Home exchanges grew by 35% between January and August of this year compared to the same period in 2018 and are now positioned as an alternative to traditional accommodation, according to the HomeExchange accommodation platform.
The leading network for home-exchanging has noted that between January and August of this year more than 319,000 overnight stays in Spain were booked through its platform.
In particular, home exchanges during the summer months surpassed 247,000, which is up by 34% when compared to the previous year.
HomeExchange explained that up until August, the most popular destinations on its platform were domestic ones, with more than 77,700 homes belonging to private users who decide to exchange their homes.
International destinations such as France, the United States, the United Kingdom and Italy were also requested.
For their part, guests during these months were mainly Spanish, French, Americans, Italians and Dutch.
By regions, Catalonia came out top of the ranking for home exchanges with more than 82,200 overnight stays up until August, up 20% on the previous year. 64,300 of these occurred during the summer months.
Andalusia was next with more than 48,200 overnight stays – 16% more than in 2018 – and 33,600 of these were during the summer months. Valencia came in third with 43,500 overnight stays, 29% up on the previous year, and 31,100 of these were during the summer months.
However, Aragon is the Spanish community that has seen the most significant increase in this tourism model during the year with 7700 home exchanges, an increase of 66% compared to the same period in 2018.
Home exchanges have also increased in Navarra with 5500 overnight stays during this period (50% more than in 2018), and Castilla-La Mancha with 3600, up 49% of the numbers for 2018.
