We decided to do a home exchange for our Paris vacation to make the trip affordable. We stayed in a modern apartment in the 15th arrondissement while a French family lived in our Brooklyn home.
It saved us a few thousand Euros in hotel fees. It also gave us access to a residential Paris neighborhood with casual and inexpensive restaurants, nice shops, enticing outdoor markets and a nice park. In addition to saving us money, it made the trip more kid-friendly and gave us authentic local experiences.
Since returning, several friends have asked how we did it. So below I’m outlining how we managed our way through the home exchange from beginning to end.
Read more:
• Save for Your Dream Vacation With These 5 Easy Steps
• 7 Brilliant Winter Vacation Ideas for Families That Don’t Ski
• 17 Authentically French & Kid-Friendly Things To Do In Paris
A Step-By-Step Guide To A Successful Home Swap Vacation
Step 1: Searching for a home swap
There are holiday home exchange websites like established HomeExchange and more recent upstart Kindred, but my husband wanted a personal connection the first time we tried this.
We went on Facebook and Twitter and reached out to everyone we knew who lived in France or might have friends or relatives there. I asked around at my child’s school and among the neighbors.
You might luck out and get a home that is amazing compared with yours, but you’re more likely to do a reciprocal exchange: your home for its local equivalent at your destination.
I found our trade through a friend who had been delving into her network to find a swap for herself. We offered a roomy apartment that could sleep up to four people in a relatively central and busy residential neighborhood with good public transit and easy access to the touristy parts of town. This is essentially what our Paris hosts offered, too.
I used Google, Facebook and LinkedIn to check up on our home-exchange partner. We met once via a video call and emailed a lot to work out details.
Part of these conversations covered what was included in the stay and if anything was out of bounds. For example, can you use the perishables or staples in one another’s kitchen? Will you make dressers or closet space available to each other? Are there rooms or closets you want to keep private? Is there outdoor space, a grill, scooters or bikes or a car on the property and can the other family use them? Are pets part of the deal?
Also, is there anything important to know about getting into one another’s homes when you first arrive?
Step 2: Estimating the cost
A house exchange isn’t entirely free, but even a few hundred dollars in incidentals is nothing compared with a big-city hotel tab. Here is a round-up of our expenses:
Step 3: Getting your home ready
Packing for a 2-week vacation is hectic. Prepping your home for visitors is hectic. Prepping your home for visitors you don’t know and who don’t know your home, while also packing for a 2-week vacation was a bit of a juggle.
I typed up six pages of information on our apartment. It included everything from what to do with the garbage and recycling to how to work the kitchen appliances, washer/dryer and remote controls.
I also told them which subway lines were closest, when the neighborhood green markets are held, where to get the best bagels, pizza and coffee and which local restaurants were our favorites.
I scheduled the housecleaning for two days before we left.
And I spent a lot of time putting things away. I stored the pile of coats and shoes we keep by the front door. And I cleared all of our stuff from the bathroom sink to make room for theirs.
We stashed any items we preferred that they not use, like my work laptop. And we had a friend hold on to some of our small valuables. Putting away all the toys— and keeping them away—was a challenge with my 6-year-old home on summer vacation.
The morning we left, I changed all the bedding and towels. Truth be told, I’d normally launder the sheets and leave them in the dryer until we got home, but I wanted them out of their way. I was folding laundry until we left for the airport.
4. Sticking the landing
The cabby had to circle a little to find the small local street where our Paris apartment was. And thanks to an energy-saver light switch that didn’t stay on very long, we fumbled around a dark hallway to figure out which apartment was ours.
But all in all, settling into their place was easy. They left their own six-page house guide, which was particularly helpful for us because the settings on their appliances were all in French. They also left a bottle of wine, a lovely gesture I will borrow the next time we do this.
5. Enjoying life as a local family
We quickly saw many advantages to staying in a residential neighborhood in a large and expensive city like Paris.
All the meals we had at the local neighborhood restaurants were less expensive and better quality than anything we ate in the tourist areas, and the servers were far friendlier. We found a small park with a playground and puppet theater a few blocks away where we stopped almost daily.
With a refrigerator and stove handy, we could shop in Paris’ fabulous green markets and local stores. We bought local summer fruit, charcuterie, cheese, wine, vegetables, bread, meat and fresh pasta. We cooked wonderful French meals for ourselves.
When Tiny Traveler came down with a stomach bug the morning we arrived, I was very happy we weren’t cooped up in a tiny hotel room. We relaxed in the living room while she slept in a real bedroom. And we could take turns popping out to the grocery store or pharmacy and exploring the immediate area.
Another advantage to home-swapping: Our host’s teenagers were too old to have toys around, but they did leave a box of costumes for Tiny Traveler. She was thrilled to play dress-up while we cooked dinner at night.
The (small) downside is that you are in a person’s home. You do need to take more care than you might in a hotel.
For example, when Tiny Traveler accidentally splashed a little grape juice on the white couch, we scrambled to get the stain out quickly and thoroughly. Also, our host is an artist whose sculptures were all over the apartment. We lived in fear of knocking one down and steered well clear of them.
6. Leaving your borrowed home as you found it
Before we left our Paris home, we spent an hour or two cleaning, doing laundry, making beds, putting dishes away, vacuuming and making sure there were no remnants of Play-Doh in their shag rug and so on. They did the same.
They had a washing machine but no dryer. We washed and hung the small items and took the sheets and duvets to a laundry service down the block. The turnaround time was 48 hours, so we paid in full and left the receipt for our exchange partners to collect the items when they got home. Not ideal, but they appreciated the effort.
This won’t become our sole travel style—sometimes hotels have conveniences you can’t resist. But for big cities like London or Paris, where hotels (and everything else) are very expensive, finding a home exchange makes a vacation much more affordable and enjoyable in ways we might not have expected.
We will do it again.
Pin it for later!
Paris photos by Eileen Gunn©. Other photos via Pixabay, as noted.
