ABOUT once a month, Mark Bollozos makes the four-hour drive up to Lake Tahoe from his home in San Francisco for a few days of skiing or mountain biking. A couple of weeks before he leaves, Mr. Bollozos nails down which getaway he’ll call home that weekend.
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GETAWAY Greg Cusbert’s home in Vancouver, which he exchanges for quick weekend trips.
Will it be the four-level condominium in Incline Village, Nev., with a view of the lake? The chalet with mountain views one block from Sugar Pine Point State Park in Tahoma, Calif.? Or the cabin that sits along the Truckee River near Tahoe City, Calif., where he has become friendly with the neighbors?
The homes aren’t his, but they’re starting to feel that way. Through his membership in HomeExchange.com, Mr. Bollozos gets to live in them in exchange for the use of his one-bedroom condominium in Pacific Heights that has a living-room view of the Golden Gate Bridge.
“We have a mutual agreement to go to each other’s places,” said Mr. Bollozos, who works in commercial real estate. “At this point it’s not even like home exchange, but more like an extension of a second home. Any time I have an interest in going to Tahoe, I drop them an e-mail.”
In the past, home swapping was the province of international vacationers seeking long-term getaways. But executives with home-exchange services say that short-term swaps — those within easy driving distance — have taken off and are the fastest-growing part of the business, though hard statistics are difficult to come by.
That’s because once members sign on to a service, which typically costs $45 to $110 a year, they connect with one another online. So while companies poll customers, they don’t have immediate statistics.
“What I do know is that people who used to do one exchange every year or two are now doing four, five, six or more exchanges within a year,” said Ed Kushins, founder of HomeExchange.com, one of the largest swap services with 20,000 members. “Weekend exchanges are one of the fastest-growing kinds. Even I’ve done it. I live in Hermosa Beach, and I did an exchange in Beverly Hills. It’s only 20 miles away, but it’s like going from one world to another.”
Helen Bergstein, founder of Digsville.com, another service, has seen the same trend. “It’s not just about that two weeks overseas anymore,” she said. “In a survey I did nine years ago, exchangers were mostly middle age and older and went on two-weeks-plus trips once a year. When I did a survey a year ago, the age was lower, with many more families, and they took shorter, more-frequent trips and closer to home.”
Steve and Dian Jahn, of Anacortes, Wash., hadn’t considered doing a weekend swap until they were contacted last year by Greg Cusbert, who lives in Vancouver.
“Greg put forth the idea, and it was a very good one,” Mr. Jahn said. “We enjoy a great getaway in an international city, and Greg enjoys our small bay-front condo in a rural area, so it’s a great change for us both.”
For David and Karen Keane, early retirees who live in Lyme, N.H., short-term swaps are a way to explore New England on a budget. Since joining HomeLink International four years ago, they have traveled overseas once, but also swapped their home, which is near Dartmouth College, for places in Hyannis, Mass., Bar Harbor and Falmouth, Me., and New York City.
“The young lady in Manhattan got sick and didn’t come to our place,” Mr. Keane said. “But to honor her side of the bargain she went and stayed at her mother’s.”
It is because they are not retired that Guillermo Orozco, an architect, and Kent Ducote, a business consultant, self-professed “serial exchangers,” favor short-term swaps.
For the past few years the couple have swapped their 1950s Florida home with period furnishings in Key West, for, on average, two long trips and three getaways within short driving distance. Their close-to-home swaps have been in Hollywood, Delray Beach, at two different homes in Fort Lauderdale, and three times at the same spot in South Beach in Miami.
“Our South Beach exchangers have a 28th-floor condo overlooking the skyline to the west and the Atlantic to the east,” Mr. Ducote said. “We’ve even tried to swap in the Upper Keys or Middle Keys, but people would say that was too close.”
Weekend exchanges are nothing new to Diane Drey, a New Yorker who retired last month. Her 2,800-square-foot condo has “a view of Central Park to die for,” making it even more coveted than the typical Manhattan listing.
“I’ve been doing home exchange overseas and on weekends for 23 years, more than 100 of them,” she said. “I’ve even exchanged kids. I have it all on a spreadsheet.”
Whenever Ms. Drey wants out of the city, she finds a swap. “I went to Philadelphia twice for the weekend, once for an art show and another time to check out restaurants,” she said. “I even went to Darien, an hour away, because the house was on the Long Island Sound. I took my kids and we went kayaking. We do tremendous ski vacations. I used to do so many at one place in Sugarbush that the family admitted that I was using the house more than they were. They sold it, and I was very upset.”
It took Ms. Drey some doing to convince Mel Winokur, her significant other of seven years, to accompany her on his first swap.