French room swap website matches students

In every instance, there is the dual problem of finding suitable student accommodation that is not too expensive, and – for the parents of new students – dealing with empty-nest syndrome.

Now, a mother and her former-student daughter, who had faced just this problem, have come up with an online room-swap solution. Troctachambre’s website (troctachambre.com) allows student subscribers to search for rooms in family homes near their university.

A contribution to household expenses (capped at €100 per month, excluding food) may be requested but rooms are otherwise given for free – the idea being that the student’s family will do the same.

Student users pay a monthly fee of €19 to the site once they have secured a room.

All is not lost if a student does not have a room to swap, or if their home town is not within easy travelling distance of a university or college. Rooms can be taken in return for services such as babysitting, doing the school run, or tutoring younger children.

The site has been translated into English, but so far all rooms on offer are in France – and most are in cities such as Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Paris and Lille.