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Elizabeth, Pedro and Shaila are like ministers. Their agenda is full, but they, full of destinations to go on vacation. Weekends, long weekends, summer and Christmas. You know what you are going to do for the rest of the year. It is not because they are billionaires. It is because they are experts in the art of home exchange. This family from Torredembarra, Tarragona, are the kings of this type of travel in our country. No other Spanish member of Home Exchange, the leading platform in the sector, has managed to exchange their home for another so many times: up to 170 exchanges around the world. And adding. They even got married during one of these vacation bartering ... in Las Vegas.

"Last year they told us that we were everyone's fourth," says Elisabeth without giving it much thought. Not even the pandemic has managed to dissuade them. "In 2020 we made about 25 trips, somewhat less than other years in which we have made between 30 and 40, more or less," he lists on the other side of the phone. "This is

very engaging

because I think it is a completely different way of traveling, where you meet wonderful people."

She is a teacher and her husband Pedro is dedicated to the world of the internet.

Shaila, her daughter, has grown up packing her suitcase.

The little girl is in charge of doing the "mattress test", throwing herself on the bed every time they arrive at a new exchange house.

Together, this globetrotting family have managed to vacation in lavish homes, from Bali to Los Angeles and from Sydney to the Riviera Maya.

The couple during their vacations.

Some of these exchanges will never be forgotten.

"In Vietnam we live in a

super mega

-

luxury

mansion

. It even had an artificial river that ran through the house. I think it was valued at three million euros. I can tell you things that are hard to believe."

A house near the sea

But let's go in parts.

Home exchange exists for a lifetime.

It's as easy as I go to your house and you go to mine.

Then, in the late 90s, at the dawn of the sharing economy, it took to the internet.

Today Home Exchange is present in 187 countries around the world.

In Spain there are

74,000 houses

on the platform.

What will this family from Torredembarra have to be so successful?

How is this apartment so that people from all over the world travel thousands of kilometers to spend a few days in it?

The family apartment in Tarragona.

"Well, it's not a big house. It's a small two-bedroom apartment. Between 50 and 60 meters. Of course, close to the sea," admits Elisabeth.

Then?

"It's because we got a

lot of points

."

This is one of the secrets of this family.

The exchanges, he explains, can be simultaneous, that is, your house for mine at the same time.

They can be non-simultaneous or at different times.

And they can be through the points that you are adding each time you lend your house.

A getaway to Andorra and a wedding in Las Vegas

Elisabeth and Pedro's is valued at 200 points, which is equivalent to more or less 200 euros.

"One of the tricks is

being willing to host a lot of people

."

Then there is what they call the "Home Exchange spirit," that desire for the guests of your home to be at ease.

"When you start exchanging houses you realize that

each family brings out the best of itself

so that you are well and enjoy that experience."

Elisabeth during a trip to Japan.

The teacher assures that they have never had a bad experience since 2010 in which they decided to debut in the world of exchange to spend a weekend in

Andorra

. They were immediately emboldened because almost the next trip was to the

United States.

But they went through the fears that everyone would go through. Elisabeth did not trust one hundred percent so she also booked a hotel in case they arrived and there was no home.

By the time a man from Las Vegas offered them, in addition to lodging, to marry

Elvis and Olivia Newton-John

dresses

,

they were already convinced that this was the best way to travel. "Leaving your home to a stranger is a difficult step, but the experience is much better than going to a hotel. I have come to go to a house and find

the glasses and the book

that the owner read the day before."

The pandemic has made them choose closer destinations.

After having lost an apartment that they had arranged in

Tokyo to see the Olympics

last year and having to give up the only exchange house in the Maldives for last Christmas, this summer they will travel to Sardinia, Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza.

Of course, next New Year's Eve he will return in style: a house in a

Dubai

resort

to see the World's Fair.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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