How I saved £6,000 on a two-week holiday to New York for my family of five

If the words ‘home swapping’ conjure up images of Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet swapping their houses in The Holiday, you’re not alone.But while the 2006 romcom made the idea look like a slightly chaotic way to escape your life for Christmas, home swapping has evolved considerably since then – and as travellers look for more affordable, authentic alternatives to hotels and holiday rentals, it’s having something of a moment.For families in particular, the appeal is obvious: why squeeze everyone into one expensive hotel room when you could stay in a proper home, with a kitchen, separate bedrooms, toys and space to actually live?Lucy Fox knows the benefits first-hand. She and her family used home-swapping platform Kindred to spend two weeks in New York last summer – a trip she says they probably wouldn’t have taken otherwise – and estimates they saved around £6,000 on accommodation.‘We wouldn’t have gone,’ Lucy tells me. ‘Ultimately, yeah. I think we just weren’t worrying about money all the time when we were there.’New York wasn’t a random choice, either. Lucy and her husband had travelled there regularly before having children, and have friends in the city, but returning as a family of five was a different proposition.‘It’s extortionately expensive to stay there for any period of time, really,’ she says. ‘So actually, by using Kindred, it made it possible.'Lucy had already used the platform several times, including trips to Lisbon, Berlin and Hastings, as well as other stays around Europe and the UK.By the time New York came around, then, home swapping wasn’t an experiment. It was simply the way they travelled.So, how does home swapping actually work?The premise is surprisingly simple. Kindred uses a credit system whereby members earn one credit for every night someone stays in their home. That credit can then be used for one night in someone else’s home – meaning you don’t necessarily have to swap directly with the person staying in yours. Lucy Fox with her three children during their two-week New York trip last summerCrucially, you can only use Kindred to stay in someone else’s home if you’re also listing your own. That adds an extra layer of trust and accountability to the model: everyone using the platform is also opening up their own home to other members.And unlike booking a hotel or holiday rental, the number of credits required doesn’t change depending on where you’re going, how big the property is or when you’re travelling. One night is one credit.‘You just get one credit for renting out your own place, one credit anywhere in the world, it suddenly doesn’t make a lot of difference where you go,’ Lucy explains. ‘So, you know, Berlin costs the same as New York, apart from your flights, obviously.’That makes the system particularly interesting for families, who can otherwise be hit hard by peak school-holiday accommodation prices. One of the two-bedroom apartments Lucy and her family stayed in for just one credit per nightLucy is a Kindred Passport member, an optional annual subscription costing £475 a year, paid either upfront or in quarterly instalments. In return, members don’t pay Kindred’s service fees on their trips, while cleaning fees still apply.Passport members also receive one complimentary Host Kit of guest linens and towels, including a duvet cover, sheets, pillowcases, towels and a bath mat. It’s a small detail, but one that addresses a very practical concern when you first consider letting strangers stay in your home: Do I really need to provide all their bedding and towels?Kindred also coordinates cleaning before and after stays. Lucy says she always uses the service, meaning she doesn’t have to arrange cleaners herself when guests are coming to stay.‘I always use the Kindred Cleaners,’ she says. ‘I don’t have to worry about any of that. I’d rather not be thinking about that when I’m away.’Why a New York hotel doesn’t really work when you have childrenFor their New York trip, Lucy’s family stayed in two apartments in Brooklyn: around three or four nights in Fort Greene, followed by roughly 10 nights in Carroll Gardens.Both were two-bedroom apartments, but they were large, with plenty of living space. The second had a huge open-plan kitchen and living area and a balcony, while both were close to playgrounds, shops and public transport.And for a family, having an actual home rather than a hotel room made a huge difference.‘Being in a Manhattan hotel room with five people would be not only prohibitively expensive but also not comfortable and not fun,’ says Lucy. ‘You can’t cook for yourself. So then it gets really expensive. But also, you don’t want to eat out all the time with kids.’There’s the practical side of family travel, too. Children want familiar routines, somewhere to play and, occasionally, nothing more adventurous for dinner than eggs on toast.With an apartment, Lucy says, ‘you can sit up in the evening and watch a movie while they’re in bed’, as well as cook, make packed lunches and generally do the things you would at home. Books and toys were waiting for them when they arrivedThen there were the toys.Both Brooklyn apartments were family homes, so there were books and toys waiting for the children when they arrived.‘Now, I think they find it really weird going to an Airbnb or a hotel,’ Lucy laughs. ‘They’d be like, “Where’s the toys?”’There’s something rather sweet about the arrangement, too. The children know that other children are playing with their toys back in London while they’re playing with someone else’s in New York.‘It makes them more respectful as well,’ Lucy says. ‘It’s like, you know, you have to look after these toys because the children at our house are looking after your toys.’It was more ‘living in New York’ than being a touristThe other benefit of staying in a real home was that the family could slow down.Rather than cramming every major attraction into a few expensive days, they could spend two weeks getting to know Brooklyn and exploring the city at their own pace.They took ferries along the river, went to the Rockaway Beach and Coney Island, visited the Tenement Museum and went to Pioneer Works, where they saw a voguing event.They found a local coffee shop, got food from a Mexican truck downstairs and explored the local market. Lucy even realised that the second apartment was in a Brooklyn neighbourhood she’d heard Lily Allen talk about on the Miss Me? podcast.And because they had a proper apartment to return to, there was no pressure to be out all day.They could build Lego, have slower days and let the children play – which is one reason Lucy says the two-week trip felt so different from a conventional city break. A big trip to the Lego Store was one of the things they probably wouldn’t have done if they’d only spent five days in New York They didn’t even bother with some of the classic New York attractions.‘We didn’t take them up the Empire State Building, or over to the Statue of Liberty,’ she says. ‘We did the living in New York thing rather than the being tourists in New York thing.’But who would actually want to stay in my house?Of course, there’s one fairly significant hurdle to home swapping: you have to be willing to let someone stay in your home.Lucy’s initial concern was less about strangers being in her house and more about whether anyone would want to stay there in the first place.She lives in a three-bedroom house in south-east London. It’s a family-oriented area, but Lucy didn’t assume it would be an obvious destination for visitors.‘I have a very cute little house, but it’s small and in a fairly… it’s not like famous part of London,’ she says. ‘And I just thought it’d probably be like, we’ll put it on there. We’ll see what happens.’It turned out to be a non-issue.Pretty quickly, people started requesting stays, particularly families looking for somewhere in a family-friendly part of south-east London.Lucy only makes the house available when her own family is away. She’ll look ahead at the year – perhaps five days at Christmas, five days at Easter and a couple of weeks in the summer – and add those dates to the app.She’s also selective about who stays. Her house is three bedrooms, but the children’s beds are relatively small, so if someone gets in touch looking for accommodation for six adults, she’ll tell them honestly that it isn’t the right fit.Preparing the house is much less involved than she initially imagined, too.‘The first time, I think I went a bit far,’ she admits.Having previously stayed in Airbnbs, Lucy assumed she needed to make her home extremely minimalist before guests arrived. Now, she simply gets it nice and tidy, clears a drawer and some hanging space in the bedrooms, puts her belongings into a large bag and stores it in the loft, clears out the fridge and leaves a note with recommendations for the local area.Her best tip is to keep a dedicated 'stay bag' so you’re not repeatedly emptying your house every time someone comes to stay.And she’s realised that leaving some signs of real life behind isn’t necessarily a bad thing.‘I think people really like to see a little bit into your life,’ she says. ‘You want to feel like you’re kind of living in someone else’s little life for a while.’The £6,000 saving meant they could stay longerThe £6,000 saving sounds impressive, but Lucy says the more important thing was what it enabled the family to do.Without Kindred, she doesn’t think they would have gone to New York at all. And once they were there, they weren’t constantly worrying about how much the trip was costing.‘We did everything we wanted to do without it being an extortionately expensive holiday,’ she says. Lucy says they probably wouldn’t have gone to New York at all without Kindred Had they been paying for a hotel, Lucy thinks they would probably have waited a few years and taken the children for a much shorter trip.‘You’d never have done all these things,’ she says. ‘You don’t feel like you have to worry about doing all the big tourist things. You can kind of see them over two weeks.’And that, perhaps, is the more interesting story behind the £6,000 saving.Home swapping isn’t simply about finding a cheaper place to sleep. For Lucy, it meant being able to take a holiday that otherwise wouldn’t have happened, stay for longer and experience New York in a way that worked for her family.It has also changed the way she thinks about having strangers in her home.In fact, the thing she expected to be the downside has become one of her favourite parts.‘The bit I never really expected was enjoying how much I like having people in our house,’ she says.Guests leave thoughtful notes and little gifts. They tell her about the places they’ve discovered in her neighbourhood. And Lucy likes knowing that someone else has temporarily made themselves at home there.‘You feel very proud of where you live,’ she says. ‘It’s really nice that they went to that place that you recommended and loved it.’