House swapping in the UK

By Jessie Hewiston Published: 1:24PM GMT 04 March 2010

A prosaic in Bristol"s Clifton Village seemed a satisfactory barter for North London Photo: CORBIS

If zero else, house-swapping equates to your skill gets a consummate open clean. My father and I hoovered, dusted and scrubbed the small home, fervent that the finish strangers who would be staying there for the week finish would form a enlightened sense of it and thus of us. It was a bit similar to scheming for a blind date.

Although house-swapping in all involves an general exchange, the initial incursion was a some-more made at home affair: we traded the two-bed prosaic in north London for a likewise sized unit in Clifton Village, Bristol. The outing was organized by the Luxe Home Swap agency, that began handling in January. As well as some-more normal house-swaps around the world, it offers the possibility to suffer British mini-breaks this way, too.

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The initial half-hour of the swap, when you let yourself in to someone elses home, is the majority exciting. Inevitably, you see for clues to the people in their property. I illusory the hosts Kate Gover, owner of Lahloo Tea (stocked on the shelves of Liberty and Harvey Nichols in London), and her husband, Neil to be stylish, accessible foodies who throw good cooking parties and outlay weekends browsing Cliftons home furnishing shops. Their inexhaustible acquire note now loose me but I wondered what they were creation of the prosaic and how they were piecing us together.

Cleaning aside, the house-swap compulsory minimal effort. We emailed each alternative the sum for key pick up (ours were left with the neighbours) and concluded on a time to lapse to the particular homes, withdrawal the keys in the flat. All in all, the week finish was near-perfect. My father was kept happy with a Saturday sunrise wander around the meadows and woodland of the deer-dotted Ashton Court Estate, on the fringes of Bristol, whilst I enjoyed the afternoon at Cliftons newly renovated Lido, where a intelligent grill overlooks the exhilarated outside pool and spa.

By the finish of the week finish we were house-swapping converts: loose and busily formulation the subsequent sell on the sight home.

Membership of Luxe Home Swap (luxehomeswap.com), that costs �99 a year, enables you to upload your skill to the site, and gives you an email trickery to organize your swap.