From: Robert. Subject: Amsterdam Apartment – Your Craigslist Ad.
From: Ada Subject: My New York apartment to your Amsterdam apartment
On a trip down memory lane, it’s these email threads, and many more, that New York-based florist Rachel Cho finds as she remembers her home-swapping adventure nearly 15 years earlier.
It was 2009 and Cho was 20 years old, wanting a change of pace after a busy few months at work. “For florists, January and August are down time, and I decided I needed to disconnect.” He recalled a particular film he had seen a few years back in which Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet are convincing as two strangers in love who decide to move house for a few weeks in December. “I thought, maybe that’s a real thing,” Cho recalls. “So I looked on Craigslist and found all these ads for house flipping. I realized people actually do this, so I posted an ad.”
As the flower capital of the world, Cho was eager to spend time in Amsterdam to reset and find inspiration. Fortunately, a Dutchman equally eager to immerse himself in the Big Apple found his Craigslist ad, got in touch, and the timing of the exchange worked out perfectly for both of them. “I had a beautiful apartment,” says Cho. “I talked to him on the phone and he seemed like a good fit.” They arranged key exchanges, introduced themselves to a few contacts in their respective cities, and within weeks, Cho was on a flight to spend the next month in Amsterdam. “You really have to trust that person and trust your instincts; if I saw any red flags, I would listen too,” she says.
The rise of house swapping
Almost 15 years after Cho briefly moved to Amsterdam, house swapping seems more popular than ever. According to Jessica Poillucci, PR manager for the home exchange platform HomeExchange, US subscribers are up 32% year-to-date. Globally, subscribers increased by 45%. “Last year we hit a lot of records, and since then it’s been pretty consistent growth,” adds Poillucci. “Once travel became possible again after the pandemic, it was a prime time for something like a house move. People were working from home and traveling and needed space to work.”
They are not Airbnbs or investment properties. Home exchanges don’t make money by letting strangers into their homes or paying others to stay in theirs. When organized as Cho has through websites like Craigslist or Facebook Groups, the setup is a strict, even exchange: your house for mine. However, recent years have seen a growing number of companies, such as HomeExchange, that exist to formalize the process of changing homes for a small fee.
