SabbaticalHomes.com Reviews 

This company is fuelled by idealism and stays true to the idea of professionals taking a sabbatical.
I have had mostly wonderful guests, and some of the best were those who stayed with the company longer. In one case, I even arranged a contract with a father on behalf of his son.

The owner always responds quickly, and the service is simply not comparable to other subletting companies.She takes great care of her company and keep s a humna touch!

My tenants have included writers, artists, and professionals from a wide range of fascinating backgrounds. I have always kept my fees reasonable and hope that others will do the same.
After all, any of us might one day take a sabbatical and need a home away from home.

We’ve had a very positive experience listing our London annexe on SabbaticalHomes. It has connected us with lovely guests looking for a comfortable home for several weeks or months, and has brought us bookings well into next year.

The real strength is the community it attracts. We’ve enjoyed getting to know our guests, and being able to discuss arrangements directly makes the process feel personal.

For us, it has been an excellent match for both the property and the way we like to host. Highly recommended to anyone offering a home for medium-term stays.

For fifteen years I have had splendid service from SabbaticalHomes, always efficient, with reasonable charges and a real personal touch - the founder can be met in person at academic conferences and answers emails herself. The property I rent is my own London home where we spend every summer, furnished with family heirlooms and our personal library, not a typical "rental property" - and the people who contact me via SabbaticalHomes have always been wonderful tenants, appreciative and careful.

We are very happy with SH, who we have been using for 3 years to find both short-term tenants for a spare room and long-term tenants for the whole house. The site offers a great display window and is very easy to use. The customer service team are very responsive and membership/ exchange fees not expensive at all. And on top of all that we have had some lovely guests doing very interesting work!

Two things I love about Sabbatical Homes:
They help you make the match and then get out of the way, which I find really refreshing compared to the big vacation rental sites that try to control every aspect of the host:guest relationship.
The guests! The people who have rented my Paris flat—academics and academic-adjacent—have been truly lovely. They communicate well and appreciate my flat. In several cases, we have stayed in touch after the rental. I have several of my guests’ books, left as thank you’s, proudly displayed on the flat’s bookshelves.
Thank you, Sabbatical Homes, for making my Paris flat-renting a truly pleasant experience.

We have used Sabbatical Homes for 15 years now and received a steady stream of excellent renters. Always reliable, always interesting. Some if our renters have become friends. Sabbatical Homes' requirements are modest, the service excellent. I could not be happier with this business. Thank you, Sabbatical Homes!

I've used Sabbatical for eight years and had only good service and good results. Before that, I tried other platforms and ended up with some careless or untrustworthy tenants. Since I live near several universities, the candidates for rentals tend to be students or faculty. After some experience with both, I lean towards faculty. My tenants have come from Australia, Paris, Germany, Italy, England, USA and Mexico. All good. Sabbatical tells you upfront about fees. The site features profiles of partipants. It allows you to customize your ad with photos and descriptions. When I have had problems, Sabbatical was highly responsive. I refer my friends to the site. The $50 'match fee' is a bargain!

Sabbatical Housing is sharing a clever rental market strategy, with great one-on-one communication. The posts are based on your honesty without any hidden fees. How refreshing! “Rare Find”. I stumbled across Sabbatical Housing because I wanted to host scientific and academic people worldwide, by giving them an opportunity to do work in Canada, by making it affordable and laid back for scholars. Something different I thought, and a great way to meet amazing people! I wrote the company over a little glitch and got a personal response right away. (from a real person). Within a short time, I had two requests. I have now posted a second rental creating a Belize research base. In a world of AI, call centers god knows where, automated responses they get 5-Stars*****

As a prospective tenant, I got scammed on SabbaticalHomes.com TWICE in 1 week!! Despite SabbaticalHomes' claim of prestige and transparency, both the listings and the platform itself were highly untrustworthy. (Not to mention SabbaticalHomes forcefully charge you $50 for every "match".)

1. Illegal landlord actions:
The platform claims to maintain "high standards", yet I have encountered numerous instances of illegal behavior from landlords. First scam: the landlord attempted to sublease to me secretively behind the owner's back. Luckily, I ran my own due-diligence and discovered that the owner had no knowledge of the sublease arrangement whatsoever! Second scam: the landlord suggested we "work out" a lease term shorter than what is legally permitted by their condo building. She asked me to sign a "fake lease" to present to the condo building, then "just leave" halfway. In both cases, I would have been evicted, and still be responsible for paying rent!

2. Highly overpriced:
SabbaticalHomes' business model is "exploiting the tenants". Notice how all of their neutral/positive reviews are by landlords, where tenants gave them negative reviews? That's because the landlords pay SabbaticalHomes an annual fee to advertise their overpriced homes that would've been unwanted on any other platforms. Prices of sabbatical homes are Airbnb prices, yet they expect you to commit for 4~8 months. The same units rent for 40% cheaper if you found them through other platforms such as Kijiji, Facebook Marketplace, or Realtor.ca.

3. Lack of accountability:
I have brought the issues above to the SabbaticalHomes customer service team (who did not even give their names and hid behind the alias "SH", again highly shady despite the platform's hypocritical claim of transparency and trust) repeatedly on several occasions, yet they firmly sided with the owners, claiming my concerns were "unwarranted". They knew about the illicit business, and they blatantly stood behind it.

Action speaks louder than words. SabbaticalHomes has unambiguously shown us that making a quick $50 is more important to them than integrity.

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Given how unethical SabbaticalHomes is, I expect their founder, Nadege Conger, to post a gaslighting response below to somehow claim it was my fault.

I highly recommend SabbaticalHomes, as I have been registered on the platform for over two years and have had only positive experiences. The annual fee is very reasonable and affordable. The platform charges only when you connect, and a modest match fee to both the host and the tenant whenever a match is made. In a world that can often feel overly capitalist, SabbaticalHomes stands out as a more humane option compared to platforms like Airbnb.

The people I have encountered through SabbaticalHomes have been very nice, and every interaction I've had has been respectful and pleasant. Most importantly, all the guests who stayed at my place were incredibly nice and considerate. Nevertheless, every time I host someone, I still make sure to secure the deal by requiring a non-refundable deposit when we sign the contract.

We have had 3 listings on Sabbatical Homes for over 10 years. The quality and quantity of tenants, mostly visiting scholars and students, who come our way through Sabbatical Homes cannot be matched. Some of our tenants are even repeat tenants, returning semester after semester.

We list on other platforms, as well, but the overwhelming majority of our tenants have come through Sabbatical Homes and each and every one of them has been uniquely special.

What an amazing service, deeply appreciated!

I have had two very negative experiences back to back with Sabbatical Homes as a home owner. Two sets of guests found me through the site, they appeared to be quality matches and signed leases to stay in my home.
Both guests then changed their mind and reneged on the lease despite it being a legal contract. One decided before moving in they wanted 3 weeks not 6 months noted in the lease and one decided not to stay altogether at the last minute. They both left me out of pocket, scrambling around to find replacement guests.
The quality of guests searching for accommodation is low on this site and guests don't feel they need to see out their commitments. Sites like Airbnb may be more expensive but you get what you pay for - you can vet quality guests and the paperwork is done for you. I will not use Sabbatical Homes again.

Professional customer service, but my listing received no inquiries

I originally paid to advertise an apartment on SabbaticalHomes expecting exposure to a relevant academic and international audience. In practice, the listing generated zero inquiries and no rental opportunities. Even after remaining active and receiving additional views, there was still no direct interest from potential renters.

That said, I want to update my original review to reflect the full experience. After I raised my concerns, SabbaticalHomes responded professionally, refunded my listing fee, kept my listing active, and added new information to their FAQ section regarding academic housing demand patterns based on my feedback. I appreciated the respectful and constructive way they handled the matter.

I also recognize that the lack of inquiries may not be entirely the platform’s fault. My listing was in Israel during a period of significant regional instability, and that may very reasonably have affected international academic demand.

However, my main concern remains transparency before purchase. If certain locations, time periods, or external conditions are likely to result in significantly weaker demand, I believe advertisers should be made more clearly aware of that before paying for a listing.

Overall, my experience with the listing’s actual performance was disappointing, but the company’s customer service and willingness to respond to feedback were fair and professional. For that reason, I am updating my review to reflect both sides of the experience.

Let me say how much we appreciate Sabbatical homes. We’re into our 10th year on site and have had wonderful rental experiences - folks becoming close friends locally or away, some who have rented then stayed and bought their own homes. After all this time and all the different tenants, our place looks as good now as when we finished restoring and renovating it. The Sabbaticalhomes website is so easy to use and clearly explains responsibilities for both sides, we renters and the managers of the site. The annual fees are so low and we pay a minimal amount if a potential renter is found. The fact that we, as owners, are solely responsible for vetting and confirming tenants gives total flexibility when deciding who to accept into our home and our community. The smaller exposure on Sabbaticalhomes when compared to the big rental websites such as VRBO seems to be made up for by the serious type of people looking for accommodations. Highly recommended!

Sabbatical Homes has offered me for some 15 years to find a home abroad and to have my home looked after by colleagues, both academic and independent. The service by the SH team is great, with the personal touch and swift communication being very helpful. The service that Nadege, the founder, offers is unique in this personal touch, the intent to enable exchange of homes - not professional lettings of which there is too much in this world. I thoroughly recommend Sabbatical Homes!

I have made several matches with sabbaticalhomes.com and always had a great experience. They have a lot of properties listed from all over the world, so wherever you are going you will likely see options. And if you want to rent or exchange your own property, it is so efficient and inexpensive compared to dealing with a realty rental company!

I received guests in my house many years ago and ever again. Precious friendships grew out of these experiences, unforgettable moments of exchanges of minds, strong support for each other and sharing are only a few of them. Human quality comes first when academics meet - YES! - because this was not always like this, but has grown out of organisations like Sabbaticalhomes. The world became a little better, let's preserve it!

Fifteen years experience of Sabbaticalhomes.com
We have been using Sabbaticalhomes.com to rent out our top floor flat for over 15 years and have had both couples and singletons, who have stayed longer or shorter periods (we ask for at least 6 months but most have stayed longer). Some have become long-term friends, others just civilized acquaintances. So far, we have not had to try and eject anyone. The secret of success is not only to work with Sabbaticalhomes (friendly, reasonable in price and efficient) but also to do very thorough checks of potential tenants ourselves in advance with virtual or real meetings and maximum use of referees. We have a few clearly conveyed house rules (after all this is our house) especially around security which we send in advance, and which are always considered reasonable

We have been using SabbaticalHomes for years - both renting our own place out and renting other places when we travel. It has been 100% good experiences, but we always take it slowly and get to know and trust people before committing. What we like most is that it is not all about the money - its the respectful give and take, and making a few new friends along the way. Long may it continue this way.
Graeme + Joan. Auckland. NZ

I have stayed in SabbaticalHomes rentals and exchanges several times, as well as using the service to rent out my own home; I have always enjoyed the home I stayed in, and felt safe knowing that SH screens its members, and has certain sensible requirements in the rental agreements. Broadening the membership requirements beyond just academics has allowed a greater range of applicants who are suitable, interesting and trustworthy. (P.S. I feel any occasional negative review must be due to misunderstanding or the inevitably unpredictable human nature.)