What is Backswap all about?
In a nutshell, Backswap enables you to be at home, anywhere in the world! We are a site that hosts house and apartment swapping, especially created for the gay community.
How does it work?
Once you have registered you can find a Swap Partner in just a few clicks.
To do this, you just need to:
1. Subscribe by clicking on the membership plan that interests you. Enjoy our Introductory offer it's free !
2. Click either on the country where you would like to spend your holidays or on the calendar to display all locations available for swapping during the period that you desire.
3. Choose a house or apartment Swap offer that suits you.
4. Then get in contact with your future Swap Partner.
You can send a message directly from our site - protected by our rules of confidentiality - to the author of the Swap offer that suits you.
Please feel free to use our advanced search options by clicking on the magnifying glass at the top right of each page.
Of course, once your own Swap offer is online, with some flattering text and photos showing your residence, you will receive propositions for swapping from all over the world.
Backswap is above all a gay community site, we would really advise you to post up a few words about yourself.
But most of all, be flexible - that's the key to a successful search! Most of our Backswappers are attracted more by the Swap offer itself than by a specific destination.
Let a stranger into my home when I'm not there, no thank you! How can I trust them?
It's clear that it wouldn't be reassuring to leave your home or your second home to someone you don't know. Even just the fact of knowing that you would have strangers in your home is not only worrying, but it can be off-putting!
However, a very simple solution exists that allows you to cast aside these worries: that your Swap Partners are no longer strangers by the time they arrive in your home.
That's where Backswap comes in. We are above all a community site giving you all the tools you need to swap your photos, your messages and your experience.
Before you let your partner into your home, you will have already swapped many messages and letters, discussed many details on the phone and even, for the more anxious among you, drafted Swap contracts recapping the various points.
But don't forget, you will be in your Swap Partner's home while they are in yours - and that changes everything.
And most importantly, if you don't hit it off with the first partner that you contact, nothing obliges you to swap with him/her! There are many others who are waiting for your proposition for swapping and you will certainly find a partner that is on the same wavelength as you!
Our advice is that you communicate as much as possible with your future Swap Partner. A Swap can't just be improvised. Don't hesitate one second to ask all the questions that come to your mind on the house, the neighbourhood, the region and, of course, on your prospective Swap Partners. Ask for more photos if your Swap Partner hasn't posted up as many as you would have liked.
As you will see, the Swap Partner who will arrive in your home will be far from a stranger, and there's a strong chance that he/she will even become a friend!
OK I can trust in that, but why give myself all that work organising an apartment swap when I could just book a package tour in any travel agency?
There are 3 major reasons:
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Savings: on average 75% savings for the same trip under the usual conditions.
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Stay in the country as if you lived there: between having a hotel room or a villa with kitchen directly overlooking the beach, between finding oneself caught in all the tourist traps or having all the right addresses in the area, the choice speaks for itself!
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And what's more, it's not just an apartment swap, you'll be swapping in conviviality and more !
