vacation swap

Luxe Home Swap: Trading Spaces for Vacations in Style

Filed under: Estates, Luxury Travel & Hotels

"Luxe" doesn't have to mean luxury, believes Debbie Wosskow, who came up with the idea of Luxe Home Swap. Wasskow was tired of spending 80% of her travel budget on her hotel stays and tested out the main home exchange sites. When she posted her home in Central London on a few sites, she was bombarded with inquiries from others whose homes weren't what she was asking for in exchange -- in some cases, the wrong size, wrong location, and even the wrong continent..

Her recently launched web site for Luxe Home Swap is member-driven and lets clients make their own deals It costs $159 a year to list as many homes as you own and wish to include and you can swap as often as you wish within the year. If you haven't completed a swap within the first year, the second year's membership is free.

Two of the trends Luxe Home Swap is seeing, said Wosskow, are "asymmetrical" swaps -- 10 days in your condo for 7 nights in my beach home -- and "non-simultaneous" swaps -- you come in October and I'll use your home in June.

"It's totally up to our members to work out the details with each other and they're completely free to arrange swaps however they wish," she said. Flexibility is what distinguishes this site from the others, she said.

Tags: home exchange, home swap, luxe home swap, travel, vacation home, vacation home rentals, vacation homes, vacation swap, worldwise home exchange