The cost of tourist accommodation is high. This method has become a new option. Some people can save thousands of dollars on a single trip.

As the cost of travel accommodation continues to rise, “house flipping” by staying in someone else’s home is becoming a way of accommodation for some travelers. Compared to hotels or vacation rentals, room exchange allows travelers to exchange their homes for future accommodation opportunities. In recent years, it has attracted some people who travel frequently and want to reduce housing expenses.

Cassandra Jenkins, a 42-year-old New York musician, is an example, USA Today reported. Since her work requires her to frequently travel abroad, she has stayed in hotels and vacation rentals in the past. In recent years, she has begun using the home-swapping platform Kindred to stay in other members’ homes during her European tours.

Housing exchange is not a new concept. There are already platforms in the market like Home Exchange and Home Link with different operating methods. Kindred adopts a “pay first, earn later” model. To accumulate Stay Points, members first open their primary residence to other members, and then use those points to redeem for future stays.

This means that house exchange should not take place between two people. Members can allow others to stay at their home during the trip, and then choose another time to travel to another city to use their accumulated points. Kindred said currently about 15% of bookings are direct reciprocal house exchanges, that is, two members exchange houses at the same time, and most of the rest are made through points.

The system also does not calculate housing points based on the size of the residence. In kindred fashion, a one-bedroom New York apartment and asan francisco Accommodations with five bedrooms can be calculated according to the method of “provide one night’s accommodation and receive one night’s accommodation points”.

Founded in 2022, Kindred currently claims to have approximately 500,000 members in 150 cities around the world. However, using the room exchange point does not mean that travelers will not have to pay any fees. Members are not required to pay a registration fee, but must still pay a service fee and cleaning fee for each visit. Taking a five-day trip within the United States as an example, the average service fee is about US$200 and cleaning fee is about US$300; For travel to London, the average service fee is US$175 and cleaning fee is US$200.

In fact, for Jenkins, the home-moving experience isn’t just about reducing housing costs. She herself offered her apartment to other members when she was on tour in New York for a month. The person living in her house at the time was a New York woman who was undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) and egg freezing treatments.

Jenkins said she was touched to learn that the other person needed a comfortable living space, and because she was also planning to undergo IVF at the time, the two connected. For him, the house that was originally empty during his absence has become a temporary residence for another person to spend an important phase of his life.

Hawkins estimates that on longer trips, changing accommodations can save about $1,000 per trip compared to hotels or vacation rentals.