A couple of months before every school holiday, many of us do the same math as we plan our next trip: the cost of flights, a week or two of accommodation, activities, restaurants…the list goes on. The cost of travel adds up fast.
The costly travel math is a big reason why I started Kasero, the home-swapping community for international school educators.
Why home-swapping is having a moment
The increasing cost of travel is also why home exchange (also called home swapping) is having a moment worldwide. Kindred, a US-based home swapping network, says about 150,000 people joined in 2025, Forbes reported. In Canada, the platform People Like Us saw its Canadian membership grow 20 percent over the past year, CBC News reported.
Steve Buchanan, The Home Swap Guy, calls home exchange the “third wave of travel,” after hotels and Airbnb, as fees and accommodation prices climb and travel gets harder to afford.
How home exchange works
Home exchange comes in two main forms: a direct swap, where two households stay in each other’s homes, or a credit system, where you earn credits by hosting guests and spend them on stays elsewhere, so your dates don’t need to match. Either way, home swappers pay a tiny fraction of the cost of hotels or Airbnbs.
Why international educators are natural swappers
International school educators are natural home swappers. We have long, predictable breaks, homes that sit empty during these holidays, and colleagues living in amazing locations all over the world. According to Buchanan, “Organized home exchange began with teachers. In 1953, a group of European teachers founded the first home swapping community, Intervac, to travel affordably during school breaks.”
International school educators also share what newcomers to home swapping worry about most: trust. Our international school community is tight-knit, with friends teaching in dozens of schools across the globe. Exchanging homes with a colleague whose school affiliation has been verified takes much of the nervousness out of the idea. Kindred cofounder Justine Palefsky told Forbes: “This is travel built on trust.”
Introducing Kasero
That trust is the idea behind Kasero. International school educators join for free with a school email, list a home or a spare room, earn credits when they host colleagues, and spend those credits on stays in other members’ homes.
Buchanan says the trend is toward community-based clubs: “I am seeing a significant trend of like-minded community-based home swapping clubs being created for artists, adventurers, and, with Kasero, educators. Effectively, this is building tribes with people who understand and trust each other.”
Kasero is young: it launched in May, but it already has homes in fifteen countries, and the community is growing every week because colleagues at international schools around the world are building it together.
Kasero’s first Partner School
The idea is also starting to travel through schools. Canggu Community School (CCS) in Bali recently became Kasero’s first Partner School, giving its faculty a new way to travel more affordably. Dr. Ben Voborsky, CCS’s Head of School, says: “One of the best things about international education is the people we meet, the relationships we build, and the experiences we share. Kasero is another way to bring our global community a little closer together.”
You can join Kasero for free with your school email, list a home that you own or rent in your host country, your home country, or somewhere in between, and start connecting with colleagues around the world. Let’s build the Kasero community together!
Tom Flanagan teaches middle school science at Singapore American School. He loves the community and adventurous spirit that makes the international school community so special and hopes that Kasero will help connect friends and colleagues around the world.
