It started with a note on a notice board

Home Swap Club began very simply. Someone pinned a handwritten note to a local community notice board asking whether anyone would be interested in swapping homes.

Two people responded.

That was the whole beginning. Three homeowners who thought it was daft to pay hundreds of dollars a night to sleep somewhere while your own house sat empty.

That turned into this. We are still small and still early, and we would rather say so than pretend.

What we believe

Homeowners can help each other travel for a fraction of what it usually costs. Most of us already own the expensive part.

Most home-swapping sites make heavy weather of it. There are points to earn and credits to spend, matching algorithms, availability calendars, booking engines and service fees. All of that sits between two people who could just talk to each other.

So we left it out. You list your home, you look for somewhere you’d like to go, and you write to whoever lives there. Dates, keys, plants, pets: the two of you sort that out yourselves.

I have a home. You have a home. Let’s swap.

How we pay for it

Membership is CA$99 a year and that is the only thing you pay us. No commission on swaps, no booking fees, and nobody pays anybody a nightly rate.

The first 500 members get their first year free. They are joining before there is much here to join, which seems worth something.

What we’re not

We are not a booking site and not a travel agency. We introduce homeowners and give them a private way to talk. Whatever the two of you then agree is between you. We are not part of it, and we can’t promise a swap will happen at all.

What we can do is keep the place small, keep it simple, and take safety seriously as it grows.