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Sunday, April 10, 2016

Trading places the high tech way

A high tech approach to barter promises to make getaways more affordable. That’s the concept behind Nightswapping.com. It allows you to offer your home in exchange for staying at someone else's without limiting you to staying in the town of the specific person who wants to come to yours.
The business was founded in Lyon, France in 2012, though it also has offices in New York, London, and Sydney. The listings on the service extend much further, with accommodations in 160 countries.

In a way, the service mirrors the monetary solution to the problem of barter. What if you don’t want the eggs your neighbor offered in exchange for your wheat? Likewise, perhaps you don’t want to go to London on the same dates the person in London wishes to come to your hometown. Through Nightswapping, all parties get a consistent medium of exchange, measure of value, and store of value through points. Points are earned by giving nights in your home, and redeemed by staying at another’s place. The service brings the two together and provides some information in the form of reviews from visitors and its own scale of ranking.


You go here...
Credit: Pixabay
You go here...
Credit: Pixabay
The price for each night’s stay is determined by Nightswapping’s scale that ranges from 1 to 7. The number on that scale is based on the Nightswapping algorithm, which takes into account the popularity of the area, the square footage, the number of bedrooms, the comfort level, and the type of accommodation -- there’s more value in having a whole apartment than a bedroom within a house. A shorter stay at a place with a higher standard can cost the same number of points as a longer stay at a place closer to the bottom of the scale.

Read more in Swipe to Swap and Go

 

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