Family travel in a whole house, not in two hotel rooms
With four or five of you the accommodation doubles and the meals follow. On Homeforswap you swap your home with another family’s: space, a kitchen, bedrooms — and not one night to pay for.
A week for four is two hotel rooms, fourteen meals out and a suitcase of baby gear. The same week in another family’s home is a kitchen, a washing machine, a garden — and nothing spent on accommodation.
Families are the most natural fit for a home exchange, for a simple reason: what they need on holiday, another family already has at home. On Homeforswap, most exchanges happen between households with children of similar ages.
What an exchange solves, and a hotel does not
The baby gear is already there
Travel cot, high chair, baby bath, stair gate: the family hosting you owns the same things you do. Nothing to hire on arrival, nothing to load into the car — and you leave yours for whoever is coming.
Real bedrooms, and a living room in the evening
A room each, instead of a folding bed wedged between two suitcases. And once the children are asleep, a room where you can still talk, read or finish the evening without whispering in the dark.
A neighbourhood, not a tourist strip
Exchanged homes are lived-in homes: a quiet street, a park five minutes away, a bakery and a school on the corner. That is what makes a stay workable with small children.
What to look for in a listing
- The equipment listed — Cot, high chair, stair gate: it is on the listing. When in doubt, one message settles it.
- Stairs and floors — A split-level with no stair gate is fine for an eight-year-old and not at all fine for a child who has been walking for three months.
- The outdoor space — Enclosed or not, a pool or not, fenced or not: those are three different questions, and they are asked before confirming.
- What is around it — Bakery, pharmacy, park, beach: on foot or by car? With children, ten minutes’ walk is not the same thing as ten minutes’ drive.
- The dates — School holidays differ from one country to the next, and sometimes from one region to the next. That is a constraint, but also an opening: staggered calendars make exchanges possible that otherwise would not be.
And in your own: say what you have. A listing that spells out “travel cot, high chair, enclosed garden, school opposite” finds a family far faster than one that has all of it and mentions none of it.
Frequently asked questions
Also worth a look: Europe school holidays · Pet-friendly homes · departure checklist