Home Swaps: Stay for Free on Your Next Vacation

Want to stay in another city for free? Look no further than your own doorstep. Exchange programs, which allow you to swap homes with other travelers, make it possible for you to spend a few days drinking wine in Tuscany or eating pastries in Paris without shelling out the cash for a pricey hotel room.

“Quite a few home owners are house rich and cash poor,” says Margaret Carr, owner of ExclusiveExchanges.com, a listings site that specializes in luxury homes. “They’re happy to leverage that asset.” Since November, listings have increased by 20%, to nearly 1,700 world-wide, she says.

In most cases, home exchanges are arranged through online marketplaces. Some of the most popular include HomeExchange.com, Intervac and HomeLink.org. Although the actual stay is free, you’ll pay an annual fee to the site (usually less than $100) to list your property. Users can search the properties by location or dates they want to travel. Search results typically include detailed listings with pictures of the property, nearby amenities, as well as information about the person who wants to swap. To protect yourself, take your time getting to know a person before agreeing to a swap. Marketplaces typically don’t vet members so ask them to send you references and ask a friend or family member to hand off the keys and check in on the place while you're out of town.

Would-be swappers can also use free social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook to find places to stay. Late last year, Lindsay Olson, who lives in Argentina, asked on Twitter if anyone wanted to swap her Buenos Aires loft for a one-bedroom in New York, where she had a month-long business trip in January. “It was about being thrifty,” she says. “You can’t get a hotel room in New York for less than $125 a night.” Olson eventually sealed the deal with someone she knew on Facebook. (Launched on Tuesday, a new Facebook application from Second Porch Inc. called "Rent & Trade Vacation Homes" allows you to list your property for rent or trade for free.)

Your travel options will often depend on where you live. “A person with a place in New York can go pretty much anywhere,” says Carr. “But there are always people looking to go off the beaten path, too.” In this case, however, you may need to be more flexible about your travel plans.

Here are four destinations where home-exchange listings abound:

Number of listings: More than 600 on HomeExchange.com and more than 200 on HomeLink.

“I probably get three or four queries a week,” says Kelly Fitzgerald, who first listed her two-bedroom Manhattan apartment in Chelsea on HomeLink.org eight years ago. It's no wonder her place is so popular. These days, a similarly-sized suite at the Comfort Inn in Chelsea would set you back $320 a night. (That includes a fridge and coffeemaker, but no other kitchen amenities.)

Fitzgerald, meanwhile, has traveled to Paris, Rome, Montana and Colorado, among other places, without paying a dime for lodging. “It started out as a way to save money,” she says. “Then I realized, this is great – I can go anywhere.”