Former Airbnb fan, I now swear by apartment exchange

I'm from the Airbnb generation, a site that appeared in 2010. As soon as I finished my studies, I created an account for my getaways with friends or lovers. Hotels? They're for old people, for the rich. Youth hostels, for the young. To pay for my vacations, I illegally sublet my apartment, until the law required the platform to submit the income to the tax authorities in 2020, making me detectable (and evictable) by my landlord.

The same year, I saw the birth of Alda, an association fighting for housing in my Basque Country. Young people from the "country" were no longer able to find housing. On the walls of my village-like neighborhood in northeast Paris, wild posters against the eviction of tenants were multiplying. Everywhere, the same word: Airbnb. Disgusted, I decided to stop. A colleague then told me about a platform for exchanging houses and apartments between individuals. For 170 euros per year, simultaneous exchanges are unlimited. Matching on a destination and dates seemed restrictive to me. But what did I see: you can