Travel the Home Exchange Way

Cadogan Travel Guides: Discount Offer for Home Exchangers

This is a reminder to Home Base Holidays members that Cadogan Travel Guides are offering members £2 off on the following travel guides:

Andalucía; Bay of Naples & Southern Italy; Brittany; Corsica; Croatia; The Dordogne, Lot & Bordeaux; Gascony, The Pyrenees & Toulouse; Ireland; Italian Riviera & Piedmont; Languedoc-Roussillon; Loire; Peloponnese & Athens; Rhône-Alpes; Scotland; Sicily; Slovenia; South of France; Venice, Venetia & The Dolomites and Take the Kids to London.

Simply visit Cadogan Travel Guides for more information and to choose your guide(s) and then call 01476 541080, quoting the book title, ISBN number and offer code (log on to your member area to find the code in the information section).

This promotion ends 31st December 2008.

We Tell Stories: 'Slice' - the Interactive Story of a Home Exchange

Have a look at the Penguin digital fiction site, We Tell Stories Six Authors. Six Stories. Six Weeks, where six authors are publishing short stories with technological twists, based on classic stories. We're now into the third week and story but check out last week's story, 'Slice', about an American family who’ve done a house swap with an English family. There are two blogs to follow the action on: the daughter, 'Slice's' blog, and the parents', Ray and Lynn. Although this story finished last Friday, you can still read the archived blog entries. Both sets of characters also had twitter accounts so readers following the action 'as it happened' could really send them messages - and get answers! From the parents' blog:

'We’ve done a houseswap with a real sweet British couple, Betty and Joey. They have a daughter a little older than Lisa. We met them online, in a support group we found for parents of "troubled teens". And when it became clear that the best thing for Lisa and Mary Jane was to get them as far away from all the bad influences as possible, we decided that a swap was the best thing.'

Intrigued? Read 'Slice' on We Tell Stories. There's also a competition, with the chance to win a library of 1300 Penguin Classics books.

Home Exchange - a Useful Literary Device?

You know that home exchange has come of age when even the latest Philip Roth novel includes it in the plot!

I read a review of 'Exit Ghost' on the blog, A Year of Reading. Here's a short quote:

'When Zuckerman answers an ad in the paper placed by young writers who wish to house swap with someone outside of the city, he finds himself falling for Jamie, the young Harvard grad whose sexuality arouses him in a way he'd abandoned as plausible. And, her attraction enables Zuckerman to write again.'

Sounds like an interesting home swap! Read the full review (also see link to 'Exit Ghost' on Amazon.com under Books, right hand column)

A Home Exchange Christmas Story

It may be a little late to get in the mood for the holidays by reading a topical story now that a new year has begun. However, I came across a review for 'When Christmas Comes' by Debbie Macomber a few days ago and, as it features a home exchange, it's topical anyway! An excerpt from the review:

'Charles is a professor for Harvard and doesn't like Christmas. He finds himself on a house swap website and ends up swapping houses with Emily. She stays in his Condo in Boston and he flies to Leavenworth, Washington to stay in Emily's house. He is your typical absent minded professor and is looking forward to the solitude of staying at Emily's house and finishing his book. Little does he know that the kids next door will try to get him to play outside in the snow and that he has a surprise coming.'

Read the full review of 'When Christmas Comes' on the blog, Not Enough Books. Also see the link to the book on Amazon.com under Books in the right hand column.

'Home Exchange Academy': e-book Review

In the last issue of Home Swappers Newsletter, I asked for volunteers to review a new e-book, 'Home Exchange Academy'. Several readers responded and two were chosen at random - an experienced home exchanger and a newsletter subscriber who had not swapped homes.

The time has not yet been right for Catherine and her family to consider an exchange but, when volunteering to review the e-book, Catherine admitted to 'drooling over various exchange offers' on Home Base Holidays. She is a regular newsletter reader and is very familiar with the home exchange concept. Thanks to Catherine for her thoughtful review:

I’m an addicted browser (read "dreamer") of home exchange websites so I leapt at the chance to read and review the new e-book, subtitled: "Blueprint to Swap Homes for Your Next Vacation and Get out of the Hotel Rut". Sadly, I was disappointed.

My overall impression? This 68 page book was hastily thrown together and could benefit from some careful editing. Both the book and the associated website include spelling errors. And, while the book includes much useful information, it also includes material that seems like filler of only tenuous interest to prospective home exchangers. The author seems to know this. She predicts at the beginning of "General Tips and Advice" that "[t]his section of my e-book may sound a little strange." She’s right – the section is an awkward mix of tips relevant to home exchangers and other tips that would only be of use to someone who’s never traveled before – hardly the typical home exchanger.

The book does contain some very good advice on how to evaluate a home exchange club before joining. The author advises readers to explore each club’s website, check out contact info (and call or email the club to see how fast and helpful is the response), and look for clubs that focus on exchange rather than rentals. The author also offers useful cautions about avoiding clubs without membership fees or lacking security features to protect members’ contact information. The latter advice, however, is inconsistent with her suggestion that you post your children’s photos on your listing.

Something else I wouldn’t have thought of is the author’s advice that you record the "knocks and dings" in your own house before you leave so that your exchange partners won’t feel responsible for damage they haven’t caused. And I hadn’t thought of the possibility of including photos of interesting sites in my city or neighbourhood.

Having drifted around the web, I know that similar information is available at no cost on the websites of many home exchange organizations. But, if you’re looking for a quick overview and an example of home exchange documents, then this book is a convenient place to start.

The website promises that purchasers will get updated versions of the book at no cost. Here’s hoping that the author takes the time to refine a promising first draft into a more substantial book.

Catherine & family, based in Toronto, Canada, are experienced travelers who stay in accommodation with cooking facilities whenever possible. One of these days, they’ll get their act (and digital photos) together and actually post a home exchange listing. Where do they want to go? Shanghai, Beijing, Venice, Texas, California, Scotland and anywhere else interesting.

See the 'Home Exchange Academy' website for further information and to order the e-book, $19.99US(+tax).

Home Exchange Volunteers: e-Book Reviewers, TV Show Participants and Home Swap Diary Keepers

Since publishing the Oct/Nov issue of Home Swappers on Monday, there has been a very good response from Home Base Holidays members and newsletter subscribers to various requests for volunteers - several of you would like a free copy of the new e-book, Home Exchange Academy, to review (two reviewers will be selected at random on 11 October), Irish members have responded to a request to appear on the new show, Highly Recommended (the chance to win 2000 euros might have been a good incentive!) and Alexander Grit, a PhD student in Hospitality Management, has had a good response to his request for volunteers to keep diaries of their next home exchanges for use in his research. Alexander has written to each volunteer, giving extra information about himself and family and his studies. This is a nice touch - he even invited volunteers to come and visit him in his home town in the Netherlands! Alexander wrote:

Hi Lois,

First of all I would like to thank you for all your effort, I really appreciate this. The reactions are very useful and promising. I contacted all the interested candidates with personal e-mails and wrote a little about myself and the research.

I like your personal approach towards your own home exchange candidates and the way you engage them in a community. I studied different home exchange organisations but your approach is quite unique.

Warm greetings,

Alexander

There's still time to volunteer for any of these three offers - just contact me with Book Review, Irish TV Show or Home Exchange Diary, in the subject line.

Home Exchange in Harry Potter Film Locations

Family Travel Files, a top-rated American family travel resource, has recently updated an ezine article, 'Britain: Exchanging Places in the Spirit of Harry Potter', to coincide with the release of the latest J.K. Rowling book, 'Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows' and the new Harry Potter film. Parents continue to contact the site for advice about vacationing with Harry Potter. I am delighted that arranging a home exchange (or two) in the UK through Home Base Holidays is prominently recommended:

'In the spirit of the popular book series and the movie sequels, muggles with a penchant for adventure can make plenty of interesting and magical connections even without a ticket for the night bus.

Our first suggestion, consider exchanging places. What does Harry Potter have to do with home exchange? Not a lot! But one company in the UK, Home Base Holidays based in London offers an assortment of homes near Harry Potter film locations, a good start on an adventure. They have choices throughout the UK, many within easy access of one of the film locations.'

We supplied samples of current home exchange offers within easy reach of Harry Potter film locations and these offers have been fully described in the article, along with photos of the homes, including a central London apartment in a Victorian mansion block, 100m from Tower Bridge and the River Thames. Visit Home Base Holidays to view all the home swap possibilities. Listings in England are sorted by county so, to quickly find all possibilities near a location in a particular county (these include Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire plus London), first choose England from the country list, and then, the county from the state/county list. Choose Scotland from the country list to view all current Scottish listings, some near film locations.

Do read the full article, 'Britain: Exchanging Places in the Spirit of Harry Potter' for detailed information, and links to further resources, which will be invaluable for any families planning trips to the UK, especially when travelling with muggles.

©Lois Sealey: This blog, and all content, is copyright. If quoting from this post, please acknowledge Travel the Home Exchange Way (http://homeexchangetravel.blogs.com) as the source and include a direct link to the full post (see Permalink below).

Ebook About Home Exchange: No Review, No Recommendation

In a recent edition of a travel ezine I subscribe to I noticed that amongst the list of eBooks available to buy from the site, there was one on home exchange that claimed to be: 'the orginal, definitive guidebook', 'explains everything you need to know about home swapping', 'This eBook is the way to get started', 'Get this report and bring your dreams of luxurious world travel to life...' (the bold and italics are as in the promotional blurb). Those are pretty impressive claims and so I was eager to have a copy to review, with the idea of recommending it to readers of this blog and Home Base Holidays members if it was, indeed, a comprehensive and useful guide, especially for those new to home exchange.

Most publishers and authors are delighted to receive extra publicity from reviews, especially those that will be read by their target market and thus likely to generate a good number of sales, but not this one. On requesting a review copy, I received the following reply:

'Our website has a policy of not releasing any eBooks for review, even if it may potentially increase sales. Our contracts also include a clause that prevents us from promoting the author's work anywhere except for on our authorized sites.'

Perhaps that's a standard policy with eBooks sales? I don't know. It just seems odd and restrictive when any sales of the eBook would be made through a link on the site, thus benefiting both the author and the business. Perhaps there's a fear that the eBook would be copied (always a possibility when any information is made available)? Whatever, on reading the promotional blurb further, I see that the author, although having run a small home exchange agency for seven years, doesn't appear to actually have been involved in the business in any way for the last seven years. What happened to the agency? As there have been many changes in recent years, maybe this is a warning that the information is not likely to be up-to-date. There was no indication of the length of the report either. It's really not worth paying for an eBook sight unseen, with no reviews available, when there is so much information on home exchange now freely available on the internet.

When in Rome ... Try a Home Exchange!

This week I was delighted to receive a copy of 'Going to Live in Italy' from Oxford based publishers, How To Books. Home exchange (and Home Base Holidays) are included in the section, 'Finding Long-Term Accommodation'. Under the heading, 'Doing a house exchange', the author, Amanda Hinton, writes:

'Exchanging your UK home for an Italian one, either permanently or for a specified period, is a good way of solving the accommodation problem, although it is important that the conditions and securities are clearly laid out.'

Home exchange is still seen primarily as a great way to have a short-term holiday, but we are increasingly finding members who see swapping homes as a way of trying out a new country before making the major committment of buying or renting property.

If you are thinking of a move to Italy (what a pleasant thought on a very blustery winter day here in London!), Going to Live in Italy will help you in various situations ranging from driving a car to buying a house. Employment, health and the educational system are also explored. The guide aims to help visitors experience the real Italy and is ideal for those who want to venture off the beaten track. This book will probably make you more Italian than the average Italian!

Fiction: More than a Home Swap - a 'Life Swap'!

'Life Swap is the story of what really happens when two women, both of whom think their happiness lies somewhere else, decide to walk in one another's shoes for one month. It's the story of the grass not being as green as you might think, and of discovering that happiness is not always where you expect it to be.'

Life Swap by Jane Green is just out in paperback in the UK, £6.99, and will be published in hardback in the USA on 20 June (under the title, Swapping Lives). This sounds a good read while on a home exchange holiday - much easier to exchange homes and lifestyles temporarily than to swap complete lives!