How a West Hartford family travels the world for less with HomeExchange.

By Melissa Cole

How would you like to travel the world, paying only for airfare and meals, and have a free place to stay? It sounds too good to be true, but according to Annie-Karine Lamoureux who has done this with her family 26 times over the last 10 years, it’s not only possible, it’s amazing. She’s part of HomeExchange, which works just like it sounds: families swap homes for vacation.

“I don’t think I could afford to travel as much as I do if I didn’t travel that way. Because usually I pay for my airfare with credit card points. I do HomeExchange, and so essentially all I have to pay once I’m there is my food and activities we do.”

According to the HomeExchange website, the company is the world leader in home-exchange vacations. With more than 200,000 members in 155 countries, it offers travelers an affordable, authentic, and safe way to explore the world by staying in real homes instead of hotels.

Lamoureux joined HomeExchange 10 years ago. There is an annual fee of about $235. While there are several programs to choose from, what works best for their family of four is something called a “Reciprocity Exchange.” It’s a bit like a dating app for your home; you upload photos and details like the number of rooms and bathrooms, square footage, and neighborhood, then wait to find the right match.

“So you can do an exchange that’s called a Reciprocity Exchange. So somebody contacts you and says: ‘I have a house in Strasbourg, in France. We want to come to your house. Do you want to do a reciprocity exchange?’ Yes, those dates work for me. Let’s do it.”

If this sounds a little familiar to the fan-favorite movie “The Holiday,” you’re right! Your family goes to someone else’s home, while at the same time, that family stays in yours. Lamoureux and her family have literally traveled all over the world this way. Though, unlike the movie, she jokes, don’t expect to find Jude Law. “You’re probably not going to have the super-hot neighbor. It just doesn’t happen like that.”

Lamoureux has taken some trips with just her boyfriend, and others with her boyfriend and her two sons – one a senior at Conard High School, the other currently in college in Canada.

“We went to Australia. And that was a really, really fun exchange because it was a family that had a really long ranch. We went to Copenhagen. We went to Puerto Rico. We went to Iceland. We went to France, and then sometimes with those exchanges, you can decide, depending on your insurer, you can exchange cars as well. So we went as a family of four to France for three weeks with a home exchange.”

That three-week trip to France ended up costing them less than a one-week trip to Disney. But it’s not for everyone. Lamoureux says you and your family need to have the right mindset, and a sense of respect for other people’s homes and belongings – since you’re living in their space. Her boys know not to leave things lying around or put their feet up on the coffee table or couch.

“If you’re the kind of person who likes to go on vacation and you don’t make your bed and you leave things everywhere, this is not for you. You leave the house the way you found it.”

You can also be specific about who you want to stay in your home by reading reviews and seeing who may or may not be a good match.

“I don’t accept families with babies or infants because I feel my house is not set up for that. Also, people have to feed my pets. So I make sure when we exchange to ask: Are you comfortable? I have cats, can you feed them? I never leave my dog here. But can you feed the cats? Are you okay with it?’”

As for people who come and stay in their West Hartford home, Lamoureux says Europeans love the area for the proximity to Boston and NYC, not to mention the houses here are generally bigger than what they’re used to. She always provides bikes so people can explore, and leaves out a binder filled with places to eat and ideas for things to do.

“I’m a little bit of a nerd. I love Mark Twain’s house. I tell everybody they should go there. I think it’s very unique, and I think it’s a really nice place to go and discover. I thought the Pez museum in Orange is really cool. It’s really fun. Most people love shopping here, so I always tell them about the outlets, a good place to go, and then I send them to Lenny and Joe’s.”

Her two boys have loved seeing the world this way, but there was one trip that wasn’t their favorite.

“We went to Mexico, and it was an exchange in a tiny little fisherman village, where there was not even a restaurant. And running water was iffy. We were right on the beach, and people would come ‘ding dong’ to your room at your house and offer you food, they had cooked because they knew we were there. To me, it was the best experience ever. To them, it lacked a little comfort. There was no internet. That was a big deal. But to me, that was one of the best exchanges we’ve ever done.”

When her youngest graduates in June, they plan to go to Japan through HomeExchange. But you don’t have to travel that far. Over the years, they’ve swapped homes with families in places like Vermont and Montreal. For them, the whole experience is simply better than staying in a hotel and a more comfortable way to travel overall.

“You can cook, you can have space. Like at night when I travel, I like to sit on the deck and have a glass of wine and I don’t want to be stuck in a room, right? And so it’s just so lovely.” she says.

“It’s really exploring the way other people live while you’re in their house”

To learn more visit the HomeExchange website. Annie-Karine Lamoureux also hosts Zoom sessions with families who are interested in trying HomeExchange. She talks about her experiences and answers questions they may have.

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