Home Swapping – the Reality vs ‘The Holiday’ Movie
Swapoffi
11 Dec
A lot of people don’t know about the concept of home swapping. Occasionally people will say, is it like the movie “The Holiday” with Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz? Yes, it is, without the romance guaranteed, and always with a workspace and Wi-Fi.
So we thought it would be fun to do a comparison of home swapping based on the movie, versus our reality.
- Solos and Couples
- Swap homes to escape heartache
- Work as content creators
- One Swapper wants to return home after one day
- Kate and Cameron agree a home swap for Two Weeks
- Oscar Winning Neighbours
- Home Swap between the UK and USA
Similar to the movie ‘The Holiday’, our members tend to be solos and couples. Everyone is welcome to join Swapoffi. The only stipulation we have is that homes – regardless of size, value or location – must have a workspace and Wi-Fi. These allow our location independent members to work seamlessly whilst they travel.
Following broken romances, the main reason Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz swap homes in the Holiday is to escape heartache. Our members swap homes to escape financial heartache, i.e. the cost of paying for accommodation.
We swap homes with each other instead of paying for accommodation. It's another sort of heartache!
The characters in the movie The Holiday work as a society columnist for a London newspaper writer and a movie trailer producer. You could call them content producers in today’s world, right? If so, they have a lot in common with our members who are mainly self-employed and work in IT, ecommerce, marketing, project management and engineering.
In the movie The Holiday, whilst Kate (Iris) loves Amanda’s (Cameron) big house, Amanda wants to return to her home the next day. I guess if you arrange a home swap the night before you travel, you might not have had time to look at the photos and detailed description of the home you are swapping! The home images on Swapoffi are all real images supplied by members. We think that is important to manage expectations for both swappers, so no-one is disappointed.
Our members can choose any duration to swap for. Browsing through our listings shows that people have selected home swap durations from between one week and three months, with the average being for one month.
In the Holiday, Amanda (Cameron’s character) offers her new home swap neighbour a lift home, without realising he is an Oscar winning screenwriter. We can’t promise Oscar winners as neighbours, but we can promise a community of like-minded people who will share all their locals’ tips with you when you confirm a swap in their home.
Feedback from members who have had swaps already is that they love the community aspect of Swapoffi and say it’s something that has been lost with Airbnb. We think all of our members are stars!
In the movie, Iris from the UK swaps with Amanda from California. Spain is the most popular destination for home swappers in Swapoffi, although we are delighted to have homes in 27 countries across 4 continents.
Try home swapping?
- Verified members swap entire homes – with workspaces and Wi-Fi – with each other instead of paying for accommodation.
- Our community have a shared vision of travelling more when accommodation costs are eliminated.
- We also like that we do not feed into demand for tourist specific accommodation, which can result in problems about accommodation prices and availability for locals.
- There is no pressure and no obligations with home swapping. You are always in control.
- Set your dream swap destination and duration. You might just get a match!
Sidebar
Trending posts
Is Home Exchange Safe?
Swapoffi