An Irish couple with two children have been touring the world for the past nine years without paying for accommodation, by swapping homes with people from across the globe and holidaying in countries including Canada, Hungary and Israel.
Vincent Miggels (49), a self-employed IT consultant, and his wife Ursula (49), a teacher, have been swapping homes with other families for the past nine years in order to travel to new countries with his family. The couple have two children, Maeve (9) and Saoirse (7).
Since joining house-swapping website HomeExchange, the family, who live in Galway, have been to places including Montreal, Tel Aviv and Budapest, and have done a total of 35 home swaps, which costs them €150 a year for membership.
Mr Miggels said he would prefer to stay in other people’s homes than hotels where there “have been hundreds of people sleeping in that bed” and hopes that more people will try his method of travel.
He said: “It’s not for everybody but I would like to see more people try it.
“We weren’t nervous about letting other people stay at our home as we’re not particular about our stuff but I know some people have real reservations about it.
“We have travelled to lots of places with our kids and, when we stay in another family home, they have everything you need already there to keep the kids entertained.
“We love travelling this way.”
In 2014 Mr Miggels first signed up to HomeExchange, a house-swapping website where you pay a membership for access to swap homes with other people around the world.
He said: “I would have heard of home exchange as a concept as a child, so really long ago, but I didn’t know anyone who did it, I’d just heard it was a thing that some people do so I didn’t really think much about it until about 10 years ago.”
For his first few trips, Mr Miggels did a direct swap with another family, letting them stay in his home in Galway while his family travelled to their home.
He said: “It just seemed like a nice additional method of travelling, an alternative to hotels. It’s nice to be in a house and have a bit more space around you.”
The family’s first trip was to Budapest, Hungary, in 2014, shortly before going to Montreal, Canada, for two weeks.
Mr Miggels added: “For our first few swaps we actually Skyped the other family and showed each other our homes. It was a mutual thing like, ‘we’re going to be good in your place, you’re going to be good in ours’.
“We also tried to get to know each other and had several video calls before agreeing on stuff.”
Now he checks reviews on people’s profiles to make sure they are all positive, saying that it helps to build “a network of trust”.
He has especially been making the most of his home swaps this year, having visited Tel Aviv, Paris, Donegal, Achill Island and the south of France.
The family are also planning to go to Barcelona later this year.
While the home exchanges have been a money-saver for the family, Mr Miggels said his motivation for his method of travel was to experience new places “as a local”.
Mr Miggels said: “People who live in the house we stay in will give us tips for local restaurants to try and other recommendations, so we dip into the local knowledge a little bit and are able to immerse ourselves into the local culture.
“We went on as many trips as possible once we started doing home swaps and we’re still roughly doing the same thing.
“I think, especially when you have younger kids, and you arrange an exchange with people who also have younger kids, the whole setup is really there when you arrive. You don’t need to bring much for them at all in terms of things like baby chairs and play areas.
“Our kids are getting older now so they don’t necessarily need things like that but there might be a trampoline in the garden and stuff like that.”
Now he is a huge advocate for home swapping as a way to travel despite saying that “it’s not for everybody”.
He added: “We weren’t really nervous about trying home swapping, we’re not that particular about our stuff but there’s a lot of people that have real reservations against it, my own brother would never have a stranger stay in his home.
“I would like more people to start doing it. I think there’s a certain kind of emotional objection or reservation against it, like, ‘imagine that somebody slept in your bed’.
“Some people really don’t like that idea, but they’re happy to go to a hotel, where over that year there have been hundreds of people sleeping in that bed.
“I think it’s a great way to travel. I think it’s a community of trust and I think the people in it are like-minded and tend to get on.”
