House Swapping: What’s It Actually Like to do With a Stranger?

From: Robert. Subject: Apartment in Amsterdam – Your Craigslist ad.

From: Ada. Subject: My New York City apartment for your Amsterdam apartment

On a trip down memory lane, it’s these email threads—and many more—that Rachel Cho, a New York City–based florist, finds when reminiscing about her house swapping adventure nearly 15 years earlier.

The year was 2009 and Cho was in her late 20s, craving a change of pace after a busy few months at work. “For florists, January and August is downtime, and I decided I needed to unplug.” She remembered a particular movie she’d seen a few years back in which a convincing Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet play two lovesick strangers who decide to swap houses over a few weeks in December. “I thought, Maybe that’s a real thing,” Cho recalls. “So I searched on Craigslist and found all of these ads for house swapping. I realized people actually do this, so I posted an ad myself.”

As the flower capital of the world, Cho was keen to spend time in Amsterdam to both reset and find inspiration. Luckily, a Dutch man equally eager to immerse himself in the Big Apple found her Craigslist ad, reached out, and the timing of the exchange worked perfectly for both. “He had a beautiful apartment,” Cho says. “I spoke with him on the phone and it seemed like a good fit.” They arranged key swaps, introduced each other to a few contacts in their respective cities, and within a few weeks Cho was on a flight to spend the next month in Amsterdam. “You really have to trust that person and trust your instincts; had I seen any red flags, I would’ve listened to that too,” she says.

The rise of house swapping

Nearly 15 years after Cho briefly relocated to Amsterdam, house swapping appears more popular than ever. According to Jessica Poillucci, a PR manager for home-swapping platform HomeExchange, US subscribers are up 32% from the start of the year. Globally, subscribers are up 45%. “Last year, we hit a lot of record numbers, and it’s been pretty consistent growth since then,” Poillucci adds. “Once travel was possible again after the pandemic, it was a prime time for something like a house swap. People were working from home and traveling and needed space to work.”

These are not Airbnbs or investment properties. Home swappers don’t make money from letting strangers into their homes nor do they pay others to stay in theirs. When organized the way Cho did through websites like Craigslist or Facebook Groups, the set up is a strict even exchange—your house for mine. However, recent years have seen a growing number of companies, like HomeExchange, that exist to formalize the home swapping process for a small fee.