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
Guest post by Home Base Holidays member and experienced home exchanger, Jean Bucknall:
August 2019 marks the thirtieth anniversary of our very first home exchange and since then we have completed ninety more! Especially for those of you for whom home exchanging is still something you’re not quite sure about, let me give you a brief history of our experiences over the years.
When we first decided to give home exchanging a try we signed up with an agency and, in those days, well before the internet was available to the general public, the agencies produced directories. These were rather like telephone directories, but with photographs (initially in black and white, but later in colour) of most properties, together with members’ names, addresses and telephone numbers. The facilities on offer – e.g the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, whether there were pets to care for, the number of people that would be in the party, desired destinations, whether car exchange was possible, preferred dates for the exchanges etc etc were listed in abbreviated form, so one had to learn how to read the listings before one could be sure that a particular property was suitable for your party. Then, having found a property which fitted the bill, one had to write to or telephone the people to ascertain if they liked the idea of an exchange with you. For popular places and times of the year, such as school holidays, finding and agreeing an exchange could be a lengthy process and an expensive one too, if one was having to make international phone calls! Also, the directories were effectively out of date very quickly as the property information couldn’t be changed between editions and one never knew until you contacted somebody whether they had already agreed an exchange for the period you wanted yourself. The last directory we received was in 2010, by which time most members had email addresses and these were available upon request to other members. Nowadays the whole process is so much easier as one’s listing can be changed at any time and the agencies’ messaging systems are a much easier and quicker way of contacting prospective exchange partners. Many people loved getting the directories and it was great fun poring over them dreaming of the possible holidays one could have, but they must have been very expensive to produce and post and, although we initially missed the excitement of receiving them twice yearly, we soon realised that the internet had rendered them obsolete.
Having exchanged letters and agreeing dates we were ready for our first exchange, which was in Paris. We felt very brave venturing abroad for our “trial run”, but it all worked out well. The flat was very conveniently situated just around the corner from the Gare du Nord, but it was on the sixth floor with no lift and Paris in August is very hot and mosquitos plagued us every night. Only at the end of our stay did we discover that there were plug-in mosquito repellents in the flat which we could have used to keep the little pests away. You live and learn! It made us realise the importance of leaving adequate information in the house, so soon after our return from Paris we started work on our “Homefile”, a loose-leaf binder of information and advice for our exchangers. This has grown over the years and is constantly being amended when, for instance, we change items of household equipment or find a new restaurant that we think our exchangers might like to try. It is very important that people know things like where the electricity fuse box and the mains water stop cock are situated as well as the days of refuse collection in your neighbourhood and, in these days of kerbside recycling, what is collected on any specific week. Instructions for plant watering when necessary and where to find household appliances are also included, along with a book of local street maps with shops, petrol stations, restaurants, banks etc marked on the relevant pages.
After that first successful experience in Paris (the first of four exchanges in that lovely city) we felt confident to exchange again both in the UK and in continental Europe, which we did for some years before venturing on our one and only long-haul exchange to Vancouver, where we exchanged with a retired couple. They had different surnames – not particularly unusual - but when we arrived at their house we found that they lived separate lives under the same roof – even to the extent of each having their own kitchen and their own cleaner! On the assumption that they were “a couple”, I had only made up one double bed for them at our house, but they used their initiative and made up one of the spare beds. I now make up all the beds before exchanges so that our exchangers can choose which room(s) they want to use. Vancouver was wonderful, but long-haul flying is not for us and we now restrict our exchanging to the UK and mainland Europe. Apart from the four in Paris, other European exchanges have taken us to many different parts of Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands, sometimes exchanging cars, but most often travelling there and back by train and using public transport to explore.
Until a few years ago we had two cats so would exchange with other cat owners most of the time, but, if not, we would always check that people were happy to look after our cats as part of the exchange. We have looked after cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, chickens etc over the years, but I must admit to being nervous on one exchange because one of the two resident cats was diabetic and had to have insulin injections twice a day! It was not something I had ever done before, but Phoebe was patient with my novice attempts and most of the time I managed to get the insulin injected correctly. Pets can add pleasure and interest to any exchange, but I always check what exactly is required of us before we finalise arrangements.
Over the years we have made many new friends through house exchanging and have had repeat exchanges with quite a few people in this country and in Berlin. When we are on an exchange anywhere close to other exchanging friends we try to meet up for lunch during our stay and swap stories of our respective swaps. We all have tales to tell – and the lunches often stretch well into the afternoon we relate humorous tales of trying to find houses in the dark, antics of pets in our care and, in our case, the search when we first arrive for a teapot! We have lost count of the number of places where we have trawled through local charity shops to find one, which, having cleaned it and used it during our stay, we then leave in the exchange home in the hope that it will be there for future exchangers to use, if, like us, they prefer to make tea in a pot rather than in mugs.
One thing we have learned over the years is not to always look for exchanges in well-known, popular places. Don’t dismiss offers of exchanges from places you haven’t heard of or that you don’t think will be to your taste. Some of our best exchanges have been in unlikely locations which have proved to be excellent bases for town and country walking or, in the UK, for visiting nearby National Trust, Cadw, English Heritage or Historic Scotland properties. We are National Trust and Cadw members and find that now we are retired and can exchange several times a year we are “in credit” with both organisations before the year is half over. In the six months up to the start of July this year our National Trust visits would have cost us over £400 in entrance fees had we not been members – over four times our annual membership fees! It is well worth taking out membership of these organisations if one enjoys visiting historic properties and one has the opportunity to visit several of them each year.
Occasionally, however well planned, exchanges have to be cancelled at short notice for reasons like illness or bereavement and it isn’t always possible to make other arrangements, but fortunately on the two occasions that we have had to cancel – once for a bereavement and once for an injury to a friend who was due to travel with us - we have been able to stay with friends while our exchangers stayed in our house as planned. Both times our exchangers were coming from Europe and presumably they would have lost the money they had spent in advance on airline, rail or ferry fares had they had to cancel their journey because they were unable to stay in our home or find alternative accommodation. We were able to claim on our insurance for our transport costs in both instances, so didn’t lose out. In the last two years we have had two exchanges called off at short notice because of family illnesses within our exchangers’ families, but both were in the UK, so we had not spent any money beforehand other than on things like maps, which we are always happy to add to our collection anyway!
I cannot overstate the pleasure that home exchanging has brought us over our first thirty years - not to mention the opportunity to travel all over the world at a fraction of the cost of holidaying in self-catering accommodation or hotels. When one swaps a home one has the benefit of being able to use the household appliances, the garden and often the car of one’s exchangers – only paying for having one’s name added to their car insurance. We have stayed in an endless variety of homes – from terraced cottages and compact city apartments to ancient listed buildings and big houses with swimming pools and acres of garden. We have exchanged in the winter months and had to buy extra clothes to keep warm and sweltered in the summer months and had to discard the duvet, but all seasons hold their own appeal and our exploration of the UK in particular continues with every exchange. If all goes according to plan we will complete nine UK exchanges this year. We started in East Sussex in March followed by Swansea, Derbyshire, Devon, Rutland, Oxford, Wiltshire, Yorkshire and will finish our exchanges for 2019 in Bedfordshire in October! We already have one exchange agreed for 2020 and I am looking forward in the coming months to filling up the calendar for next year!
- Jean Bucknall
Meet the members, Jean & Paul:
Jean and Paul are both now retired but still enjoy an active lifestyle. Paul was a Chartered Civil Engineer specialising in railways and Jean was a part-time pharmacy assistant. They have been home exchanging since 1989 and have completed over 90 exchanges.
We love hearing about members' home swap experiences. We were therefore delighted to receive the follow trip report from Home Base Holidays member, Marguerite, from her recent nine day home exchange in Portstewart, Northern Ireland.
"We have just spent nine days in Portstewart, with a short sortie to Donegal. We had beautiful weather missing the heatwave here whilst enjoying the Atlantic waves in Portstewart.
Alison's apartment in Portstewart is very comfortable, and ideally placed for coastal walks and beaches. I had seen an excellent documentary on the Irish coast a couple of years ago, which included an episode on Mussenden Temple, so imagine my surprise and joy to find the temple within a short walking distance!
We were close enough to visit Derry and very much enjoyed the city... which definitely merits a second visit as there is so much to see.
A walk to the Giants Causeway was enhanced by advice from a local guide we bumped into... we started the walk from 5 miles east of the causeway, walking one way and catching the bus back to the car, all very easy and enjoyable. Stunning cliff views, not to mention seals, porpoises, hawks and hundreds of painted lady butterflies.
I think this area is one of the most environmentally cared for places I have ever visited, the wild flowers and the fauna were stunning!
One more thing we found very refreshing... there were many many parking places with picnic tables and places to safely BBQ, all clean and most with wonderful views, and all free.
I highly recommend Portstewart and it's surroundings, and a big thank you to Alison for her welcome and thoughtfulness."
- Marguerite
Meet the members:
Marguerite (in photo) is a retired teacher and avid traveller.
Swiss swap: the beautiful city of Lucerne, Switzerland
"We were lucky enough to spend just over two weeks in Christine and Robert's beautiful, modern apartment in Kriens, Switzerland. Although we hired a car, we used the excellent bus service, just round the corner, for our trips into Lucerne. Lucerne is such a compact and beautiful city. We enjoyed just wandering around the streets and the market, as well as visiting its churches, walking the city walls and visiting the marvellous Bourbaki Panorama, not to mention its famous covered bridges. It was also a starting point for a lovely walk around the lake, to the Swiss Museum of Transport (or you can go on the bus!). From the apartment, we were able to walk up to the cable car up Mount Pilatus: we did the whole round trip- up on the the cable car and 360 degree gondola, down on the cog railway, back to Lucerne on the boat and a short bus ride back home. Further afield, we had a memorable day trip to the Aare Gorge and the Reichenbach Falls (of Sherlock Holmes fame) at Meiringen. We had many lovely walks from Kriens, either using the funicular railway some 10 minutes walk from the apartment, or walking up past the Pilatus cable car station.
We were there during very hot sunny weather and spent a couple of hours each afternoon/evening relaxing at the lovely Villa Krämerstein near Horw. There are lovely gardens and shaded areas, as well as steps down into the lake. It’s cheaper to park on the road nearby than in the Villa car park. An added bonus is the 15 minute or so drive there on the Kastanienbaum, through lovely alpine meadows. The apartment also has a lovely covered seating area for warm evenings ( and watching the odd storm!).
The communication with Christine and Robert was excellent and they were very considerate hosts and guests. They left us essential supplies, and some Swiss treats, and took great care of our house, leaving it lovely and clean."
Winning photo: Kate's joyful photo from her home swap in the Lake District
A BIG thank you to everyone that sent in their photos to our home swap photography competition. We received nearly 300 photos making it extremely hard to select a winner.
The photos we received included everything from fun selfies taken during a home swap, lovely photos of markets and off-the-tourist trail discoveries, as well as several very impressive photos from professional travel photographers. However, we loved the natural joy in Kate's winning photo (above) which was taken during her family's home exchange in the English Lake District. As the winner of the photo competition, Kate will be sent a Kindle Paperwhite!
"We have been exchanging our home for years, we first started exchanging through Home Base Holidays in 2007. We have exchanged homes in Dorset, the Isle of Wight, as well as exchanges abroad in France, Spain, Germany, Gozo and Mallorca amongst other places! This photo is from our home exchange in the beautiful Lake District."
- Kate (London, England)
In addition to the winning photo, Kate sent in several equally excellent photos from her family's home exchanges; we felt they were so lovely that we've included them below.
Meet the member:
Kate, her husband and their three children live in a lovely family home in Muswell Hill, a charming village like neighbourhood of North London.
Runner up photos: we will be publishing the excellent runner up images over the next couple of weeks. Originally we planned to have three runner up photos but it's been so hard to narrow it down to three that we will now select six of the photos, each receiving a one-year Home Base Holidays membership (worth £49 each).
Pet care can be one of the many bonus of home swapping
Many cat owners have concerns about arranging care for their cats during a vacation for a week or longer. Catteries are expensive and, however obliging friendly neighbours are, it can seem an imposition to ask them to take on the responsibility of caring for a cat for more than a weekend. Fortunately, many Home Base Holidays members are happy to look after cats (and often other pets) during a home swap. It’s ideal not to have to disrupt a cat’s routine and, although notoriously independent creatures, most cats appreciate some attention from whatever humans are sharing their home! Families who don’t have pets often enjoy having a cat (and introducing children to caring for an animal) without the long-term commitment and expense of owning one.
Narrow search results by selecting ‘Pet care offered’ under Additional Options when searching home exchange offers. If looking for members happy to look after your cat, do arrange back-up care too in case your home swap partners want to go away for a day or two. Also, even if you aren’t looking for cat care (perhaps moggy is having a holiday with a family member), mention in your home exchange offer that a cat normally lives in your home so that home swappers with severe allergies can avoid suggesting an exchange.
"Please look after me while she's away" - home swap in Ludlow, England (+ cat!)
Beautiful private riverside home swap offer in the historic town of Ludlow. This early Victorian house is a real gem - beautiful to look at and beautiful to be in! Ludlow is renowned for its fascinating history which is visible in the ancient castle with its links to royalty and the many historic buildings which are still in use.
The home owner, Chloe, has a friendly cat who will need looking after but if you want to take a trip somewhere there are neighbours who will feed her.
Meet George the cat on your home swap in Freemans Bay, New Zealand:
Magical, elegant 1860s villa and garden in Freemans Bay/Ponsonby, Auckland is available to a London family who would like a home exchange to experience a perfect summer Christmas in New Zealand.
Home Base Holidays We're here to answers any questions on swapping homes, specific topics related to home exchange vacations plus share Home Base Holidays members' home swap stories and exchange offers.
