How to take a longer vacation on a budget by arranging multiple home exchanges

When you are a HomeExchange member, you have the benefit of arranging unlimited home exchanges for the whole year, with no added costs. Many of our members take advantage of this by arranging multiple exchanges in a row, so they can have a longer getaway. HomeExchange member Helen even stayed in 24 home exchanges in a row during an eight-month period!

"We did an eight-month trip with around 24 exchanges in Hong Kong, New Zealand, Tokyo and the USA," Helen said. "Our housekeeper in the UK looked after our place and did the changeovers. We had a good handyman to fix any problems. A spreadsheet was essential as some were simultaneous & some weren't. Not all of the exchanges were finalized before we left home and some were organized with less than a week’s notice! It was a crazy but an amazing experience."

Here are some more inspiring stories shared on our member Facebook page about their stays in multiple home swaps during the same vacation.

"We made a trip in 2017. Started with a HomeExchange in a fabulous apartment Chicago, then headed across country by train to Seattle. We had an exchange home there for four days, then drove down the coast, via a few other places, to San Francisco (Sausalito) where we had another HomeExchange. It took quite a bit of organizing, but each place we stayed was fabulous. We have not met any of our hosts, but communication was good with them all and everything went smoothly." -Jane

"In December 2019/January 2020 our family did a road trip through New Zealand, which included 3 home exchanges in various locations: Upper Hutt (Wellington), Nelson and Devonport (Auckland). The first and last were non-simultaneous exchanges, and the middle one for guest points. My advice is to plan way ahead (like waaaaay), and to be flexible. We let the exchanges decide our route, and it worked out really well. We had a fab time!" -Emma

"We had multi-country exchange with families in Belgium, France, Spain. My advice: have somebody prepare your home for the next exchange. Everybody who came to my home was happy!" -Walentyna

"I always print off from my HomeExchange calendar so I have each month in front of me and can write where I'm going and add all the details. I do three-month trips and try and organize it a year or so before. I also have spreadsheets of my homes so I can book people into it." -Dawn

"Before the pandemic we had a multi-country trip organized. The only way I could be sure I didn't have clashes with accommodation/flights/ferries was to buy a cheap calendar with big squares for each day and writing every detail in. That way you can see any clashes quickly." -Sandra

"We did a four-month road trip around the USA last fall, about 16 exchanges, lots of non-simultaneous and non-reciprocal. We had the housekeeper come to our house between each exchange. My advice would be to start planning really early (it took us about a year to plan everything). We started by doing a draft itinerary with the places we wanted to visit and approximate dates and start searching for an exchange for the first few places, then moving on towards the end of the itinerary as we found exchanges. We had to be somewhat flexible and change a few places." -Noémie

"We did a great trip starting with a week in Amsterdam, followed by a train trip through Germany to Innsbruck (gorgeous!), then after too-short of stay in the old city center, took the train down to Venice for a few days before departing for a bike and barge trip along the Po River. It was exhausting, yet refreshing, which makes no sense." -Jim

Interested in traveling anywhere in the world with HomeExchange? Become a member so you can stay anywhere in the world for free! The HomeExchange community has more than 450,000 homes in 187 countries and is looking forward to welcoming you. Sign up for free and start organizing a trip with HomeExchange.