The Williams family from Oxford has revealed the secret to affordable travel: swapping homes!
Laura Williams, 37 from Abingdon and her family of eight with six kids under 11, were looking for a way to go on more trips without spending so much money. They discovered that swapping homes could be the solution in order to reduce the costs of a self-catered holiday.
The swapping was done through the website Love Home Swap where owners can exchange their properties.
A home swap is as simple as it sounds. You exchange your home with another lovely person or family for a vacation.
You get to choose your ideal home and location from thousands of beautiful character homes in over 100 countries, owned by the happiest community of members – so says Trustpilot!
She explained that this meant they stayed abroad for free – and only had to cover the cost of their flights.
“We were approached by a family who wanted to come and stay in Oxford, and who lived right in the centre of this beautiful city in the north of Spain,” she said.
“We had previously looked at going there on holiday after having it recommended by friends, however we found the self-catering accommodation there quite limited and very expensive, so we had given up. So naturally we readily accepted the offer to do a home swap with them”.
“We drove down through France, so that we would have a car to use when we got there and had the most wonderful holiday for two weeks”.
“The owners were a family with children so the house was really comfortable and easy with the children – a garage full of scooters, bodyboards and wetsuits that we could use, plus mountains of toys”.
She explained that during the high season, they would spend as much £2,000 for a few weeks in one self-catered home due to needing something large enough to accommodate them.
Laura added: “The idea that we could nearly halve the cost of a holiday by removing the cost of accommodation through a home swap made it very appealing”.
They even had offers to go to Australia and the US which they could have done if there were no Covid restrictions.
“We really feel that travelling with (soon to be) 6 children is not completely unrealistic cost wise now that we can discount the cost of accommodation, and means we will hopefully be able to take the children to places much further afield than we would have done previously,” Laura said.
Millions of people are looking for a way to escape the monotony and stresses that come with their daily lives. These days, more than ever before, we crave new experiences and opportunities to explore different parts of the world.
Love Home Swap has seen a large rise in people trialing the platform in the UK this year. The company recorded a 31% rise compared to other countries and has surpassed 2019 numbers within some recent weeks.
A study from the data company Verified Market Research valued the global home exchange market at $4.7bn two years ago, and it’s fair to say that number will skyrocket in years to come!
