I Travel by Home-Swapping My Apartment for Luxury Houses

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Meagan Cignoli, a sculptor based in Los Angeles and a member of Kindred, a home-swapping network. Kindred members do direct, one-to-one home swaps or can earn nightly credits by letting other members stay in their homes. There is no cost to joining Kindred, and no money is exchanged between hosts and guests. Members pay a service fee and a one-time cleaning fee for their stay. This story has been edited for length and clarity.

The first time I house-swapped was around 2005. I stayed in someone’s home in Miami for two months over the winter, and they stayed at my place in New York.

I used to use Craigslist and find people, but it was really hard to find people who wanted the exact timeframe that you wanted and who also had a decent home that you actually wanted to stay in.

Now I use Kindred, which is so much easier because the home swaps don’t have to be consecutive. I’m obsessed with never being home and traveling a lot, and Kindred has given me the ability to do that. I have the Kindred Passport, which costs $600 a year, so I don’t pay service fees, just the cleaning fee. Because I’m traveling constantly, I get my money’s worth on the passport within a month or two.

The cleaning rate I’ve paid in Mexico is $110, so you can go to Mexico for a week for $110, and it could be a five-bedroom place with a pool. The cleaning rate in most of the places I’ve seen in Europe is $140, so we went for 10 days to the most beautiful place in Greece, and it was $140.

I use it for group, solo, or work trips

I live in a one-bedroom apartment. There are places of all sizes on Kindred, and we’ve stayed in some beautiful places. It’s kind of crazy and amazing that a one-bedroom or studio goes for the same amount of credits as a four-bedroom with a pool.

I travel alone a bit. I travel with my girlfriend. We have used Kindred in Greece on two different islands. I’ve used it in Portugal alone, including in Porto and Lisbon. We’ve used it in Mexico a bunch and all over the states, from California to Georgia.

I also travel with my assistant, so if I have a show in another city, I’ll find a two-bedroom or bigger. We went to Joshua Tree for a week just to make art, photograph things, make new sculptures, and just have a little art retreat.

Kindred gives the ability to stay somewhere longer because the price doesn’t really change. And the longer you stay, the more you get to know a neighborhood. And there’s not the pressure that you have when you’re paying nightly to get the most out of it, so it just made it so we could just relax and not feel in a rush to see everything.

I’ve also done group trips. I booked a Kindred in Lake Arrowhead for around eight of our friends, and we just cooked and hiked, and explored the town and lake. It was amazing for everyone because it’s so inexpensive, it’s just the cleaning fee.

Guests often leave gifts for their hosts

When accepting guests at your home, you can say “no” to anyone. You can request to FaceTime, check out their Instagram, or look at photos of their home. If their home looks clean, you feel like they will take care of your home, too.

Kindred has a very good insurance policy, so if someone messes up something in your home, they’re going to make it right. The company also schedules cleaners to come right before the guest arrives and right after they leave, so when you get home, it’s often cleaner than how you left it.

Guests often leave thank-you notes or gifts for their hosts. Because I’m a sculptor, I’ll make a whole bunch of little dishes at once, and I’ll bring one to each place I go and leave that as a gift for my host. Sometimes we leave wine. People have left me chocolate-covered pretzels and a bottle of wine, and the notes are really cute to come home to. They’ll say, “Your home made me so happy.”

Now I try to avoid hotels and vacation rentals

Kindred is 100% the first thing I check when I want to travel somewhere. Now, when I look at hotels or Airbnbs, I’m shocked by the price.

You’re also getting spoiled by making your own eggs in the morning and not having to go out for every single meal. It just makes travel a little bit less overwhelming when you can eat at least one meal at home.

If you’re flexible with your travel schedule, Kindred is even better. I have wishlists on there and I check it almost every day to see what’s available. Some places have more availability than others, but a lot of major cities have Kindreds, and it’s getting bigger all the time.

The one bad thing is that Kindred has me so spoiled by the price that it’s hard to swallow other options when I travel somewhere and a Kindred isn’t available.