Cut the cost of your ski holiday by doing a home exchange

How to cut the cost of your ski holiday by doing a home exchange

With a 36% rise in mountainside properties, home exchanges are a new trend for ski holidays on a budget. Home exchanges have become increasingly popular with families travelling on a budget during the summer months but now more families are using them for winter holidays as well.

Owners of second homes, chalets and apartments in mountain areas are realising they are sitting on underused assets. Home exchanging, where you swap homes for a short period of time with other 'home exchangers', opens numerous opportunities to get all or part of your holiday accommodation at no cost. Many of the properties come complete with sledges, snowboards and skis reducing even further the cost of your ski holiday.

HomeExchange.com is a main operator in the home exchange industry and has over 55,000 properties in over 150 countries listed on its site. For a fee equivalent to £5.95 per month (charged annually) members can list their property, browse all available properties and arrange exchanges with other members. The site also hosts a lively forum which includes readers' experiences when exchanging homes. Keen home exchangers love the flexibility, feeling part of a community and the lack of rental paperwork that comes with sharing their home with others.