’re literally eating off someone else’s dishes and sleeping in someone else’s bed!”

Because she simply swapped homes with another renter, her carbon footprint was low. Though there are scores of home-swapping Web sites available to streamline and vet potential swaps, Melanie posted her ad on Craigslist, asking for someone who’d be up for swapping with her. What she found was a 20-something French guy who wanted to visit his girlfriend, who was staying in San Francisco temporarily. Going it alone could be risky, but she met the girlfriend before the visit, and even got to hand the keys to the couple herself the night before she left for France.

It’s important to both trust the person with whom you’re swapping and to set ground rules. Melanie told her swapping partner, for instance, not to hold any big parties, and she similarly got permission for her friend in London to stay at the apartment with her for a few days.