canary islands home exchange travel boom 2026

Home Swapping Boom: How Canarians Are Travelling the World for Free

The Tulips of Amsterdam: A Lifetime Memory

The tulip fields of Amsterdam are etched in the memory of Esther Castro, a retired teacher. Staying in a renovated 17th-century house, with its wooden staircases and typical Dutch architecture of the period, did not cost her a single cent. The former educator is part of a global community of over 550,000 people—spread across more than 155 countries—who exchange their homes through the platform Home Exchange. This is one of many portals promoting a tourism model based on the trust of leaving your own home in return for an experience in a new place. Notably, on Home Exchange alone, user numbers in the Canary Archipelago have increased by 48% in the last year, with over 1,500 islanders now listing their homes.

A New Way to Travel

“It has completely changed the way I travel,” explains Esther. She has been using the platform for eight years, ever since she was struggling to find affordable accommodation to attend her son’s graduation ceremony in Barcelona. The apartments she found were over budget, prompting her to research different ways to secure a place to stay. The rest is history. She has now completed a total of 142 exchanges, hosting guests in her home in the municipality of La Laguna—or in another of her properties in Puerto de la Cruz—and staying in houses she visits in other countries, or even within the Canary Islands themselves.

Living Inside an Open History Book

Esther’s personal travel map from home swapping is extensive. France, Italy, and Sweden are all part of it, though there is one destination she would return to without hesitation: Amsterdam, with its tulip fields and picture-postcard atmosphere. There, she stayed in the home of Dutch teachers, a restored 17th-century house that had retained its essence. “It was like living inside a real open book, because it was pure history,” she recalls. That trip had an added value: she travelled with her husband, children, and granddaughter, fulfilling one of her great wishes—to see the Netherlands in the height of the tulip season and to do it differently, with the feeling of living in the place like a local and without the usual accommodation expense.

Respectful Tourism Gains Momentum

The platform has been running for over three decades, but the desire to travel in a more “respectful and local” way, as described by Pilar Manrique, spokesperson for Home Exchange in Spain, seems to be gaining momentum now. The exchange of homes without any financial requirement and with the sole rule of lending a property in return has increased by a notable 48% in the Archipelago in the last year. Thus, more and more islanders are encouraged to list their homes in exchange for travelling the world. In total, there are 1,538 members in the Islands, over 800 in the province of Las Palmas and about 730 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

Beating the Rising Cost of Travel

With inflation and the ever-increasing prices of hotels and accommodation, the urge to travel has not diminished. The latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report from March highlighted accommodation and restaurant activity as the second most expensive sector in the Archipelago, with a year-on-year increase of 5.2%, followed—in third place—by transport at 4.3%. This means that disconnecting in new destinations is increasingly weighing on the wallet. But far from being a drawback, this seems to be reviving new ways to continue travelling without spending a fortune. In this wave of growth, the number of overnight stays in the Islands via home exchange is also rising. Tourists who opted for home swapping to visit the Canaries stayed a total of 120,000 nights—a figure that rivals major sectors like hotels, apartments, and holiday rentals. Although the numbers are still small in comparison, “we continue in continuous growth and are promoting another way of doing local tourism,” notes the spokesperson.

A Local Experience for International Visitors

In Esther’s case, international tourism predominates. Visitors to her home have come mainly from Italy, France, and Germany. But, she assures, they come with different expectations, wanting to know the place from a more local point of view. “Sometimes it’s simply people who have the chance to spend 15 days teleworking in a different environment and they choose to travel to the Canaries,” she adds. The Archipelago ranks as the seventh region in Spain with the highest number of subscribers. Despite the strong weight of tourism in the Islands, the platform has one condition: it needs homes made available to users. Therefore, it is no surprise that those regions combining the largest supply with being interesting accommodation destinations are at the top of the list. Thus, the leading regions in home exchange are Catalonia, Andalusia, Valencia, Madrid, and the Basque Country. Nevertheless, for Manrique, the data from the Canaries is very positive. “The Islands are a very attractive destination both for mainland Spain and, of course, for international tourism,” she emphasises.

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