Second home exchange: Get more vacation out of your second home
Father Gerard and son Dennis de Bruyn built a website for exchanging holidays in holiday homes: Tweedewoningruil.nl
A few years ago, Familie De Bruyn had a holiday chalet built in Austria. The family, friends and acquaintances were enthusiastic. Who doesn't even secretly dream of owning their own holiday home? Delicious and easy to spend several holidays a year and it is also a good investment.
But the family in question also received reactions such as: “Is it fun to always go to the same place on holiday?” This was the reason for father Gerard and son Dennis de Bruyn to develop the idea for building a website aimed at exchanging holiday homes: Tweedewoningruil.nl

The traditional home exchange is already known to many people, but a website specifically aimed at people with a second home was not yet available. Gerard de Bruyn: “Then why not do it as a holiday home owner? It is not only attractive for financial reasons, but also surprising. If you exchange your holiday home, you can freely agree on the period when one exchanges. Also, you don't have to take into account the storage of your private items, because the people you trade with know what your property is worth.
Respect for each other's norms, values and attention to other people's property. They are the required ingredients for a successful holiday exchange. If the will to go on holiday somewhere else starts to gnaw and in the rental are still free periods, this possibility of home exchange is an added value. For example, you can exchange a week with a house in Italy, Spain, France or Belgium. If you have a holiday home closer to home, a weekend exchange is possible.
In response to the crisis, people are looking for opportunities to save on holiday costs through holiday auctions, last minutes and therefore also home exchange. Also in the media and the internet there is more and more attention for the concept of sharing. Trendwatchers think that barter trade will continue for the time being. Trading creates togetherness, sharing has become cool. Exchanging your second home is a good addition to the ever larger group of people who are in possession of a second home. You are just more creative with your property.
Family Kordoel who has previously done a holiday exchange gives a short response: “In the autumn holidays, we exchanged with very friendly people, originally from Belgium. They have a house in Murcia in Spain and we have a house in the Silbertal in Austria.
We have not met the other owners in person, but we had regular contact by mail and phone beforehand. It went fine, the keys at the neighbors as well as the little information about energy and things like that. We had a wonderful and relaxing holiday in sunny Spain and they enjoyed the mountains and the distant view. Afterwards we cleaned the house as agreed and returned the key to their very friendly neighbor.
It is a very nice initiative to be able to enjoy another home and environment with a closed fair. You must be able to trust each other that you handle the items carefully and possibly replace them if something has broken. But we and the other owners take that for granted. The other owner even mowed the grass at our house even if it were his own house and we in turn cleaned the pool before we went.
If you deal with each other's property in this way, it can only produce a good feeling and a rich experience. A pleasant interaction and contact with the participants is a nice plus according to De Bruyn. “Our experience is that close friendships have already developed.”
This is also evident from the reaction of the first-hour expert, Family Keghels from Belgium: “We are still doing holiday swaps. It is very cool and in the meantime we have made some nice friends. This year there are four on the program: Oostduinkerke on the Belgian coast, Germany (Winterberg), the Dutch coast and in Austria near Salzburg. By holiday exchange we get to places where we would not otherwise book and we discover new and cool destinations.
Text: Rob Smulders, Director of Mondi, the interest group for second-home owners