House-swapping: Have you tried it?

House-swapping is a very frugal way to take a holiday (and saving money certainly appeals!) but I've never tried it. There happens to be an interesting article in The Observer today about house-swapping: New York for a month without spending a dime House-swapping is the ultimate credit-crunch holiday - free accommodation and the chance to live like a local in a foreign city. Juliet Kinsman and family took the plunge last month, trading their British home for a funky Brooklyn brownstone It turns out their experience was a mixture of good and bad. I really don't think reading the article will convince anyone to give it a try, especially when the author of the article noted that on their return, they, "...discovered that our back doors had been wide open for days, having not been shut properly. Luckily, the only ones to take advantage of the invitation to step inside had been a few cats - though they had definitely left their scent. Had we been burgled we wouldn't have been insured, a situation that doesn't even bear thinking about." Yikes! Can you imagine returning home after a holiday and finding the doors wide open? And now that this is public knowledge (via the article published on the internet), I should think the Americans who they exchanged with will be feeling quite ashamed and very embarrassed! I'd love to hear from anyone who has tried house-swapping. Was it a good experience and would you do it again? If you had a bad experience, what happened?