In the 2006 romantic comedyThe Holiday, Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet’s characters swap homes- from a mansion in LA to a cottage on the outskirts of England-with just the click of a button. Although it seems too good to be true, this method of vacationing in someone else’s abode while they (sometimes) stay in yours is nothing new. People have been traveling through home exchange for decades, and some Chattanooga locals swear by it.
“My husband and I have been home exchanging for years. I think we started in the 90s,” says Miki Boni, a local artist who is known for her pet portraits. “It’s a very culturally rich experience if people are willing to turn their home over to strangers. And it’s an inexpensive way to see the world.”
There are three main types of home exchanges: You can stay in your exchange-partner’s home while they stay in yours (a simultaneous exchange). You can stay at a home-swapper’s second home or vacation home (a non-simultaneous exchange). Or you can stay as a guest in a swapper’s home while they are there (a hospitality exchange).
Either way, the benefits largely remain the same, says Boni, who began offering a separate apartment space on the lower level of her and her husband’s home as a vacation rental/home exchange option in 2009. “There is the front room which is my showroom and Tom, my husband, built a bed that disappears into the wall in there, and there’s the bedrooms,” she says. “It’s like living in a gallery for them, and it helps to support us. A life of an artist in our economy isn’t the best.”
For Boni and her husband, allowing people to stay in their home wasn’t a big deal, but for others, there is a lot of fear that comes with opening up their home to people they don’t know.