Would you swap your home with a stranger to have a cheaper holiday? More and more people are doing this to save money.
Henry Vanderpump, 42, lives in Cheshire, England, with his wife and two children. They have a big five-bedroom house. For the last two years, they have swapped their home with other families. They stay in the other family's home, and that family stays in theirs.
The Vanderpump family does not pay for accommodation. They only pay a yearly fee to a home-swapping website called Home Link. Henry says they saved about £2,500 on accommodation for each trip. They also swapped cars, which saved them another £700.
So far, they have visited Hamburg in Germany and Copenhagen in Denmark. In Germany, they lived like a local family. In Copenhagen, they used the host family's electric bikes to ride to the beach. Henry says the children love living in other people's houses.
May Burrough, 38, lives in London. She has done 34 home swaps in three years. She hosts people in her London flat while she is away. She gets points to use for her own trips. She has saved between £5,000 and £8,000 by swapping homes. She has traveled to Barcelona and the Swiss Alps.
Another traveler, Petra Novak, 34, works remotely. She has saved about £18,000 to £20,000 through home swapping. She says she was nervous at first. Now, she checks the social media profiles of her guests to feel safe.
Home swapping takes a lot of preparation. You must clean your house and make space for your guests. You also need to lock away valuable things. Insurance companies advise people to check their policies before they swap.