Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic
\n Is home-swapping solely for the mad and the brave – or is there more to be found?
\n ADVERTISEMENTI can picture it now. Jude Law turns up at the front door of the twee yet crammed English country cottage I\u2019m visiting – while Kate Winslet discovers all the smart home tech of my colossal Hollywood mansion.\u00a0If you\u2019ve seen the film \u2018The Holiday\u2019 this festive period, it\u2019s easy to be drawn into the fairytale of home-swapping. I love the idea that this type of travel experience can attract friendship and maybe even love.As I gaze out my window over the grey winter skies and unabating rain (we have a word for this in Scotland – \u2018dreich\u2019), the film gets me thinking:\u00a0Could someone, somewhere in the sunshine, really be willing to swap their lovely interior-styled-to-perfection home for my overcompensating-centrally-heated home here in the bleak midwinter of the Scottish countryside?And realistically, while opening up our houses, does home-swapping inadvertently help us open our hearts to strangers? Or is that just the stuff of Hollywood?Home-swapping with heart: Give a night, get a night\u201cHome swap listing sites have existed for a long time, but for decades, home swapping remained niche,\u201d says Justine Palefsky, \u201cbecause without any curation, services or quality assurance, these sites didn\u2019t deliver the experience most people need to feel comfortable swapping their real home.\u201d\u00a0That\u2019s why Palefsky and her co-founder Tas set up Kindred, otherwise known as the modern-day The Holiday.\u00a0This home-swapping network operates on a \u2018give a night, get a night\u2019 model, where you can use credits to book your next home-away-from-home. Essentially, it\u2019s almost free accommodation when you travel.Started in San Francisco just four years ago, Kindred now has over 50,000 homes across 150 cities in Europe and North America.\u00a0\u201cMy co-founder, Tas, and I both love to travel and believe deeply that the human connection, education and core memories you earn through travelling make for a richer life,\u201d explains Palefsky. \u201cHowever, we felt that the travel industry was evolving in a direction that was a far cry from this experience.\u201d\u00a0Different to most big short-term rent providers that have become a way for hotels and furnished apartments to promote their property businesses rather than meet new people, Kindred is a members-only site, which means you can only view all the cities and properties on offer if you list your home.\u00a0\u201cWe found most travel accommodation to be expensive, increasingly impersonal, and transactional, while often creating a burden on the communities it was supposed to serve.\u201d\u00a0That\u2019s why you can\u2019t just dip in and pay for nights on Kindred. Right now, 90 per cent of the homes on the platform are primary residences rather than investment properties.This way, members have aligned incentives and a shared empathy that wouldn\u2019t be possible on a pay-to-stay marketplace,\u201d Palefsky says.\u00a0The concept, of course, is entirely based on trust: to allow strangers to come and live in your home while you\u2019re not there is definitely brave.\u00a0ADVERTISEMENTWould these fellow members keep my proud jungle in my living room watered? Would they make sure outdoor shoes are kept off my cream carpets upstairs? These are the concerns that spring to mind.What\u2019s more, I\u2019m a curious soul. I suspect that if I were let loose in someone else\u2019s home without them being there, I would be rifling through wardrobes and under-the-sink cupboards, trying to get a better sense of the owner – before I even unpack.\u00a0That\u2019s probably why there are a ton of guides and a code of conduct all members adhere to. If you violate the policy even once, you\u2019re out of the community.\u2018Radically more affordable\u2019 accommodation in EuropeWhat’s also good is that, unlike Airbnb, the listings are fully curated and checked, so you won\u2019t have any unexpected and unhappy surprises. Each new member also has their government ID verified before they can go on their first trip.ADVERTISEMENTThe platform offers what\u2019s called a full-service experience, which, hurrah, includes coordinating cleaning before and after the trip to \u201cremove any uncertainty\u201d about the condition of the property at any given time – so I don\u2019t need to worry about my plants or carpets. Plus, there\u2019s 24\/7 concierge support and comprehensive host and trip protection.With all those reassurances, I start searching for the catch. Surely it\u2019s a big fee?\u00a0A quick check under the pricing page and, compared to the usual costs you rack up at a hotel or other booking platforms, I\u2019m surprised to see that you only have to pay a small one-time service fee as a host or cleaning fee as a guest. This is typically around $140 (\u20ac 134) for a seven-night stay in top European cities – and it\u2019s not much more if you\u2019re seeking an extended stay for that popular digital nomad experience.Palefsky sees home-swapping as \u201cdeeply human and radically more affordable\u201d and asserts that it\u2019s more empowering than \u201cdisruptive to locals in high-demand areas\u201d.\u00a0ADVERTISEMENTTravel beyond the usual hotspots in EuropeIn the last three months alone, over a third of all trips booked on Kindred were to European locations – and the platform has seen a 1500 per cent increase in homes accepted onto the platform in Europe from 2023 to 2024.\u00a0While all the typical destinations are there – Paris, Amsterdam, London, Berlin – there are plenty of off-the-beaten cities too, including Novi Ligure in Italy, Graz in Austria or Tallinn in Estonia.Signing up mostly out of intrigue, I find some incredible listings, such as a cottage in Braga, Portugal, that borders a national park and overlooks a serene lake, a lovely traditional wooden home in Figeholm in Sweden and a contemporary country homestead in Ordina, Andorra.As I quickly check where\u2019s best for winter sun in Europe, I\u2019m drawn to a quirky stay in Palermo, Sicily: an awe-inspiring four-storey former convent that has been decorated with unique textiles throughout – because the anonymous host is a rug designer.\u00a0ADVERTISEMENTGiven my aforementioned love for soft, deep pile carpets, I can imagine the host and I would get on brilliantly, and before I know it, they\u2019d be recommending the best off-season nearby beach for me to get some rays.Is it possible to make friends through home-swapping?Certainly, one of the pulls of Kindred is that local know-how that only someone who lives in a particular neighbourhood would know.\u00a0You\u2019ll find much thoughtfulness on the platform – much like the early days of Airbnb.One member, I\u2019m told, often writes songs to thank hosts for his stays, while one host arranged a surprise light show experience for her guest in Barcelona after learning that they were travelling solo.\u00a0ADVERTISEMENTThis focus on local experiences is also likely why the majority of those attracted to the home-swapping platform are millennial remote workers who have the flexibility to travel while working.\u00a0Most Kindred members stay a week, but some \u201cpower users\u201d, Palefsky tells me, have been known to rack up credits to enjoy 40 to 80 nights a year.\u00a0But Palefsky says, \u201cIt\u2019s also a great option for families, retirees and those who are simply looking for more accessible and unique travel\u201d, adding that families are the fastest growing demographic.Kindred is now beginning to host in-person events and dinner parties where members can come together so you can meet like-minded members. And, within the app, you can then request direct swaps, which, I am confident, is how I\u2019m going to meet a Jude Law lookalike on my next festive home swap.\u00a0ADVERTISEMENTI\u2019d better pack some mistletoe\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Is home-swapping solely for the mad and the brave – or is there more to be found? ADVERTISEMENTI can picture it now. Jude Law turns up at the front door of the twee yet crammed English country cottage I\u2019m visiting – while Kate Winslet<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":152462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-152461","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-travel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152461"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152463,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152461\/revisions\/152463"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}