I came across 'Your Place and Mine' by chance and contacted the publisher, who kindly sent a PDF of the new edition of the book to review. We try to provide lots of useful information on our website, in the newsletters and on this weblog but are always interested in finding good, unbiased information on home exchange to recommend both to Home Base Holidays members and to those totally new to the idea of swapping homes.
According to Manzanita Books, publishers of the 4th edition of 'Your Place and Mine':
'Cindy Gum is an expert on vacation Home Exchanging because she's been swapping homes for years. This book was first published to rave reviews in 1981, and was reprinted in two more editions. This 2005 version is the official 4th Edition, completely updated, with a detailed Resource Guide. If you want to experience this fantastic way to travel, Your Place and Mine will tell you exactly how to do it successfully.'
Although I have read the PDF version of the book, and so haven't seen the 'real' article, it is professionally produced and clearly laid out, with a good contents list, and illustrated with line drawings. The book is not divided into chapters as such, but the main topics (contents list below) are divided into more specific sub sections which makes it easy to follow. The contents list:
- Travel, Travel! Travel! Who Says You Can’t Afford Paris?
- What to Discuss Before Your Home Exchange
- How Do You Do it?
- What Do You Say In Your Home Exchange Letters
- Defining and Negotiating Your Responsibilities
- A Word or Two Before You Go
- Where Home Exchange Can Fall Apart
- You’re On Your Way
- Household Information Book
- Resource Guide
It was very heartening to see that the author, Cindy Gum, emphasises the importance of having a tolerant and open outlook to be a successful home exchanger. One quote:
'Home Exchange opens up a very new world for you and those with whom you wish to share it. It opens doors to new understandings of how others live in this not-so-large-anymore world.'
Without over elaborating, reading the first section of the book should enable most people to decide whether home exchange is right for them or not.
The information on how to find and organise a home swap is useful and succinct. It's refreshing to find a 'how to' guide that doesn't contain lots of 'padding'. The section on preparing a Household Information Book includes a detailed check list of useful contact numbers to leave for exchange guests. My main quibble is that, although the 4th edition is promoted as 'completely updated' from the last edition published 20 years ago, the suggestions on organising exchanges (with references to 'directories', writing 'letters', sending 'photos') hardly touches on the differences that the internet and email have made as essential tools for most home exchangers in the last few years. From our own experience in operating Home Base Holidays since 1985 (on-line since 1997), the internet has had a dramatic effect both on how members find and arrange home exchanges. The majority of home exchangers who arrange home swaps through an organisation no longer have a need for expensive print directories as most can now join on-line instantly with full descriptive listings and photos, check for new exchange offers every day, send personalised exchange offers quickly and cheaply by email, make most of their exchange arrangements by email and share local information via links to websites. The information in the book is still very useful - but you do need to mentally update some details yourself as you read it.
The book is 60 pages in length, including a Resource Guide of 15 pages. It is to be expected that some details in a resources section will already be out-of-date even in a book published this year. However, the Resource Guide in 'Your Place and Mine', despite making up a quarter of the book, is exceptionally dated (e.g. the entry for Home Base Holidays includes an email address not in use for over five years and a similarly out of date London area phone code). Readers would be advised to do their own research on the internet for current information rather than rely on the accuracy of the sources given in the Resource Guide.
'Your Place and Mine', published 2005, soft cover, 60 pages, $13.95US, available directly from the publisher, Manzanita Books.