Home Exchange vs Airbnb: 8 Reasons Why Home Exchanges Are Better
Swapoffi
13 Jun
In the ever-evolving landscape of travel accommodations, home exchanges have emerged as a refreshing alternative to traditional booking platforms like Airbnb and Booking.com. While these popular services have their benefits, home exchanges offer a free and unique experience that goes beyond the conventional hotel or rental stay. So, let’s compare home exchange vs Airbnb and explore the main reasons why home exchanges are the better option.
- The Cost
When comparing home exchange vs Airbnb, it’s impossible not to mention the cost. When you home swap, you don’t pay for accommodation, ever. It’s free except for a low-cost annual membership fee which grants you access to members’ homes available for swapping. Your membership fee allows for unlimited swap requests. There is no onus on a member to accept any swap request so the best advice is to make multiple requests to ensure you get at least one confirmed!
Home exchange memberships can be for a minimum of 3 months, with most people taking an annual membership. Annual membership costs about the same price as one night in a European hotel!
With a home exchange membership, you can make unlimited swap requests with your membership. Getting actual swaps depends on having your swap request accepted by the other homeowner. This is a great reason to ensure your profile description and pic are as strong as they can be. View other swappers as your competition so you want to stand out!
The good news with a home swap is that some members offer swaps for weeks whilst others prefer swaps for months! Each home is different and the swap preferences of each homeowner is different too.
So home swaps hands down beat Airbnb when it comes to cost. It's Freebnb vs Airbnb when you choose a home swap!
Did we mention that accommodation is always free with home exchanges?
- Hidden Fees
Airbnb has gotten some negative publicity with extra costs such as the cost of cleaning. There are no hidden fees or any other fees with Swapoffi. Pay your annual membership and that’s it! Your membership is paid for with your first one or two nights of swapping. It’s a great deal!
Swapoffi is, first and foremost, a community of solos and couples who work as they travel. The founders started Swapoffi as they could not find what they were looking for anywhere else - a home with a home office and wifi.
We are a home exchange community. We are not a marketplace of landlords and tenants. Moreover, transparency is very important, not just to us but also to our members. Our low-cost model is deliberately designed to encourage membership. There are no catches. Members can cancel at any time.
Home swapping beats Airbnb on this point too!
- Community
Unlike Airbnb and Booking.com where profit is the number one goal for accommodation providers, our main aim is to encourage travelling for digital nomads and remote workers whilst eliminating the single biggest cost of travelling - accommodation.
We believe that all home swappers enjoy free accommodation and that is why home exchanges have been around for decades. So, when you join a home exchange, it is certain that you will be engaging with like-minded people, who all like to travel without paying for accommodation.
Swapoffi has a private messaging platform for its members. You are encouraged to ask other members about their homes and local areas. Most members will be very happy to answer all of your questions before you decide to request a swap. Nobody is selling anything and home swap communities are review based.
This is another win for home swapping. Even the most helpful Airbnb landlord is making money out of you.
- Sustainability
If you’re wondering what is better for sustainability - home exchange vs Airbnb, the answer is “home exchange.” Unlike Airbnb and Booking.com, which may encourage property development for ownership for profiteering, home exchange members use existing resources – our own homes. Verified members swap homes with each other so we all get to travel, without driving demand for tourist accommodation.
Hands down, this is another win for home swapping vs Airbnb.
- Legal Regulations & Tax Advantages
A number of locations around the world have introduced legislation to curtail short term private accommodation. This move has been forced, due to the overwhelming success of Airbnb, which has had very negative impacts on local economies. In popular Airbnb destinations, such as New York, Barcelona and Dublin,local people have been priced out of their own cities and homes. This micro effect leads to an overall shortage of homes for local people, putting pressure on the housing market.
If you choose to stay in an Airbnb, read up on local property-letting restrictions to ensure you are on the right side of the law and do not incur any fines, or worse.
When you home swap, there are much much fewer legal regulations restricting your stay. In fact, with Digital Nomad Visas, over 50 countries – and growing all the time – actively invite remote workers in!
- Trip Duration
With Airbnb, you pay for every night of accommodation that you stay. With a home exchange, you don’t pay anything beyond your membership of the home exchange community. Airbnb offers discounts for long stays, usually for months or more. Whilst this is very welcome, free accommodation with a home exchange, wins every time! So, if you’re still not sure about what to choose: home exchange or Airbnb - you have your answer.
If you home swap with Swapoffi, check each member’s profile where they specify their ideal swap duration. Browsing current listings, our long swap duration is for 9 months! How much money would you save if you didn’t have to pay for accommodation for 9 months!
Make sure to check each profile carefully to read each home’s features, the home owners’ preferred swap destinations and their ideal swap duration.
Home exchange has to win on this point as all trips, regardless of swap duration, are free!
- Stay in a Real Home
Airbnb’s original offering was to stay in somebody’s spare room in their home. I think it is accepted nowadays that many Airbnb homeowners are professional landlords. This is a core difference with a home exchange community where all homes are real homes, and not for rent.
Why does this matter? The feeling of staying in a real home, where the fixtures and fittings have been chosen from personal preference by the owner, is completely different to staying in properties where everything is chosen by a landlord, for budget and for durability.
From mugs to cutlery to mattress quality, you can usually tell when these have been purchased by a landlord. That is, of course, not to say that all fixtures and fittings in a home exchange are top quality. So, use the credit score for each home, read the profile carefully, examine the pics of the home closely, and if in doubt, ask the homeowner anything you want. Remember that respect and courtesy underpin a home swap community.
Home swaps win for real home stays over landlord homes.
- Destination Choice
With 5 million hosts in 200 countries, you will have an endless supply of destinations and home types – from vineyards to castles – when you stay in an Airbnb property. So there is no question that Airbnb wins this category hands down.
BUT….. you pay to stay in an Airbnb and as we already know, you never pay to stay in a home swap property.
This is a big win for Airbnb. Their global coverage ensures you will find an Airbnb property where you want one!
With home swapping, you are restricted to the locations the home swap communities have homes in (although experienced home swappers say their best travel experiences have been in places they have never heard of before!).
In summary, there are numerous reasons why home exchanges like Swapoffi stand out from industry giants Airbnb and Booking.com. Choosing a home exchange offers more than just accommodation– it's a chance to save money, become a part of a great community and so much more! So, when deciding between home exchange vs Airbnb and Booking.com, consider the unique advantages that make home exchanges a compelling choice for your next adventure.
If you have never considered a home exchange before, or if the concept of home swaps is new to you, check out www.swapoffi.com. If you can work from home – or work from any-one else’s home, Swapoffi is for you! We differ from all home exchanges as our homes come with workspaces as well as living and sleeping accommodation. Work and travel without the need to spend money on coworking office space or rent.
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