Holidays abroad are cheaper: home exchange holidays. Exchange of houses: is it possible to trade housing for the holidays Exchange of apartments for a while

Services for the exchange of housing (Home swapping) and cohabitation appeared during the crisis in 2008, when people lost their jobs, companies' incomes fell, but the desire to live as before remained, but the ability to pay a high price for "as before" did not. Startups Couchsourfing and Airbnb are believed to have originated from there.
The housing exchange has become a prime example of the sharing economy, where one of the main principles is access to use, not ownership: housing is used here as a tool and the opportunity to travel for free.

Of course, everyone has heard about the Airbnb website, which offers profitable rentals around the world from owners. But, this resource is far from being the only one of its kind, we have selected ten reliable sites where you can rent an apartment while traveling to anywhere in the world.

Homestay

Couchsurfing (couchsurfing)


Сouchsurfing.com was launched in 2004 and within a few years has grown into a huge multimillion-dollar community of people. At the moment, 12 million people from more than 200,000 cities are registered in the system. Those who offer their accommodation on this site do it - for free. Yes, you can actually write to someone, for example, from Paris, and when you come to France, you will stay at the house of your new acquaintance for free. Couchsurfing is an exchange of information to some extent, the one you come to is interested in your life in your country, and you study his life from the inside. Yes, of course, sometimes you have to endure some inconvenience, for example, you can get at your disposal not a room, but just a sofa, but it's free.

Lovehomeswap.com is also a site for finding free housing, more precisely for housing exchange. The resource has been operating since 2011, and now offers 75,000 properties in more than 160 countries around the world. Having found a suitable villa or apartment in the system, you make a “swap” through the site, so for the duration of your trip you will exchange your own property, for example, for a villa in Tuscany. True, membership on the site is paid from 144 pounds for an unlimited number of swaps throughout the year. But, there is also a free demo version for 14 days.

This is perhaps one of the oldest sites - it began its work back in 1992, and then not from a site on the Internet, but from a printed book in which the addresses of people who were ready to host guests from all over the world were printed. Today it is a full-fledged resource with more than 65,000 properties and impressive millions of exchanges around the world. Here at homeexchange.com people communicate with each other, look for like-minded people and a travel company and, of course, find each other in order to be at home in any country!

Vedycasa.com

airbnb.com

culture go go

Wwoof - housing on a farm in exchange for help with the housework

Homestayin.com - how Asia conquers the West

Casaparticularcuba.org - live in Cuba

According to sources

Recently, we talked in detail about the very first stage of travel - about where and how to profitably book plane tickets.

In the article we will describe both simple and familiar to many tools, as well as more extravagant ones, which not everyone can decide on - but nevertheless, they have the right to exist.

Let's start with the most extravagant option.

6. Booking systems

This is perhaps the most standard way to find hotels. There are many booking systems that have at their disposal a database of hotels for which the search is carried out.

Moreover, often the cost of the same number in different search engines can differ significantly.

Most popular systems:

• http://www.agoda.com
• http://hotels.com
• http://istrovok.ru .

7. Meta search engines

This method can be called the simplest, most convenient and often the most effective, especially if your goal is simply to find an acceptable hotel in the right city.

Meta search engines are search engines that do not have their own database of hotels and do not offer booking services, but search through a variety of booking engines.

The obvious advantage of this method is the ability to compare many different options and the absence of the need to study each reservation system separately. For each hotel found, a list of options with prices is provided, from which you can choose yourself.

In addition to prices, descriptions, and photos, some of these meta search engines also collect discount offers and hotel reviews, so you can explore everything in one place.

We have tried many similar sites, many of them are similar, but in our opinion, the most convenient and complete are www.hotellook.ru and.

When choosing a particular hotel, you will be asked to go to the booking system website for booking - you can try to go to different systems and compare the results.

Sometimes it happens that the price difference is not significant, but in one of the options, for example, you do not need to make an advance payment, or just some system will seem more convenient to you.

So, to summarize all of the above: if you are just going on vacation to Europe or the USA, you want to live in comfort, but not overpay and at the same time not spend a lot of time looking for housing, then it will be most convenient to use one of these services:

• www.hotellook.ru

We hope that this review will allow you to find accommodation for the soul and for the budget and have a great vacation!

Accommodation exchange travel, i.e. holiday with the exchange of houses or apartments - a phenomenon not new to Western countries.

This movement is more than 50 years old, but it began to gain global popularity only in the era of the Internet.

Today, there are dozens of popular sites offering temporary housing in various parts of the world.

If you are ready to give your apartment to tourists from Japan or Argentina, then in return you will receive the keys to their house for free.

If you nevertheless decide to exchange housing with foreigners for the duration of your vacation, then specify the terms of stay, additional conditions (for example, watering flowers, cleaning the apartment before leaving) - and you can go to another country.

There are two main reasons why people around the world choose to travel in apartment exchanges.

1. The first is significant cost savings.

   After low-cost airlines made the cost of air travel affordable to literally everyone, the most significant expense item has become rental housing. “How wonderful it would be if you could travel around the world without spending money on staying in hotels or renting an apartment,” people thought at some point.

   REFERENCE: Indeed, if you cross out this item of expenditure, then vacation becomes not a luxury, but simply an alternative pastime. You no longer need to save money all year to go to the sea for three weeks. Travel is now easy to organize without breaking the piggy bank.

2. The second reason for the popularity of vacation apartment exchange is the opportunity to immerse yourself in the ordinary life of the host country.

   You can endlessly prepare for the trip: read guidebooks, study the ratings of the best entertainment in the city and communicate with other tourists on forms, but then the spirit of adventure disappears.

   For those who are not interested in walking the beaten paths, a vacation with an exchange will be the perfect solution.

pros

The exchange of apartments during the holidays has additional bonuses, which include:

Minuses

But there are some disadvantages of traveling with an exchange of housing. The main ones are:

ATTENTION: With a thoughtful approach, apartment-sharing vacations can be a way to travel around the world without spending a lot of money.

Where to look for vacation rental exchange options in different countries?

Before you start looking for an apartment for a vacation, it will be useful to learn about the main ways to exchange apartments between cities for a vacation or in other countries.

The first is the conclusion of a lease. You and the owner of the other house sign agreements to rent out the property for a certain amount. In the event of a conflict, the agreements will become the basis for litigation in court.

The second option is to draw up an agreement on the exchange of houses. Agreements of this kind are not provided for by the legislation of our country, but can serve as evidence of the very fact of the exchange.

It is better to search for an apartment on trusted sites dedicated to this type of tourism:

IMPORTANT: On the World Wide Web, you can find many similar sites for exchanging vacation apartments. Registration for some of them is paid, while others require payment only for additional services. In any case, the amounts requested by the sites will be significantly lower than booking a hotel room.

Procedure for renting an apartment for travel

So, you've decided to look for alternative accommodation for your vacation. In order to implement this plan, several steps must be taken:

1. Register on one or more apartment exchange sites.
2. Take photos of your house or apartment and the surrounding area.
3. Fill out the questionnaire as detailed as possible, add a colorful description of the apartment and the city in which it is located.
4. You can wait for responses or look at the available options and write to the hosts yourself.
5. When there is a suitable option with the owner of another apartment, you should discuss the terms, conditions for using housing, sign lease agreements, and exchange keys.

Key exchange can be done by mail leaving the keys with neighbors or in person.

Features of housing exchange tourism

Foreign and domestic exchange tourism differ significantly.

In Western countries, this is a common occurrence, travelers are already accustomed to trusting their homes to enthusiasts like them.

On the sites you can often find not only modest apartments, but also spacious private houses, the owners of which could well afford a hotel room.

In Russia, this type of tourism is just beginning to develop. As a result, we still have a rather modest selection of houses for exchange, and unusual options come across rarely. This situation does not promise great prospects for tourists who want to relax within the country.

On the other hand, Russian homeowners receive a large number of offers from foreigners who dream of visiting a still exotic country for them. So if you decide to put up an offer on an international resource, you will get the opportunity to visit many countries.

REFERENCE: Contrary to popular belief, housing exchange tourism is not only for owners of luxury apartments located in the center of the metropolis. Of course, the house must meet certain standards, but a lot depends on your ability to present it.

Describe life in your city, add high-quality photos, listen to the advice of community members. Perhaps you will receive an offer from the owner of an apartment in Venice, who wants to feel the atmosphere of the Russian hinterland.

Vacation time has existed for more than 50 years in America and Europe . The very idea of ​​such a budget vacation belongs to students who have always been interested in traveling, and the money issue has always been acute.

Before the all-powerful internet, ads were simply printed in newspapers. Well, with the advent of the World Wide Web, it has received a very serious scope. For Russia, this is a relatively new type of budget holiday.

What benefits does it provide?

The benefits are, of course, serious.

1. This way of rest allows you to significantly save your finances.
2. This is a unique opportunity to fully immerse yourself in the ordinary life and rhythm of another city (or country).
3. The time of stay is not limited by the period of the tourist voucher, you can determine the desired period yourself.
4. New contacts, new friendships appear, and this is always pleasant and useful.
5. Feeling at home away from your own home is worth a lot.

Flaws

Of course, there are also "cons", but there are not so many of them:

• You need to plan your trip in advance in order to choose the right option.
• There is a risk of encountering an unscrupulous tenant, because your housing will need to be provided to strangers.

Where to look for options?

You need to look for various exchange options on special web resources. The most popular among them are the following:

Procedure for temporary barter with apartments or houses for a vacation period

Step-by-step algorithm of actions

The exchange procedure is completely simple. just don't miss anything.

1. You need to register on the selected site for the exchange of housing (or better on several).
2. Take a high-quality photo of your apartment (house), you can add a photo of the surrounding space.
3. Describe your housing in detail and colorfully and it would be nice to add a description of your city here.

   Important! Be sure to tell about all the interesting places and attractions located in your area. Pay attention to public transport.

   All the advantages of your proposal should be indicated.

4. Then you can wait for responses to your proposal or view the available options yourself. If you are interested in any offer - write to the owner.
5. After you have found the right option, you need to discuss with the owner of the apartment the terms and conditions for using this housing, sign an agreement and exchange keys.

Conclusion of an agreement with those who responded to the offer

There are two main types of contracts, which are usually concluded during the temporary exchange of houses or apartments:

• lease contract;
• temporary exchange agreement.

Nuances

Required documents

The documents that you will need when drawing up the contract are:

• passports (both sides);
• documents confirming the ownership of this apartment.

Peculiarities

Usually use one of the most common methods:

• exchange keys in person;
• transmitted through neighbors.

You can, of course, agree on some more suitable key exchange option for you.

How to make sure your property is in safe hands?

Naturally, no one would like to meet an unscrupulous person and let him into their home. “How can you protect yourself and what can you do?” - the question is not idle. Here A few important points to keep in mind:

1. It is necessary to offer the other party to legally formalize a temporary exchange.
2. Do not leave valuables in the apartment, only the necessary should remain.
3. It is imperative to communicate via video link from the apartment where you are going.
4. Read reviews about the person with whom you are going to exchange housing.

Of course, the exchange trip is a fascinating, informative, but at the same time cheap form of recreation. It is ideal for adventure lovers, because in this way you can fulfill your dream and travel even to another country.

All the positives absolutely outweigh some of the negatives. Although this type of tourism is still in the development stage in Russia, a lot of offers come from foreigners who want to get to know our culture better in this way.

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