Should You Give ‘Home-Swapping’ a Go? This Interior Designer Thinks So

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Tamineh Dhondy’s home-swapping story, as told to Gilda Bruno

Our house-swapping journey originally came about because of our lovely tabby cat, Morris. When we first got him, a nice neighbor would feed him on weekends we were away, but twice he ran away for a few days right after we returned. We realized he absolutely hates being on his own. After about a year of coordinating friends and family to stay — which got tricky since most of them live in London and don’t need a place to stay here — I thought, why not try house swapping? Somebody would be there to look after Morris, and we’d get travel credits.

The credit system is what really drew me specifically to Kindred (if you sign up for Kindred with code LIVINGETC, you get two free nights once you confirm your first guest — this is on top of the five you get when joining), which makes a great, design-forward and community-conscious Airbnb alternative: for every night someone stays in your house, you get to spend one night anywhere. I was also drawn to the quality of their houses and the fact that they have a concierge to help you out and support you throughout the experience. Plus, you have a profile where you can specify that guests have to be cat lovers, which was important for us.

The first place we stayed through the platform was a flat in Paris for a weekend. It belonged to a really nice family, and we stayed in a neighborhood we would never normally choose. They gave us a list of their favorite things, and we ended up eating at their favorite local Italian restaurant. Because it’s not always a direct swap, we’ve also hosted people at our house while we were away on already-booked holidays.

I remember an American couple who owned a skincare brand; they left me the most gorgeous moisturizer and a really nice note. They had a baby, so we did a video call before they arrived, and I was even able to help them source a high chair from my neighbors. We always leave a little note and a gift for our guests as well. It prevents it from feeling like strangers are entering your home because you’ve already met them. It makes the experience incredibly personal.

It really feels like a community. We stayed in a wonderful place in Suffolk out of season, which was great because we usually only go in the summer to swim. It allowed us to explore the area at a completely different time of year, and the owners told us to just message them on Kindred whenever we want to come back.

My love of hosting and everything design go hand in hand: they influence and serve one another. As an interior stylist and creative director, I always start with the architecture of the house or the building — the period, its character, and how that can guide its look. That is always my first point of reference. Then, I look at the function: who is using the space and how? Every project I do starts with a list of questions for the client because you have to make a space that fits a brief; a family house and a party pad are very different projects.

For our house, we wanted a calm family home where we could also entertain friends, acting as a tranquil and peaceful backdrop to our lives, because we have quite busy lives and are always having people around. The building is late Victorian and sits on a difficult corner plot at the end of a terrace with a wedge of a tiny garden.

My company’s name, Casina House, comes from a John Nash villa that used to be on its site. It was an amazing building that doesn’t exist anymore, though a tiny park at the end of our road still serves as the gardens and lake for that original house. When we bought this property, it was falling down. It had a small kitchen in a bedroom upstairs, and it was a complete renovation. We lived in a few rooms on the top two floors for a while as the downstairs had no heating.

I always want to design spaces that are sympathetic to the period of the building. My reference point for the back of the kitchen was Victorian glasshouses. We looked at lots of them, and that was the inspiration behind opening up the back of our kitchen — both the roof and the doors — making the garden and the kitchen one room so we could entertain, be outside, and grow lots of plants inside. The garden needed to be part of another space to really work.

My interior curation and styling centers on things that are far from perfect; I want to see the maker’s hand in everything. We have a rough-sawn kitchen and left the raw plaster on the walls because we had a brilliant plasterer and didn’t want to paint over it. I love materiality and seeing things that age, like the unlacquered brass everywhere that develops a natural patina. Having worked as a stylist for years, I knew I’d have photoshoots here with loads of people going in and out. I wanted a space that would actually be used, not a show home, so I embraced the perfectly imperfect.

We have lots of things we’ve curated and collected over the years. I make ceramics, and my husband is a curator who draws; his drawings hang alongside an amazing art collection we’ve accumulated and been given over the years. My dad is Indian, so I’ve also amassed lots of Indian family textiles and water jars. These items all show their age and aren’t perfect, so I don’t feel nervous about people coming to stay. I really like seeing the space being used. There are a few exceptions, like a cupboard full of antique glasses I’ve collected, but I just put a note on them saying, “Please use the ones on the shelves, not these.”

As a designer, when I have people over for dinner, I really think about the atmosphere, the food, the music, and what’s on the table. I love curating those experiences. I feel the exact same way about house swapping — just letting someone enjoy a space that you have created is a really magical thing.

Using this system has allowed us to travel a lot more. We used to just take one summer holiday and a couple of short stays a year. Last summer, we booked a week-long Spanish holiday with two other families, but because of house swapping, we were able to extend our trip by an extra week to explore Barcelona. That flat was a gorgeous family home with its own rooftop swimming pool, and it cost us about £250 for the week — an absolute fraction of what we paid for our first week.

When you stay in a real home, you get to live in a proper neighborhood with a home guide detailing the owners’ favorite cafes, galleries, or local swimming spots. You experience a destination like a local. Going to a resort is my absolute idea of hell, and this is the complete antithesis of that.

We aren’t people who just tick sites off a list. When you stay in a house swap, you end up doing more of what you would do at home — visiting and lingering in and around museums and frequenting the neighborhood coffee shop. It shifts your mindset to appreciating everyday rituals and becoming a part of the city rather than just an outside observer.

People always think of the movie The Holiday when you mention home swapping. What the film gets right is that living in someone’s home gives you a totally different perspective compared to a normal holiday. You are stepping into someone else’s shoes. Of course, our swaps haven’t been exactly like the film — we travel as a family, so there’s no crazy romance, just a quiet kind of magic.

If someone is passionate about traveling but has never tried home swapping, I would tell them to just try it. Kindred gives you some credits to use before you even have to let anyone into your own home, meaning you can experience being a guest for up to five nights with nothing to lose.

All the houses are verified with photos, so they are beautiful places to stay. The whole system is built on trust. Everyone staying in your home is a host themselves, so they know exactly what it takes to look after a space. It is completely different from a typical rental platform because that mutual trust makes everything feel so much easier.

I literally just put through a request for a trip to Amsterdam in the February half term earlier today. We thought it’d be nice to go there by train with our kids and stay for four nights. It’s such a lovely city in the cold season, and we can’t wait to go and explore. Fingers crossed the hosts get back to me and say yes. So, what are you waiting for? Just give it a go.

In other Kindred news, The Holiday turns 20 next month. To mark the anniversary, the platform is sending two of its members, selected from an open call that closed earlier this month, to swap homes with each other — just like the film protagonists Iris (Kate Winslet) and Amanda (Cameron Diaz). The swappers will be revealed on Kindred’s Instagram on December 1, and their two-week swap begins only three days later. Join in the frenzy by following the places they explore, the people they meet, and their dates and detours directly via Kindred’s Instagram for a taste of what it’s like to live someone else’s life for a fortnight.