Travel the Home Exchange Way blog

Finding Members Who Want to Swap Homes Over Christmas/New Year

Although it's hard to think about Christmas when in the middle of a mini heatwave in England, smart home exchangers know it's wise to start looking for exchanges several months in advance. As two Home Base Holidays members asked the same question this week about how to best search for others who would like to swap homes at Christmas, perhaps this Q & A will be useful to others too.

Q: We want to go away at christmas for 7-10 days and wondered if there's any quick way of finding like-minded swappers on the site. can you help? - Derek, HE20704

A: A couple of ways to look for possibles -

Log on to your member area and Search the listings (note: this is the non-members link). On the search page, click Show more search options.

Leave a blank space in the drop down country list. Then type Christmas in the box beside Keyword Search. Click Search. This will show a mixture of listings but all will include Christmas within the description.

The second way is to do a search on one country at a time. The search results are listed by membership date by default. Use the drop down list at the top of search results pages to change the order to Sort by dates. If there are many results you could also change the number of listings per page to up to 50 (instead of the default, 10) to enable you to quickly scroll through search results to check for members looking for Dec08-Jan09 exchanges and also those that are open to offers on dates.

Also include Christmas in your own dates and description (click Edit Listing in your member area). To make this stand out, mention that you are looking for a Christmas exchange in the first sentence in your description (where it will be seen in search results). Also, when your dates are getting quite close, add your listing to Last minute offers for extra publicity.

Derek's home exchange offer in Wells, Somerset, England:

We are looking for a Christmas exchange 2008 for about 7-10 days.Semi-detached house 15 minutes walk into centre of Wells. Wells has been featured recently in major costume films Elizabeth, the Libertine as well as Hot Fuzz. It features a magnificent cathedral, Bishops palace and moat and is a popular market town with at least 2 markets a week featuring locally produced organic produce. Surrounding attractions include the beautiful Georgian city of Bath, Cheddar Gorge, Wookey Hole Caves, Glastonbury (home of the world famous music festival), the Mendip Hills and the Somerset Levels.

See Derek's full exchange offer, HE20704

'10 ways to fight rising holiday prices': One Option - Home Exchange

This article was published recently in the Telegraph and included the following 10 suggestions for reducing holiday costs:

1 Travel off-peak

2 Reduce the length of your holiday

3 Go to France

And at #4!

4 Do a house swap

'Save on accommodation costs by swapping your house with holidaymakers from abroad. It works best for those who live in an attractive location or close to a holiday area. Arrange it through a reputable agency, such as Homebase (020 8886 8752)'.

5 Go bargain hunting

6 Travel light

7 Stay near the beach

8 Take your own tent

9 Self-cater

10 Travel at the end of the summer

Read the full article on telegraph.co.uk

Listen to Today's Home Exchange Discussion on BBC iPlayer

Thanks so much to Jo and son, Ethan, who did a great job in the radio studio discussing home exchange with Nicki Whiteman (and another topic on today's show - finding creepy crawlies in your food!). For details see Monday's post below.

As this is a daily show, you will only be able to listen to the discussion on the Nicki Whiteman show until tomorrow (Friday) afternoon. If you get a chance, listen to it on BBC iPlayer (click the link to the Nicki Whiteman show under Listen Again). The show started at 1 pm, with Jo relating the story of finding maggots in her sandwich (while on a home exchange) about 18 minutes in, and the conversation switching away (temporarily!) from bugs to home exchange at around 1.25 pm. Ethan let us in on his mum's organisation secrets before a home exchange, including sticking Post-it notes everywhere!

Thanks again Jo and Ethan. You're both natural radio stars - if you ever want jobs as official ambassadors for Home Base Holidays, you've got it!

Home Exchange on BBC Radio Berkshire: Experienced Exchangers Join the Discussion - Again!

Last September, long time Home Base Holidays members, Jo and Roger from the pretty English village of Cookham Dean, took part in a discussion about their home exchange experiences at their local radio station, BBC Radio Berkshire. I knew that they would be great, not only being very experienced exchangers but also, some years ago I had visited Cookham Dean's own local community radio station where Jo was working as a volunteer and I had been very impressed at how professional it was.

Well, Jo and Roger must have made a very good impression as Jo will be a guest again on BBC Radio Berkshire - this Thursday (24 July) at 1 pm on the Nicky Whiteman Show. Do check it out - you can hear the live programme on BBC Radio Berkshire or listen to a recording on BBC iPlayer during the week after the broadcast.

I am delighted when members take the time to discuss their exchange experiences, as many Home Base Holidays members have done over the years, with journalists writing articles about home exchange and in discussions on radio and TV. I like to draw extra attention to such members' exchange offers. Even though Jo says:

'Actually, we haven't updated our listing yet (oops) but we have arranged an exchange to Copenhagen this summer so we won't need a plug.'

... there's always next year so do check out her attractive exchange offer, HE1704.

'How to house swap': Tips from Which? Advice

Which? Advice (motto: 'No advertising, no bias, no hidden agenda') includes the following tips on how to choose a home exchange agency in an article, 'How to house swap':

'Look out for those that:

• Flag up the latest properties. This will save you time looking at homes you've already rejected.
• Offer last-minute holidays. Good for people who want to travel in the next six to eight weeks.
• Indicate when exchangers have met their holiday requirements. Don't waste time contacting them.
• State whether the property is a second home. They may not be as atmospheric or well-equipped as you might expect.
• Use an agency with a phone contact. You can easily get in touch and ask for help or advice.'

Read the full article, divided into useful sub topics, on Which? Advice.

DeliciousBaby: Useful Tips to Make Flying with Children Less Fraught

Home Base Holidays members with young children often arrange home swaps that involve travelling by air to reach their home exchange home. Once they get there, they can relax with space for the kids to play, usually lots of toys, books and games to keep them entertained, and often local playmates and babysitters. But, even with all the advantages of a home exchange (think of all the savings that can be made with no accommodation costs and a fully equipped kitchen to make at least some meals 'at home'), there's still the major headache of getting there.

I still look back with horror at a trip I made alone from London to Toronto with my then nine month old daughter (many years ago) - the 10 hour delay, diversion to Montreal because of fog, the long overnight bus trip to Toronto, being dumped at the wrong terminal, finally arriving with no one there to meet us!

Fortunately, there are many sources of advice for parents travelling with young children these days and one excellent site that I found recently is DeliciousBaby run by Debbie, the mother of two young children, who shares her sage advice and receives much useful feedback from her readers. Even the most fraught sitations are less so when you are well prepared and so, if you are planning to fly with babies or young children in tow, I suggest you read Debbie's article, 'Air Travel with Babies, Toddlers and Kids' and look around her site and blog for more useful information.