Cameron Diaz in The Holiday

Cameron Diaz in The Holiday

It may be a simple story of girl meets girl, girl swaps homes with girl, girl meets Jude Law. But watching Christmas film ‘The Holiday’, showing on ITV1 tomorrow, also has a very welcomed side-effect for one property exchange site, in what has become known internally as the ‘Cameron Diaz effect’.

According to Love Home Swap (www.lovehomeswap.com), the company sees traffic triple each year when the film ‘The Holiday’ airs on TV, with savvy holidaymakers inspired by watching Cameron Diaz swap the luxury of her Los Angeles mansion for Kate Winslet’s idyllic chocolate box cottage in the UK.

Debbie Wosskow, founder of Love Home Swap, saidd: “Home exchange is the perfect way to holiday like Kate and Cameron in real life - and save thousands on accommodation. We see traffic to LoveHomeSwap.com triple when the film ‘The Holiday’ shows on TV each Christmas.”

Recent research carried out by Love Home Swap revealed that the number of property exchanges taking place more than doubled between 2011 and 2012 – rising from 1.6 million to 3.3 million Brits who home swapped for their holidays in 2012.

And with more than half of the UK population (55 per cent) concerned about being able to afford a holiday in 2013, home exchange is expected to become the hot travel trend of the year.

Debbie added: “Love Home Swap members save an average of £2,202 every time they home swap, so it’s the perfect way for holidaymakers to make big savings on their travel budgets. Our service lets you truly holiday like a local, with thousands of amazing properties listed for exchange in more than 100 countries around the world.”

Love Home Swap has seen the size of its property portfolio increase ten-fold in 2012 and is expected to have 10,000 stylish properties listed for exchange in 110 countries worldwide by the end of 2013.

‘The Holiday’ airs tomorrow (December 27th) on ITV1 at 10.45pm.

FemaleFirst @FemaleFirst_UK

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