Travel the Home Exchange Way

Clearing space for your home exchange guests

Home swap tip: clear space in your wardrobe for your guests

Q: I recently joined Home Base Holidays and am currently discussing an exchange in 2020 with a member in France. I'm new to home swapping (this will be my first swap!) and am not quite sure what will be expected by the guests staying in my home. Of course I will make sure my home is clean, tidy and with fresh bedding and towels ready for their stay but, should I also clear out my wardrobe? Also, what about personal belongings, is it okay to leave them out? Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks!

A: Most members just clear a section of a wardrobe and a drawer or two for their exchange partners to store their clothes (as most exchange periods are fairly short, your guests are unlikely to need a lot of space for their belongings). 

As well as leaving some storage space in bedrooms, leave kitchen equipment, etc for their use but tidy your fridge and a kitchen cupboard so that your guests have space to store their food.

Leave basic provisions: you don't have to go grocery shopping, but it's nice to have staples like tea, coffee, sugar, milk, bread, butter, cereal, toilet rolls and washing up liquid on hand to help your guests settle in while they figure out the lay of the land.

Your guests will be looking forward to staying in a real home rather than a showroom or hotel and so, it's completely fine to leave most of your personal belongings in place. However, for peace of mind, some members do choose to store or lock away anything of value or sentimental value.

Remember to ask the other member any questions that come to mind; they will understand that it is your first time exchanging and will appreciate the fact that you are being thorough.

Do make sure to contact us again if you need any help with your home swap arrangements.   

---

Getting ready for a home swap? Check out our preparing for a home swap checklist 

Scottish Highland swap in Cathy's wonderful cottage

Highlands home swap: Cathy's traditional fishermans / crofters cottage

"We enjoyed a two weeks home swap in Cathy's fabulous Scottish Highland cottage. Cathy's home is such a lovely charming sea view cottage in a fabulous location very near to the sea. It was very well equipped and we felt really at home in the cottage. Every day of our home swap we explored more of the beautiful Scottish surroundings. After a day exploring, it was always great to come back to the cottage to relax. We also enjoyed really good meals in the lovely local pub. Cathy was very helpful during our stay, thank you so much for letting us stay and have the most beautiful holiday!" - Petra (Eckbolsheim, France)

---

Highlight from the home exchange:

1. Beautiful sea views from the top floor of the cottage
2. Watching dolphins from the seashore!
3. Scotland! The nature, the landscape and the locals

---

Photos from Petra & Stephane's swap:

• 
• 
• 
• 

---

Meet the members:

Petra & Stephane (pictured) have a lovely apartment next to Strasbourg, France. View their home swap offer in France Cathy's wonderful traditional fishermans cottage is in the picturesque coastal village of Portmahomack. View Cathy's Highlands home swap offer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

Arrange free holiday accommodation

Rather than booking a hotel or holiday rental, arrange a home exchange through Home Base Holidays and enjoy free accommodation. 

• Search thousands of home exchange offers

Q&A: convincing family members to try a home swap vacation

First time swappers: convincing family members to try a home exchange vacation

Q: Hi Home Base Holidays, I am very interested in arranging a home exchange but the problem is convincing my husband. I wondered if you have any suggestions? - Sally

---

A: Hi Sally, thanks for getting in touch! It is very common for one family member to be keen to try a home exchange vacation while other family members may be a little unsure and need some convincing. Of course, if someone is so concerned about swapping homes that it would cause them to worry while away and therefore not enjoy their vacation, then perhaps it’s best not to push them.

However, it's completely normally to have some trepidation when first considering a home exchange - a fear of the unknown and of having someone staying in your home. Reassure your husband that there’s no pressure at all to agree to any home exchange offer unless you are both completely happy with it.

It can help to get the more wary family members fully involved in the home exchange process so that they can ask potential exchange partners any questions/concerns they have prior to agreeing the swap. Planning a home exchange involves a fair bit of communication via messaging plus ideally through Skype/phone calls. This will help you and your husband get to know the other members before making any firm commitments and so build the trust that is key to a successful swap.

It can be reassuring when planning your first home exchange to look for members that have swapped before and so ‘know the ropes’ and help guide you through the process. Experienced home exchangers can provide reviews/references of previous exchanges - this will be reassuring and can also highlight some of the joys of home swapping (look for the ‘Experienced exchanger’ star icon shown in their Home Base Holidays listing). 

Here at Home Base Holidays we're always happy to answer any questions and help guide you through your first steps into the wonderful world of home swapping!

---

Home Base Holidays: home swap accommodation For well over 35 years, Home Base Holidays has been helping members arrange home swap accommodation. Search thousands of home exchange vacation offers Start your free two-week home swap trial: Join Home Base Holidays

Home exchange websites: the annoyance of automatic membership payments

Are you old enough to remember the enticing ads to get you to sign up to book clubs, as in ‘Sign up and receive four hard cover books of your choice for only £1’? In the easy to overlook small print there was a condition that, from what I recall, you bought at least six more books from monthly selections during the year. This didn’t seem too onerous when I signed up. The problems came when I tried to cancel the membership after fulfilling the obligation. The monthly books, and bills, just kept right on coming despite many attempts to cancel. As I remember it years later, it took many frustrating attempts before the message finally got through that I was no longer interested in receiving the expensive books!

Less than honest marketing by book clubs may (I hope) be a thing of the past but it's now easier than ever to sign up to websites only to find yourself automatically charged a large subscription fee that you may either have been unaware of or simply not remembered to cancel in time before the payment is taken.

It's quite common here at Home Base Holidays for us to be contacted by people very interested in home swapping but also cautious about signing up after bad experiences where they were automatically charged a hefty membership fee on other home exchange websites. One common issue seems to be people signing up to 'free trial' memberships only to be automatically charged a very substantial fee at the end of the trial (often finding it near on impossible to get a refund). Another annoyance, people being enticed by home swap sites displaying memberships at low monthly rates only to miss the small print that the full 12-month subscription will be taken as one big payment. Ouch!

---

Home Base Holidays: no automatic payments 

We really value our members and so, here at Home Base Holidays we never take automatic renewal payments and so you will only ever be charged a membership fee if you actively choose to continue as a member. This also helps to ensure that all our listings are genuine up-to-date offers. 

How our membership options work:

• Free Trial Membership: if you opt for our free two week trial membership, you won’t be asked for payment details and so you’ll never need to worry about being charged a fee at the end of the free trial. Your home swap listing will automatically be hidden if you do not actively choose to continue your membership. 
• Full Memberships and Renewals (six month and one year): card and PayPal details are not stored by Home Base Holidays. You will receive a reminder email when your membership is due to expire but you will never be automatically charged a membership renewal fee. To renew your membership you will need to log in and go to the checkout page. If you do not renew your membership, no payment will be taken and your listing will automatically be hidden. 

---

Home Base Holidays: home swap accommodation For well over 35 years, Home Base Holidays has been helping members arrange home swap accommodation. Search thousands of home exchange vacation offers Start your free two-week home swap trial: Join Home Base Holidays

Home swapping puts you in touch with the nicest people!

Swiss swap: the beautiful city of St Gallen, Switzerland

It's always great to hear members' home swap experiences! Here we have the trip reports of this summer's home swap between members Bea & Kaspar's from St Gallen, Switzerland and Christine and Peter's from Usk, Wales.

---

Home swap: Usk, Wales >>> St Gallen, Switzerland

"From the moment the home swap was agreed we had lots of very friendly and informative messages from Bea - these continued throughout our home exchange period and so I really felt I knew the person whose house we were were staying in. Switzerland is of course beautiful and the weather in was just lovely. The apartment was clean and very comfortable. We really enjoyed preparing some of our meals and eating them from either of the home's two lovely balconies. We also exchanged cars, which was very useful and easy to drive on roads that are far from overcrowded. The helpful people at the Tourist Information Centre in St Gallen advised us to buy a Bodensee Card Plus, aimed at visitors and which, once purchased, gave us free entry into most of the cable cars and Lake Constance ferries, not to mention tourist trains, museums, the nearby chocolate factory and numerous outdoor pools. This was certainly a good buy. We really enjoyed the local walks suggested by Bea, the area has so many lovely places to explore. Local buses and trains were also very easy to use. I would highly recommend a home swap to Bea and Kaspar's lovely home. They took great care of our home and fed our cat, fish in the pond and wild birds too. Thanks Bea and Kaspar for a wonderful swap!" - Christine

 

Home swap: St Gallen, Switzerland >>> Usk, Wales

"Thanks so much for your lovely comments Christine! We so much enjoyed being in your home, and relaxing after a fairly busy two weeks in Brighton, London and Brackley. Your house is so clean and comfortable and the garden with the two seating areas is a dream! We were there during a heatwave, so finding a cool shady spot n the garden was a great relief - we spent quite a few lovely hours reading and dozing there. When we could persuade ourselves to go out we walked Usk’s fascinating Blue Plaque trail, visited the Museum of Country Life, enjoyed the shady nature trail and various other walks along the river and up to the castle, drove to Ledbury (lovely hotel there called the Feathers), and visited Monmouth and Raglan Castle by bus. We discovered that although Usk is tiny and very rural, it’s really easy to visit a lot of great places by bus. You buy a day ticket and off you go! Usk is delightful, full of flowers and friendly people and excellent places to eat. I must also mention that Usk has an excellent taxi service run by (I was delighted) a fellow South African! We’re very impressed with idyllic south Wales so thank you for a completely delightful swap and the lovely online chats. Please give our regards to Alfie, who made us so welcome, and to the fish that nearly ate out of my hand after just a week, and the hedgehog that honoured us with an evening visit, and the birds that ate the feeder empty as fast as I could fill it. Home swapping does put you in touch with the nicest people!" - Bea

 

 

Bea & Kaspar's home in Switzerland

• 
• 
• 
• 

 

Christine & Peter's home in Wales

• 
• 
• 
• 

---

Meet the members:   View Bea & Kaspar's home swap offer near St Gallen, Switzerland View Christine & Peter's home swap offer in Usk, Wales

 

---

New to home swapping? Sign up for free!

Rather than booking a hotel or holiday rental, arrange free accommodation by arranging a holiday home exchange. Sign up to the Home Base Holidays two-week free trial.

Home swap Q&A: are home exchange offers up-to-date?

Q: My husband and I love the idea of home exchanging but are yet to arrange one. Several years ago we signed up to a free home exchange website and sent out messages to quite a number of members. However, it became clear to us that the most of the offers shown on the website were old inactive listings, even some that looked fake (we saw a home in London with no description and just one photo - a photo of a giraffe!). So, our first attempt at home exchanging was an unsuccessful one but we're now keen to try again. Most of the home exchange websites we have looked at have lots of nice homes but how do we know that they are up to date genuine offers?

- Best wishes, Sue (Scotland)

A: Thank you for getting in touch and great to hear that you are interested in home exchanging. Really sorry though that your first foray into home exchanging was an unsuccessful one. Unfortunately, we see it more often than not where home exchange sites choose not to hide or remove old / inactive listings. This superficially boosts the number of listings shown on the website but we believe it is a bad practice and is misleading to potential members.

As mentioned, we know how frustrating it can be, scrolling through home exchange listings only to find out that most of the listings shown have not been active for months (even years). Therefore, at Home Base Holidays we try to focus on keeping our offers as up-to-date as possible. Our longest membership period is our one-year option, homes are then automatically hidden on the expiry date if the member chooses not to renew their membership. We charge a modest membership fee (our six-month membership is just £29) - even with such modest fees, members that have paid to sign up to a website are far more likely to be actively looking to home exchange than on free websites, such as with your previous experience. The membership fee also adds a reassurance that the listings shown are genuine offers. We do offer a two-week free trial membership so that people can try out our service before committing to a full membership, but again, if not renewed on or before the expiry date, these trial membership are also automatically hidden.

Home Base Holidays expiry dates

It's worth noting that people arrange successful home exchanges using a variety of different websites and so there is not a one size fits all. Do some research and even sign up to several sites until you find a home exchange service that works for you. When choosing which home exchange site(s) to sign up to, look for sites that clearly display membership expiry dates on all listings so that you know the offers shown are up-to-date active offers.

---

Home Base Holidays: home swap accommodation For nearly 40 years, Home Base Holidays has been helping members arrange home swap accommodation. Search thousands of home exchange vacation offers Start your free two-week home swap trial: Join Home Base Holidays