House swaps growing in popularity

As almost everyone from around the world are looking to make their holidays cheaper this year and next, home swapping is increasing in popularity.

One of the websites that deal with home swaps, Gumtree.com has seen a massive rise of more than 60 per cent of houses that are registered on their site and Home Base Holidays have also reported a rise of 20 per cent.

“Home Base Holidays has been in operation since 1985, and until this year I wouldn’t have said it was the cost savings that motivated people to home-swap. That has changed, accommodation is often the most expensive part of a holiday, and in the current economic climate the fact that home-swaps are free is a huge draw,” said a spokesperson on behalf of Home Base holidays.

The biggest swaps used to happen with places like the US or Australia, but now people are considering the cost of these far away shores and instead opting for swaps in Britain. One department store on the King’s Road in London, Peter Jones has even set up an advisory service for customers who are thinking of swapping. They offer all kinds of advice from what are the best glasses to buy so the good stuff is not broken and even how to compile a good guide book so swappers are not lost when they arrive.

Thanks to www.guardian.co.uk for the above quote, for more details on this story please visit their website.