Travel the Home Exchange Way blog

Re-finding Home Exchange Offers: Search by Member IDs

Q: Is it possible to find home exchange listings once you have got the reference number? I wrote down a couple and couldn't find where to access them at a later date without scrolling through everything. - Lynne M, Norfolk, UK

A: It is a good idea to save the reference IDs for any listings you come across when browsing exchange offers as a site visitor that you may want to look at again. You can find a member's listing again by their reference ID on the Advanced Search Page. Towards the end of this page you will see a search option, Find Listing by Member ID. Enter the reference (it will be HE followed by a four or five digit number, no spaces) in the box and click Search to go directly to the listing.

After you join Home Base Holidays and log on to your member area you will see a similar search box to access a full listing by Member ID. Once you are a member you will also be able to save direct links to listings in a 'Favourites' list in your own member area so that you can easily access them again later.

Exchanging Homes for a Very Long Period: Problems and Suggestions

Q: We have a very large house - 4 bedrooms and a study upstairs; big family room, lounge downstairs, and an architect designed pool, 20 mins from Brisbane CBD. We plan to go to Europe for about 5 years, based in London. Can you help? - John L.

A: It certainly is possible to arrange home exchanges longer than the average holiday (some Home Base Holidays members also arrange more than one exchange or swap homes for part of the time if unable to find one exchange for the full period); however, it could be much more difficult to find a member in London (although there are lots of them - check them out!) who would be able to commit to an exchange for as long as five years. You could certainly join and try, or arrange a fairly long exchange for at least the first month or two of your stay here, and consider rental accommodation for the remainder of the period (possibly letting your own home to help cover the cost?), if unable to arrange a series of exchanges to cover the full five years.

As well as checking out listings in London, also check listings in surrounding counties where many homes will be close to good public transport into central London (e.g. Surrey, Essex, Kent, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Sussex, Berkshire).

See: further information on longer home exchanges.

'Hooked on home-swapping': Adlib Magazine

'Hooked on home-swapping' is an article in the Spring 05 issue of Adlib Magazine. The magazine is available to Freestyle Mortgage customers of Standard Life only; a brief quote from an excellent article:

'Passport to the perfect holiday

On top of the obvious financial and cultural benefits of a home-swap, there are real practical advantages too. More and more people are seeing the sense of having a house-sitter to look after their house while they're away. The plants get watered. The post gets collected. No need to pay for kennelling. No need to worry about leaving the house standing empty.

In effect, home-exchangers all over the world are treating their home as an asset which they can use to fund their perfect holiday. Perhaps this year you'll do the same.'

Swapping Houses: Leaving a Teenager at Home

Q: I am considering joining homebase-hols.com. Before I do, can you say whether it is possible to exchange homes with an exchange partner, but still have someone living in the house during the exchange period? I have an older teenager (18) who no longer wishes to holiday with the rest of the family, but I would not wish him to give up his home for the period of exchange (likely 2 weeks). Have you had this situation reported in the past? - Jackie C.

A: Funnily enough we haven't had this situation reported before although it must actually crop up for many home exchangers as their children grow older and no longer want to holiday with the family. We did recently receive a similar question on exchanging a home with a lodger in residence.

There is no particular reason why you could not swap your home while your son remains in your home. You would, of course, need to make potential home exchange partners aware at the outset that this would be the situation plus provide clear guidelines for both your son and your exchange partners on what is and isn't acceptable and of any areas of the house that are 'out of bounds' for either during the exchange period.

At 18 your son is likely to be very responsible and mature enough not to abuse the freedom of being left at home but only you, knowing him best, can be the judge of that. The worst fear of potential home swap partners is likely to be that a quiet teenager might turn into a wild party animal once left on his own or, on a lesser scale, never clear up his dirty dishes! You would need to be aware that members you contacted might well have some such concerns and do all you can to assure them that their fears are unfounded.

If arranged carefully, your son could have the best of both worlds - his independence to stay at home while you are away on exchange and possibly the chance to earn a little extra money babysitting if your exchange partners had younger children and welcomed the opportunity for a few evenings out without them.

Best Chances for a Home Exchange: Location, Forward Planning, Being 'Open' + Pro-active

Q: We are a family of four living in an Edwardian three bedroom, three reception room house in Ashtead village, Surrey, adjacent to 100 acres of National Trust land. We are two minutes from Ashtead railway station, which runs directly to London Bridge, Waterloo and Victoria. We can reach the M25 within 5 minutes by car. Our house is cosy and has many original features. We often see deer on the common. I am interested to know whether there is much interest in a house such as ours. Secondly, can you let me know how many successful exchanges took place last year, simply because we want to know what our chances of an exchange taking place this year would be. - C.B., Surrey, England

A: It is impossible to answer your question on how many exchanges took place last year with complete accuracy as Home Base Holidays members arrange their home swaps directly and don't always let us know when exchanges have been arranged or taken place. Many members also arrange more than one home swap (and sometimes weekend exchanges or any of the other options available such as hospitality exchange or housesitting) during their membership period.

How great your chances are of arranging an exchange is often down to how open and flexible you can be on destinations and dates - members who will consider exchanges in any number of countries/areas have a much greater choice than those who are very narrow in their exchange destination request(s) and/or who can't be a little flexible on dates/length of exchange. You can browse through all current listings in areas you'd like to exchange to and gauge the likely interest in your exchange offer before joining. Also, members who are pro-active, i.e. who take the time to prepare thoughtful and informative exchange offer messages and then contact many others to suggest an exchange are generally more successful than those who wait to be contacted. The longer before your exchange dates you join, the better your chances too; this gives your exchange offer a long circulation plus you are able to check for and contact new members as they join over several weeks if unable to arrange a suitable exchange right away.

You have given a very good introductory description of your home and area - exactly what is needed in a home exchange listing/exchange offer messages to attract interest. Your home in Surrey is in an excellent location, enabling potential exchange partners to enjoy living in a small English village surrounded by beautiful, peaceful countryside whilst also being very convenient for day trips to London. Emphasise this dual rural/city aspect of your exchange offer and contact all members whose offers interest you whether or not they have indicated your area as a destination and you should soon find a suitable swap. But, you must join and list your own home first!

They Want a Home Swap in Norway, You Live in New Zealand: Looking Outside the Square

Home Base Holidays member, Cathy Lawie-Phillips, wrote after publication of the Feb/Mar issue of Home Swappers Newsletter:

"Lois, enjoyed the newsletter (as I always do). A thought for a future newsletter - the benefits of looking outside the square. Our first and very successful exchange (as has been recorded in a previous newsletter) was with someone who initially was looking for an exchange in Norway and ended up by coming here to New Zealand. I approached them with just a 'have you thought of coming to New Zealand'! They were in an area where we wanted to go to."

As Cathy points out, you have nothing to lose by contacting Home Base Holidays members who haven't listed your country or area as a destination they want to visit - they may just not of thought of it and an attractive offer, well presented (those all important initial exchange offer messages again), might just persuade them to take up your offer. Members who are pro-active in contacting others to suggest swapping homes are generally more successful at arranging the exchanges they want than those who wait to be contacted (the Cathys of the home exchange world could be busily snapping up those attractive offers as new members join while you wait to be contacted or give up too quickly if you don't receive positive responses!)

View Cathy's attractive exchange offer in Auckland, New Zealand; Home Base Holidays members: log on to view HE12437.