Playing swapsies . . .

In the French Alps, we stayed in a self-contained apartment belonging to a couple who lived upstairs.

Playing swapsies began late one night while trawling through places to stay on the Greek island of Santorini and nearly fainting at the cost. I was ready to admit defeat and give up when my fingers suddenly froze on the keyboard, my eyes not fully believing the vision before me. I had come upon the most exquisite place . . . a whitewashed villa gleaming in the sun high above a sparkling Aegean sea. On the skyline above the villa, I could see the iconic rounded blue roof and cross of a Greek Orthodox chapel. The image was straight from a postcard.

I had wandered into a site which was offering me this dreamlike place, free, if I became a member of the international Love Home Swap club.

Next I came across a chateau in France, a ski lodge in the Swiss Alps, an apartment in Rome, a beach house in Sydney, a hideaway on Waiheke Island in New Zealand . . . all free!

I joined up to a free two-week trial and sent off a message to the owner of the Santorini villa, never in my wildest dreams believing I'd get an answer.

Next morning, there was a ‘ding-ding' as an email plopped into my inbox. My heart skipped several beats when Chantal, who owned the villa in Santorini, replied in the affirmative.

‘When would you like to come and how many rooms do you need?'

Our friends were deeply sceptical, warning us that there was no such thing as ‘free accommodation' and we would arrive to find the place did not exist.

But the villa did exist and it was even more beautiful than the website portrayed it to be. We stayed at Chantal's dreamy home in Firostefani for a week pinching ourselves every day to make sure the experience was real.

Built around 1720 as a convent, the villa was once owned by a German Prince and had been renovated in keeping with traditional Cycladic architecture. The floors, inside and out, were made of Dionysus white marble. Cut into the rim of the volcanic caldera, the four-level villa accommodated up to 20 people. It was mind-boggling, utterly breathtaking.

The Santorini experience triggered in me something akin to a home swapping obsession. As empty-nesters for 98 percent of the year, it seemed logical to put our four-bedroom, three-bathroom country home to good use as a springboard to ‘play swapsies' with other beautiful homes around the world.

Over the next eight years, we ventured far and wide, staying at a five-storey Edwardian town house in Islington, London; a rooftop apartment overlooking the River Seine in Paris; a chalet beside the ski lifts in Grimentz, Switzerland; a cosy ski lodge at Sixt Fer à Cheval in the French Alps; an arty beach house at Palm Beach, an hour north of Sydney; a holiday home overlooking Lake Wanaka; a trendy beach pad at Piha; and large family homes in Parnell, Auckland and Hillsborough, Christchurch.

We are now veterans of 13 home swaps. Some have been luxurious, others modest and homely but they have all been ideally located and perfect for whatever our needs were at the time. Without fail, home swapping provides a more authentic, personal holiday experience, allowing you to ‘live like locals' when you're away.

In London, we became part of the Islington community, having a pint and a pub meal at the Duchess of Kent a few steps away, and buying supplies at the local markets.

In Paris, we met Love Home Swap member Vincent, a quintessential Parisian who steered us to restaurants and cafes in back streets that tourists would never know about.

In the French Alps, we stayed in a self-contained apartment belonging to a couple who lived upstairs. It was a huge advantage having access to their local knowledge and generous ski-guiding services. They even pre-booked lift tickets, ski hire and a husky sled ride for us.

The Palm Beach homeowner showed us the stunning collection of pottery she had made before she handing over the keys to her house.

At Piha, we got on so well with the owners, we ended up having them around for drinks . . . at their own house.

Our most recent experience was in a small but immaculate, well-equipped apartment at Bondi Beach close to where our two daughters and their families live. The owners were a delightful couple whom we met before they went off on a road trip around NSW.

Love Home Swap operates like a large extended family with members dotted all over the world. We've maintained contact with many of the homeowners and some have come to stay with us in Gisborne

It goes without saying that one of the main reasons home swapping is so popular is the amount of money saved on holidays. Accommodation is a large percentage of the cost of a trip away from home so when that is factored out of the equation, holidays are much easier on the budget. The end result is that you can take more holidays or stay longer.

Not only is home swapping excellent value for money, private homes are more spacious, more comfortable and have much more personality and character than bland hotel or motel rooms.

Another wonderfully refreshing thing about Love Home Swap is how relaxed and stress-free the lead-up to a holiday is: no demands for a massive deposit months in advance or terrifying cancellation policies that make your blood run cold. Just friendly emails offering travel advice and things to do and see.

Over the years, there have been radical changes to the way swaps are managed. Gone is the era when you had to negotiate a simultaneous or non-simultaneous home swap, although that's still an option. A clever innovation to the scheme is the introduction of the points system which opens up a vast realm of possibilities, offering the ultimate in flexibility.

Points are a form of currency whereby a Love Home Swap member can accrue credits when he or she has another member to stay which they can then ‘spend' anytime, anywhere in the world within the Love Home Swap community.

• Love Home Swap is an international home swap community that has seen phenomenal growth since it was established a decade ago.

Set up in the UK by entrepreneurial young Brits, brother and sister Ben and Debbie Wosskow, the idea for the company came after Debbie experienced a particularly bad and expensive family holiday back in 2011. From this and with a little inspiration from home-swap rom-com The Holiday, Love Home Swap was created. The aim of the company was to help people experience better holidays through the power of swapping.

Love Home Swap now has thousands of properties listed all around the world.

“We're lucky to have members from every walk of life, so the homes that are available on our site are as unique and diverse as our community,” says managing director Celia Pronto.

“There are more than 18,000 properties available in more than 100 countries, so we have everything from boutique apartments in Berlin and Dubai to rambling farmhouses in the English countryside and Provence,” she says.

Many of these homes are absolutely stunning with swimming pools, home gyms and cinema rooms. Some of them even come with staff who will cook and clean for you — but the majority are ‘real' homes. And that's what makes our travel prospect really unique and special. The properties on the site are not necessarily luxurious retreats — they're comfortable homes, in authentic locations in real neighbourhoods.

“Families benefit from staying in places that come equipped with child-friendly extras such as stairgates, high chairs and (most importantly) lots of toys.

“Solo travellers and couples benefit from homes that feel safe, with friendly neighbours who will share advice and tips on the best places to eat out and the top things to see and do.

“The homes on the site don't all look like they've come out of a lifestyle magazine — but they're jam-packed with charm, and they're in the most incredible locations.

“If you're looking for a luxurious retreat, then we've got lots of stylish properties in every corner of the world.

“But if you're looking for a home-away-from-home experience, then we've got literally thousands of those homes. They might not be ‘perfect' — but these homes are perfect in our eyes, plus the eyes of our huge community of travel-lovers.”