Travel the Home Exchange Way

Home Occupied by Home Exchange Guests Less Vulnerable to Burglaries

Our friendly neighbourhood police sergeant sends a weekly email report on local crime (last week there appeared to be no crimes reported but that's not usual!) and also reminds residents on how to reduce the risks of becoming victims of crime. As this week has been warm and sunny in London (the kind of spring weather that makes you want to fling open every window in the house), Sergeant Fisher's reminder not to leave any doors or windows unlocked when going out was timely ... which neatly brings me to the link with home exchange.

An unoccupied home is more vulnerable to burglaries however good your security precautions. With home exchange guests living in your home while you are on holiday in their home, provided you have left clear instructions on locking up, leaving lights on, etc in a prominent place where they can't be missed, your home should certainly be more secure than if left empty.

A recent article on Everyone Loves To Travel also touches on the savings that can be made by having guests looking after your home:

'When you go on vacation, you most likely worry about employing someone to look after the pets and landscape. While away, your home sits vacant, and you have to pay top dollar for accommodations in your vacation destination. A home exchange holiday vacation is a great way to save some money and have someone else look after your home at the same time.'

Read the full article, What Is A Home Exchange Holiday Vacation?

CHECtravel: Benefits for Individual Home Exchangers

I published details about CHECtravel shortly after the launch of this new, independent home exchange resource service, CHECtravel: Certified Home Exchange Clubs. Home Base Holidays was amongst the first, carefully chosen agencies to be invited to join CHEC.

Home exchange continues to grow in popularity but remains a small niche within the vast travel industry worldwide. There has been a bewildering expansion in the number of agencies catering for this relatively small travel option in the last few years. As new services are launched, others fall by the wayside. For this reason, the time is right for an independent organisation like CHEC to provide the clear and unbiased guidance that those new to the idea of home exchange need to make the best, rational decisions on the service(s) most likely to suit their needs.

The previous post concentrated on the criteria that all home exchange agency members of CHEC must abide by in order to ensure a good service for members. This time, I'd like to draw attention to the extra benefits for individuals who join CHECtravel (in addition to a home exchange agency). Check out Peace of Mind for the Home Exchanger, a short PowerPoint presentation introduced by 'The CHECster' for full details of the main benefits of individual CHECtravel membership.

Going to Edinburgh Festival? Home Swaps Beat Pricey Hotels

Swapping homes with an Edinburgh resident is one of the tips for saving money in an article, 'Cheap Edinburgh festival tickets and fringe tickets' recently published on Walletwatcher. As special events like Edinburgh Festival (or, more accurately, 'festivals' as there are several events) attract so many people, many locals will be glad to escape the crowds and enable visitors to enjoy their city during this time.

Here's just a sampling of the many attractive home exchange offers available in Edinburgh and nearby (the first two specifically mention that their homes will be available during the Festival period, 8 - 31 August 2008):

Apartment located in the highly desirable New Town area of Edinburgh, which lies within the city centre boundary. Edinburgh is one of Europe’s most beautiful and cultural cities, with fine architecture and a combination of elements which make it truly unique. Looking to swap during August 2008 giving any visitors the opportunity to visit the world renowned Edinburgh Festival. It is worth noting that accomodation in the city at this time is very difficult to come by. See full home exchange offer and more photos, HE20369

Modern detached 5 bedroom villa located 7 miles from centre of Edinburgh (20 minutes by bus). Eskbank is a quiet area located adjacent to the busy market town of Dalkeith. Being just to the south of Edinburgh, the beautiful Scottish Borders are nearby and the fabulous East Lothian coast with its many golf courses lies to the east. Available during prime time Edinburgh Festival! See full home exchange offer and more photos, HE17949

New Town flat in smart central Georgian Edinburgh. Two double bedrooms and a bunk room suitable for two children, offering accommodation for 6. Easy access to all that Edinburgh has to offer within walking distance or local buses. We are two families, one with a city apartment and the other with a country cottage, sleeps 5 + 2 (in outer building) in the heart of rural Angus, half an hour from the famous Scottish highlands and 10 miles from the sea. See full home exchange offer and more photos, HE20684

Large detached home with lovely garden, 3 new bathrooms, one with jacuzzi bath. 6 kms to historic city centre and many attractions. 2 kms to coast for boat trips. Famous International Edinburgh Festival in August, also Fringe/Book/Jazz Festivals. See full home exchange offer and more photos, HE20502

Au Revoir but not Good Bye to Home Swapping

We received the following message this week from 'A', a current Home Base Holidays member who has been living, and exchanging her home, in France:

'Please would you remove our property from the listings. We are moving back to England and the property is now on the market for sale, so will not be available for an exchange.

Sincere thanks - your site has been brilliant and I have appreciated everything you do to make the whole process of exchange a successful and happy one.'

It's always nice to get such positive feedback - thanks 'A'! There are times when members are in the same situation as 'A', sometimes with memberships not due to expire for several months (never more than two years though - the longest period Home Base Holidays listings are kept in circulation). As listings can be updated with information/photos for the new home once members are settled in and ready to consider home exchange offers again, and even expired memberships can be renewed at a substantially reduced rate (up to two years after the expiry date), it isn't necessary to delete such listings completely from the site but rather we can hide them temporarily so that such members won't be contacted during the period they are unavailable for exchanges.

Home Exchanges 'Back Home' for Expats (+ ExpatWomen.com)

A British Home Base Holidays member, who lives with her family in a large house in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, gave an excellent reason for wanting to arrange a home swap when travelling back home to visit family:

'Our families are still in the UK (London and Portsmouth). We return to the UK every summer to spend time with the family. The home exchange we are looking for in London would be an "overspill from the in-laws house", as it would drive me crazy to be cooped in the same house as my in-laws for 6 weeks!'

She continued:

'We live in a very local neighbourhood, and if you want to experience Malaysian life, this is it!' See her full exchange offer and more photos, HE20372

As more and more people are either living in another country for a year or so, or are making permanent moves, so there is also an increasing number who want to have a base of their own rather than stay with relatives or friends when making trips 'back home'. Home exchange both saves money and provides a comfortable, private retreat from too much togetherness with relatives.

When I moved to England from Canada in 1968, 'home' seemed a very long way away (we came by boat!) and it was hardly surprising that at times I felt homesick. Today, expats have so much more support and sources of advice on integrating into a new country and culture. ExpatWomen.com is an excellent example:

'ExpatWomen.com is a free, global web site designed to help all expatriate women living outside of their home country. Our mission is to inspire your success abroad by providing you with a first-stop web site to share stories, network globally, develop personally and to find the best resources. Whether this is your first experience living overseas, you are a seasoned or returned expat, or you are about to embark on your big adventure, we have something for everyone. Membership is free and includes a monthly inspirational newsletter showcasing success stories, business ideas, book reviews, interviews, resources and more.'

Home Exchange: Holidays/Vacations, Permanent, Council/Private Homes, New Build for Old, Crafts

As many people looking for information on home exchange (holidays/vacations) use the Internet to do their research, it's probably a little confusing to find quite a mixture of unrelated sites in search results and ads. As the same terms (home exchange, house swap, etc) are used for a number of different purposes, I thought it might be useful to list some of the main types of service you might come across:

1. Swapping homes for temporary periods, usually at the same time and usually for holidays (vacations). As 'home exchange' has been used to describe this type of service for at least 60 years, this is still what is most commonly associated with the phrases, 'home exchange', 'house swap' (and variations) - and is what this blog (and Home Base Holidays) is all about.

2. Swapping council houses (property owned by and rented from local authorities) or privately owned homes permanently. This is a common practice in the UK and a number of sites cater for both types of exchange.

3. Part exchange an old property for a newly built home. This is an incentive that house builders sometimes use to encourage sales of new homes.

4. Permanent swap of homes rather than selling. This seems to have become very popular in the USA especially due to the slow down in the housing market. A number of sites have sprung up to offer this service recently, to match people who want to sell their homes but are unable to find buyers with others in the same situation.

5. House swap (referrences on arts and crafts sites). This is one I've come across a few times but I'm not sure I fully understand it. Is it the swapping of any craft item? Collages or cards? House themed craft swaps? Can anyone enlighten me?

Babies, Holidays, Home Exchange Homes - Can You Ever Have Too Many Photos?

My heart sank the other day when a friend, a proud new grandmother, arrived with a big album of photos of the wonderful new addition to her family. Babies are precious, and I am so pleased for my friend but, quite honestly, once you've seen one photo of a two week old baby bundled up in a pram, you really don't need to see a dozen more of basically the same shot (maybe I just didn't notice the tiny nuances in expression that were being captured?) And then to move on to the bathing sequence, many changes of outfits ....

With digital cameras making it easy to take masses of photos, it can seem that the general consensus, whether compiling a baby book or adding photos to a home exchange listing, is that 'more has got to be better'. I don't think it is. In fact, I think it helps to look at photos to be shared with others in the same way you would when choosing photos for prints, i.e. as each print will cost a few pennies, this is a good motivation to carefully select the best photos from your many digital images.

Home Base Holidays members can add up to eight photos to their listings. This seems a generous enough number to enable most members to be able to select a good range of photos (the best of each!), usually an outside view of the home, a number of rooms, garden, etc, giving a very good representation of what exchange partners can expect the home to be like. Hopefully, just as when selecting photos for prints, limiting the number of photos ensures that most members take care to choose a representative best of the bunch rather than add more photos, no matter how dire or repetitive. Bigger (in this case, more) does not always mean better. And, when you get down to arranging an exchange, you can easily share more photos directly with your exchange partners on Flickr or another photo sharing site.

When browsing the most recent home exchange offers for a good one to illustrate this post, I was surprised at how many members add photos (always recommended) but not the maximum eight allowed. So it hardly seems that there is a big demand for unlimited photos!

The photo above is of a modern house available for exchange in Fingal Bay, New South Wales, Australia. As one of the prime features of this home is its spectacular views, the main photo is a view from the house while further photos show various rooms, special features and the house from outside. See the full home exchange offer and all eight photos, HE17880.

St George's Day, April 23rd: Sample Home Exchange Offers in England

As Home Base Holidays is based in London (and has been operating a home exchange service since 1985), it's hardly surprising that the site has so many attractive home exchange offers throughout England (and, indeed, the UK generally). But this isn't the only reason - I quite often still see home exchange described as 'the latest trend' when, in fact, people have been taking part in organised home exchanges here for very many years.

The English celebrate St George's Day in a generally understated way (i.e. unlike other national holidays, it tends to be almost ignored) but it seems a good excuse to highlight just a very few of the most recent home exchange offers in my beautiful adopted home (just a note about checking how up-to-date home exchange listings are - look for the join/registration date AND the expiry date.):

Nr Harrogate, Yorkshire: A converted barn in the village of Burton Leonard in North Yorkshire. 5 minutes walk away are 2 pubs serving lunchtime and evening meals, also the village shop/post office, cricket club, tennis courts, and children’s playground. Several pretty walks around the village and great for mountain biking. See full exchange offer and more photos, HE18145

Dartmouth, Devon: Our house is a Victorian semi, it has a splendid position overlooking the valley within walking distance of Dartmouth. We have a wonderful veranda with decking at the front which is south facing & great for sun bathing. There is also a large BBQ patio at the rear of the house with stunning views. See full exchange offer and more photos, HE20771

London: Modern townhoue in Primrose Hill, Central London. Walk to Oxford Circus in half an hour through beautiful Regent's Park, passing London Zoo on the way. Primrose Hill is full of cafes, restaurants and quaint little shops (great for celeb spotting!) Ideal swap for a family with kids (loads of toys, but all stylishly stored!!) or a single person or a couple. Old classic Mercedes to drive. See full exchange offer and more photos, HE17982

Appleby, Cumbria: We live in a 17th century sandstone cottage with exposed stonework, oak beams and many original features but all modern conveniences, in a tiny village near Appleby, former county town of Westmorland. There are beautiful views of the Pennine hills from our house and garden. Appleby lies in the Eden Valley, an ideal location for discovering the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales, and Scotland, all less than an hour`s drive from here. See full exchange offer and more photos, HE19593

nr Padstow, Cornwall: Molesworth Manor is a large 17th century former rectory in an area of outstanding natural beauty. The Manor has 10 bedrooms and 3 huge sitting rooms with open fires. Close to the popular fishing village of Padstow, it is ideally suited to long coastal walks, golf at excellent links courses, cycling, visiting National Trust properties and the Eden Project. There are also excellent restaurants close by. See full exchange offer and more photos, HE20726

'Try taking your next holiday at home - somebody else's': Article in the Guardian

Last Saturday's edition of the Guardian (Money section) included an excellent article by Miles Brignall on the many benefits of home exchange holidays, including the major cost savings of having no accommodation bills to pay.

The Guardian's own home exchange service (operated by Home Base Holidays) only launched in mid January but has already attracted much interest and many members. One Guardian home exchange member, Nicola Gibson, whose family (including three young children) has already had 10 successful house exchanges within the UK through the National Childbirth Trust, was interviewed about her family's exchange experiences. A quote:

'We have been all over the UK and we haven't had a bad experience. One of the great things about swapping houses with other couples who are at a similar stage, is that they tend to have lots of toys to play with. It's great getting the inside tips on a place, and having money while you are there to spend on things like eating out.'

The Gibsons are now ready to branch out to home swaps abroad. See their attractive exchange offer in Brighton, HE20541.

Read the full article, 'Try taking your next holiday at home - somebody else's', in the Guardian.

Helping Home Exchange Guests with Food Allergies or Special Dietary Needs

Although my son, Mark, is grown up and used to travelling on his own all over the world, I still worry about him particularly as he is allergic to peanuts (he's also vegetarian and tends to travel to countries where meat is a big part of the cuisine). It's not always easy to find out if foods might contain peanuts or peanut oil if your knowledge of a language is very basic. I came across an excellent site recently, SelectWisely, that sells a huge range of Food and Travel translation cards for communicating food allergies and other health problems when away from home. The site also includes much information, and links to further sources of specific information, that would be useful for anyone with food allergies, especially when travelling.

Home exchangers with food allergies should have a great advantage if they need advice and translation help as, provided they let their exchange partners know ahead, they will no doubt be very pleased to add to the information folder they compile some useful tips on words to look out for on menus and when shopping for food, and to translate the most important information on an allergy or special diet so that this can be taken to restaurants or wherever there could be any possibility of communication problems.

We've had Home Base Holidays members who, for ethical or religious reasons, indicate in their exchange offers that they don't want meat to be cooked in their kitchens, and also members with allergies who can't exchange to homes where cats normally live for example, but having a fully equipped kitchen in a home exchange home is another advantage for home swappers, especially those with children who have food allergies, as it's much easier to control what's in your food when you prepare it yourself 'at home'.