A cheap and exciting alternative to renting a home in Spain or other places abroad is to do a so-called home exchange. The largest in Sweden for exchanging holiday homes is Hembyte.nu. They mediate over 250,000 exchanges of holiday homes per year, and have over 40,000 houses and apartments (and even motorhomes and boats) in almost 150 countries. With this service you can exchange holiday homes in most Spanish towns or areas, such as Alicante, Costa del Sol, Valencia, Barcelona, Canary Islands, etc.

When talking about this type of home exchange, it is mainly about hospitality exchange and home exchange. Hospitality exchange means agreeing on a time of year when you can visit each other's homes. This also often means making new friends from exotic places. The alternative home exchange is more common and simply means that you exchange houses or apartments with each other for a certain predetermined period of time. Here in Europe, it is most common to do this during the summer months. Incidentally, August is the most common holiday season in Spain and the rest of Europe.

Many people prefer to change holiday homes because it is a cheap alternative, and because they are often homes in a more "genuine" environment compared to all the tourist resorts.
Swapping homes with each other during the holidays is not a new phenomenon. The first services were already available in the 1950s. The difference was that most home swaps were done privately back then and were a rather inconvenient process. Nowadays, thanks to the Internet, the whole process of swapping a home with someone abroad during the holidays is much smoother. House swaps, apartment swaps or other types of accommodation, such as boats and campers, are available all over the world all year round. As mentioned, the service is not only excluded from Spain. Here you can also find exotic destinations, such as one of our personal favorites Tobago. Visit tobagoresor.se if you want to travel to Trinidad & Tobago. Other recommended options are: intervac-homeexchange.com and change of residencee.com. Have you swapped homes with someone in Spain during your vacation? Please leave a comment below about how you experienced the switch, with advantages and disadvantages. See also our page for homes for rent in Nerja.