New York Apartment Swap

How to Swap Your New York Apartment for a Great Vacation

Are you willing to swap your New York City apartment for a visit to Paris? New York City apartments are in demand. A New York apartment swap can really work for you.

Mandy, a working professional in New York City, was planning a vacation. She wanted to visit Paris for a couple of weeks and she did some research to figure out her expenses. After looking into what a hotel would cost, she decided to find an alternative for a pricey hotel in order to spend more of her money actually seeing the city. This is when she discovered apartment swapping and that her New York City apartment had real value in a vacation home exchange.

The idea behind the New York apartment swap is that you swap your apartment with someone looking to vacation in New York City. Mandy found a couple willing to exchange their Paris apartment with her in order for them to have a place to stay while vacationing in New York City. After negotiating dates and exchanging descriptions of their apartments, the deal was made and Mandy was able to have a great vacation in Paris at a much lower cost than originally anticipated.

Step 1: Are you open to new possibilities?

Before you even begin the process doing a home exchange with your NYC apartment, you need to decide if this is even for you. Walk through your home and look around. How are you going to feel about having a stranger staying in your place, using your bed, eating food on your plates and perusing through your books, etc...? If this idea bothers you and you find yourself wanting to put all your things in storage at this idea, than perhaps apartment swapping is not for you. On the other hand, if you relish the idea of making new friends and showing off your great vintage magazine collection, then this might be for you. Besides, is there a better way to get into the Parisian culture than to stay in a true Parisian apartment complete with whatever comes with that? Just consider it part of the overall adventure.

Step 2: List yourself

A quick search on the internet will provide you with several options for places where you can list your New York apartment swap request. A highly used site for swapping NYC apartments is Craigslist because your apartment can be listed for free and the site is global. You can connect with just about anybody, from any part of the world.

You start by providing a brief description of when and where you would like to travel with a short description of your NYC apartment. This will provide truly interested people with essential information so that they can contact you and continue discussions from there.

In the meantime, look around your place and imagine how a visitor might visualize your NYC apartment. Taking some time to better organize your apartment, putting some valuables away, and spend some time on an extra deep cleaning where needed so that your visitors can feel more at home and help them have a great experience.

Step 3: Protect yourself

As with anything else, there can be unethical people out there just looking for someone to exploit. In your New York apartment swap listing, don't provide too much information such as the exact dates you will be gone and your exact address. You can work out those details with the people with whom you are going to exchange. Follow basic internet safety rules and keep yourself safe from people who are just looking for dates when someone will be out of their home in order to rob them. Apartment swapping does have some inherent risks. Even after much research, you can still end up in a shady place. Do as much research as you can and trust your intuition. If your intuition tells you something may be wrong, do not go through with the deal.

Step 4: Have fun!

Your New York apartment swap can take you to some fabulous places at a fraction of the cost. You are lucky to have an apartment in New York as tourists are always looking to have fun in the Big Apple. You can make new friends and truly enjoy the cultures of the places you want to visit.