Travel the Home Exchange Way blog

Place You Live Not Well Known? Include a Good Quote in Your Home Exchange Offer!

Our home is located on a quiet cul-de-sac in a wooded area of Bend. The house has three bedrooms, two baths and an outside hot tub. The stars are amazing at night!

Our area was recently reviewed in a major USA newspaper:

"People describe Bend – with its easy access to an array of outdoor activities, including skiing, biking, white-water rafting and kayaking, hiking, golf and world-class fly-fishing...and the city is surrounded by moutain peaks. Benders take the outdoors – and their beer – seriously, with 71 parks, 48 miles of in-town trails and four microbreweries." - USA Today, May 23, 2008

You'll simply LOVE Bend, Oregon!!

What an enticing home exchange offer! Check it out in full, HE21292

Home Exchange During the 2010 Ryder Cup

'The Celtic Manor, home of the 2010 Ryder Cup, is just 20 minutes away and we would be very interested in a non-simultaneous swap for anyone wanting to come over for that event.'

This quote from a renewing Home Base Holidays member from Cardiff, with a home so close to the location for the Ryder Cup, has a very attractive home exchange offer for keen golfers. Just as I suggested in a recent post that's it's not too soon to start planning ahead for a home swap to London for the 2012 Olympics, so too this exchange offer for a sporting event not so far off, is likely to be taken up very soon.

Further details:

'We live in a new three bedroom house in a suburb of Cardiff. The main bedroom is en-suite, the second bedroom has a double bed. The other bedroom belongs to our son and has a high bed and is full of toys. We also have a cat, who is independant and friendly. We have cable tv, wireless internet connection and all the usual amenities in our house.

The lively city centre with it shops, museums and restaurants and Cardiff Bay are just 25 minutes away by bus (very good service) and the M4 motorway is five minutes away providing easy access to all the attractions that Wales has to offer. The Cotswolds and the West Country are within easy reach and London is just 2hrs away by train. Read the full home exchange offer, HE16163.

Home Exchange Discussion on BBC Radio Essex

I took part in a discussion on home exchange this morning on The Dave Monk Morning Show on BBC Radio Essex. Select the Mid Morning Show to listen to a recording of the programme on BBC iPlayer (only available until 12 noon tomorrow, 22 August). My bit was on from about an hour into the show (10.10 am GMT) until 10.25 am (with some 'Oasis' in between the two halves of the discussion). I enjoy taking part in these live discussions on local radio (and have done many over the years) although it was too bad this time that it was too short notice to find a Home Base Holidays member from Essex to take part. We have to find our Essex equivalent to Jo, our regular ambassador, and great home exchange enthusiast, on BBC Radio Berkshire.

As always happens, the time was too short to cover many home exchange related questions in much depth. Time ran out before we could touch on a relevant topic that the programme producer hoped to cover, that members living in Essex, with so many attractions locally but, in addition being so close to London, will be in an ideal position to arrange home swaps (or hospitality exchanges) during the 2012 London Olympics. So, if you are looking ahead to an exchange to the UK during the Olympics, check out Essex listings as well as those in London (choose England from the country list, and then Essex from the county list before searching. A tip: to find all listings both in and close to London, leave the county as 'Any County' and type 'London' in the city box).

The house shown is from a very recent home exchange offer in Essex:

'We live in the beautiful, medieval market town of Saffron Walden in a converted inn, part of which dates back to 1550.'

Tempting? Check out the full home exchange offer, HE21336

2012 London Olympics - Never too Soon to Start Planning a Home Swap

I've been a real couch potato in the last few weeks while nursing a broken wrist (no more Pilates for me for awhile) and, while feeling totally unfit in comparison, like lots of you I'm sure, I've been watching the amazing sports men and women taking part in the 2008 Games in Beijing.

Despite recent figures showing a 6% drop in the numbers of Americans visiting London in the last year (while visitors from China and India, as well as the rest of Europe, have risen greatly), hundreds of hotel rooms have already been booked for the London 2012 Olympics. Although it seems early to be looking at accommodation for an event that's four years away, as no doubt prices of hotel rooms will increase the closer it gets to 2012 as availability becomes scarce, it's not a bad idea at all to start planning now. And what better way to see the Games in the comfort of a real home than by arranging a home exchange with a Londoner?

If you live in London and don't want to miss all the action yourself, why not consider a hospitality exchange? Offer hospitality in your home during the Olympics and you should have your pick of great hospitality offers all over the world before or after this period.

As Home Base Holidays is based in London, there is always a great choice of attractive home exchange offers in central London, the suburbs and in counties surrounding the city. If you want to find members offering hospitality exchange, use Advanced Search, choosing Hospitality Exchange from the the drop down list beside Type of Exchange, after selecting the country and county.

Some London members are already using the main Olympics site as a marker to place the location of their homes. An example is this home in the East End:

Modern, end of terrace, townhouse in East End. Tower of London 3mi, Buckingham Palace & West End 5.5mi, 2012 Olympics 1mi. See the full home exchange offer, HE21215.

"Is Foreign Travel Too Expensive?"

This is the title of a recent article published on the Budget Travel site at BellaOnline.com. It caught my eye as I had read other articles by Jim Fortune, Budget Travel Editor, and knew the topic would be thoughtfully considered with useful ideas for travelling on a budget. Check out Jim's six 'rules' in the article (link to full article above). Although written with an American readership in mind, these are great suggestions for anyone who feels that travel abroad is now beyond their means.

Now to Jim's answer to the question he posed in the title:

'The answer is no, it is not too expensive. But you have to go where the dollar has not been devalued. Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean islands are all places where the dollar is still worth something.'

Again, these are great suggestions for travel to countries easily accessible to many Americans and where their dollars will go further than in Europe. But, does this mean, if your heart is set on a trip to a Eurozone country or the UK, that you need to forget about it for now? I really don't think you do but, to stretch your hard earned dollars, you do need to plan your trip in ways that are not based around expensive hotels, rip off tourist attractions and restaurants that cater especially to tourists.

Don't be put off by scare stories you may come across, often written by lazy journalists, or people who haven't travelled to a country recently, who pass on exaggerated reports of, for example, a pint of beer costing the equivalent of $20 or more in Britain. Living in London, I sure do know that it is an expensive city but Londoners wouldn't dream of paying such an exorbitant price for a pint! Like locals anywhere, Londoners also know that there's much to do in the city that's free or very cheap, as well as great places to eat well at a modest cost.

But, how do visitors find out all the insider knowledge a resident in a country or city has access to? One ideal way is to arrange a home exchange with a local. Not only is your accommodation free (for a fully equipped house or apartment instead of an expensive, small hotel room), but your exchange partners (and often their friends or neighbours) will be more than happy to provide money saving tips - good budget restaurants and cafes, shops and markets for the best local produce (you will have a kitchen and so can prepare some meals, and maybe picnic lunches 'at home'), community activities and the free or cheap little known attractions that most tourists never discover. Some home exchangers also share club memberships and discount vouchers.

So is foreign travel too expensive? Only if you don't consider alternative ways to plan your trip (including, if possible, travelling in off peak periods when airfares are generally lower). Oh, and back to the price of a pint in London, these are current prices in my local pub in the popular chain, JD Wetherspoon - Carling £1.49 a pint, Boddingtons £1.29 and Stella £1.89. As we Canadians say, 'Not so bad after all, eh?'

Not Interested in a Home Swap to a Particular Country?

'Open to offers. Not Australia (sorry!)'.

This is the destination request seen in search results in a recent attractive home exchange offer in London, HE21301 (photo of this large Victorian home below). It is good that the member has been upfront about a country his family with young children can't consider travelling to at this time (but in a polite way). Australians won't now waste time contacting him to suggest an exchange but will, instead, contact some of the many other London members who are interested in exchanges to Australia (and those open to offers without restrictions).

Most successful home exchangers are as open as possible on destinations they will consider for home swaps. However, not everyone can take the time off (or afford airfares) to travel to long haul destinations, some may have family or friends in certain countries and therefore not need to exchange there, and others may have already visited a country and want to try somewhere different now.

There can be a problem for members who live in much sought after locations, or whose exchange offers look particularly inviting, as some members may contact them on the off chance that they may re-consider their exchange destinations (there may also be a few who just didn't read the listing carefully to see that there may be a special reason for their choice of destination). There's not much point contacting a member who needs to be in a particular place at the time you want to exchange (to attend a wedding for example) if you don't live anywhere near there! However, it doesn't take long to respond with a simple 'Sorry - we can't take up your offer' if you do receive unsuitable exchange offers - no need to be aggressive in your replies and especially not within your exchange listing description. After all, if you come across as rather intolerant, or worse, dismissive of certain countries, you could well put off members from sending you offers you could be interested in too!